Post-war Sweden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| History of Sweden |
|---|
Sweden emerged unharmed by World War II. The Swedish non-alignment policy officially remained - Sweden rejected NATO membership but joined the United Nations and later EFTA. Tage Erlander (s) was Prime Minister from 1946 to 1969 - a period of exceptional economic and social prosperity, and generally low unemployment, but the housing situation posed problems as more and more people moved to the cities. Housing shortage there induced miljonprogrammet (the million program) - a national wave of suburban development with the aim of creating a million homes from 1965 to 1974. This period saw the beginning of large-scale immigration to a country that used to be one of the more ethnically homogenous in the world. The first phase of immigration consisted of workers from southern Europe, who were actively wooed over by campaigns of advertisement and recruitment in their home countries, for instance Italy and Austria. In the 1970s and 1980s many refugees with families arrived from e.g. Chile, Kurdistan, Vietnam and Somalia, some of them with refugee status, others on the immigration quota. At the same time, the economy was entering less powerfully prosperous times: while Sweden continues to be a thoroughly industrialized nation with many businesses of cutting-edge innovation, especially in telephonics, energy management, chemicals, pharmaceutics and food industry, this growth both in production and complication is not generating a great amount of much new employment in Sweden anymore, and therefore did not swallow the generations who have grown up since 1980.
On September 3rd, 1967, Sweden was the last country in continental Europe to introduce right-hand traffic. This was done on Dagen H, in spite of the negative result of a referendum in 1955.
Contents |
[edit] Rise of the far left
From the mid-sixties there was a strong wave of radical leftism in Sweden, surfacing in sometimes heavily publicized events like the Båstad riots and the occupation of the student union building at Stockholm University - though never into actual fatalities in street fighting or domestic political terror acts like those in Western Germany and Italy in these years.
Solidarity and awareness became watchwords, at first in literary and student circles and in the socialist/syndicalist underground (and in time within many strata of society), then also in the media and the government. By the early seventies, people and government, led by Prime Minister Olof Palme (s), rose in protest against oppression and war in countries as distant as South Africa and Vietnam (at the end of 1972, Palme famously indicted the American shock bombings of Hanoi and compared them to Nazi war crimes such as the destructions of Lidice and Oradour; the USA responded by calling home her ambassador)[citation needed]. The Swedish support for the ANC in and outside of South Africa and FNL and the Hanoi government in the Vietnam war were steady not only in words, popular support and help to enter the diplomatic arena, but also in economic (though not military) state subsidies. After Vietnam was reunited in 1975, for instance, Sweden supported the construction of a modern pulp plant at Bai Bang.
In 1973, journalists Jan Guillou and Peter Bratt exposed Informationsbyrån, a secret military intelligence register of communists and other people regarded as dangerous to national security; while the existence of such a thing, and in particular of its implied links to the (s) party structure, was fiercely denied, the question continues to surface in a number of political scandals over the years, until it became the subject of serious historical discussion, a few state-issued retrospective white papers and political recant. Although some details are a bit hazy, this "internal spying" outside of the ordinary state intelligence services, is now considered an established fact.
The constitution was changed several times during this decade. In 1971 the Riksdag became unicameral. In 1974 the monarch lost all constitutional rights.
The 1970s and '80s saw a rise in environmentalism - the ambiguous result of a referendum in 1980 advised government to phase out nuclear power by the year of 2010. With only the Barsebäck nuclear power plant permanently closed, and ten out of twelve reactors still running (as of 2006), no one regards this schedule as realistic, and in the 2006 elections the liberal (fp) and the (m) party supported not only reversing the decision but building a few fresh nuclear plants. The Green Party was founded in 1981, entered the Riksdag in 1988 and supported Göran Persson's Social Democratic government from 1998 to 2006.
The 1976 parliamentary elections brought a liberal/right-wing coalition to power after almost half a century of social democrat leadership, and Mr Palme gave way to Thorbjörn Fälldin (of the Centre Party, a former farmers/landowners party which had incorporated social liberal ideas as well as the burgeoning environmental debate). Over the next six years, four governments ruled and fell, composed by all or some of the parties that had won in 1976, and the questions of energy and of battling the economic recession came to the fore like never before. The fourth liberal government in these years, again with Fälldin at the helm, seemed somewhat baffled by these problems and had neither the support of a firm majority in the parliament, nor a clear mandate from the non-socialist part of the Swedish electorate. Predictably, it came under fire both from the Social democrat/unions side and from the (m) party, now heading in an increasingly Friedman-inspired and market liberal direction, and it was defeated in the elections of 1982, with Mr. Palme returning to the PM's seat.
During the 1980s there were several incidents of foreign, probably Soviet, submarines violating the Swedish territorial borders. In late 1981 the Soviet submarine U 137 ran ashore inside a restricted zone off the Karlskrona naval base, and became headline news. Though the particular fact was kept secret at the time, nuclear activity, probably from missile warheads was detected on board and reported to PM Fälldin while the vessel was still stuck in the firth. The incident marked a turning-point both in Soviet-Swedish relations and in the discussion in Sweden about defence, the Soviet Union and ultimately the place of Sweden in the arena of the Cold War (see article on Baltic submarine intrusions and submarine hunting in the 1980s.
On February 28, 1986, Prime Minister Olof Palme was murdered as he was walking the streets of Stockholm with his wife. The crime came as an awful shock to most Swedes and is sometimes referred to as a national trauma - an event by which Sweden "lost her innocence”, especially since the assassin remains unidentified to this day (though some would regard the murder as "solved from a police point of view"; the main suspect Christer Pettersson was sentenced but later acquitted). Palme was replaced by his deputy Ingvar Carlsson.
[edit] After the Cold War
In the late 1980s, racism and xenophobia rose, with organizations such as Bevara Sverige Svenskt, later restructured as Sverigedemokraterna. Right-wing populists Ny demokrati made a completely unsuspected rush to the Riksdag in the 1991 elections, and became a minor supporting party of a new liberal government, more determined to profile itself as anti-socialist and cosmopolitan this time. This new government (1991-94) headed by Carl Bildt initiated a number of dismantlings of state-run monopolies (for example television, telephone services and hospital care), promised a drive to reshape and internationalize higher education and also lay the foundations for Sweden's subsequent entry into the European Union. It also had to battle the most serious economic crisis seen in fifty years. Prices went up, unemployment rocketed, and in late 1992, under the pressure of a flurry of financial speculation that shook several European currencies at this time, the Swedish krona was set free against other currencies, and immediately dropped about 15% against the US Dollar. The drain on the state treasury from 1992 on was overwhelming, and though agreements were soon reached with the Social democrats on measures to tackle the crisis, the hard conditions and deep economic recession were to last through the nineties. About the same time a serial killer known as Lasermannen ("the Laser Man") scared Swedish immigrants.
The 1994 elections restored Ingvar Carlsson's Social democratic minority government. After his retirement in 1996, he was replaced by Göran Persson, who remained in power until the 2006 elections.
[edit] Sweden in the EU
Sweden entered the European Union in 1995 after a consultative referendum the previous year. The entry into the EU has in some ways turned a page in Swedish history and could be seen as signifying the end of the old political project (rooted in the 1940s and 1950s) with its emphasis on equality and security in the context of a single state, Sweden, which would then be strong enough to let itself act and be heard in the larger outside world, an attitude which is also expressed in the familiar Swedish wording nere på kontinenten ("down in the Continent") meaning something occurred in Europe, as opposed to in Sweden. The Oresund Bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen, Denmark, was opened in 2000, and has served as a symbol of Sweden's stronger ties to continental Europe.
In the first half of 2001, Sweden was the presidential country of the EU and, throughout these months, hosted a series of high-profile meetings and workshops, culminating in June with a summit in Gothenburg visited by George W. Bush and all the major EU heads of government - this was the first US state visit in Sweden. This summit was an important step for the eastward expansion of the EU three years later, but the security of the event was adventured by protesting left-wing groups rioting and attacking police downtown. A referendum in 2003, after years of uneasy discussion, lead to a resounding no to the proposed adoption of the euro. The perplexing effect on the leading political strata, many business people and the media, in all of which groups the support for the adoption of the euro had been overwhelming, of this vote was increased by the bitter fact that the campaign had been disrupted four days prematurely by the assassination of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, who, had she lived, would doubtless have succeeded Göran Persson within one or two years (as confirmed by the PM himself in later interviews and by her obvious standing within her party).
While the assassination of Anna Lindh was not connected to the campaigning on the Euro, or on EU issues in general, and while the trend toward a rejective vote was clear in gallups weeks before the referendum, both the Gothenburg riots and the no to the euro show that many Swedes, and in particular many young Swedes, feel disenfranchised by the new EU-oriented and less self-assured country they are living in.
Several new political parties - among them Feminist Initiative led by former leftist leader Gudrun Schyman, the euro-skeptical June List (originating in the European Parliamentary elections of 2004) and the anti-copyright Pirate Party ran for the riksdag election of 2006 with attention from mass media, but little success. In this election, the liberal coalition "Allians för Sverige" ("Alliance for Sweden") gained a majority in the riksdag and presented Fredrik Reinfeldt of the Moderates as their prime minister candidate. The success of the Sweden Democrats, who gained seats in several municipal councils, and got 2,9% of the Riksdag votes (though not meeting the 4% threshold), intimidated the established parties. During 2006, the new cabinet did not conduct any major social or economic reforms. During the first week, there was a series of scandals, where some of the cabinet ministers turned out to have dodged the television license fee, and paid maids under the table. Ministers Maria Borelius and Cecilia Stegö Chilo stepped down after only a few days in office. Now, the cabinet was criticised for lack of gender equality and diversity because it only contains only nine women (out of 22 ministers), but defenders of the cabinet pointed out that Sweden had got her first African-born minister (Nyamko Sabuni) and the first openly homosexual minister (Andreas Carlgren) ever.
[edit] Culture and mass media
Cultural influence from the United Kingdom and the United States was obvious after the war. Imported and indigenous subcultures rose, with raggare and progg as notable examples. (Before the world wars, Swedish culture was more inspired by Germany). Swedish film and music achieved international fame with names like Ingmar Bergman, Sven Nykvist, Lasse Hallström, Birgit Nilsson, ABBA, Entombed, The Cardigans and Roxette. The sexual revolution, together with sexual content in mass media (notably films 491 and I am curious (yellow), together with the broad entry of women in many lanes of professional life (including the priesthood) in the 1960s and 1970s provoked a moralist counter-movement including the Christian Democratic party, but this trend has had scant political success. While the label "Swedish sin" is no longer quite appropriate, the acceptance and lack of ingrained shame in the face of sexuality is still a striking facet of Swedish attitudes. Since the 1990s, Sweden is relatively tolerant to homosexuality and is so far the only country in the world to outlaw hate speech against it.
Radio and television early became widespread in Sweden, but government struggled to keep the monopoly of licence-funded Sveriges television until the late 1980s, as satellite and cable TV became popular, and the commercial channel TV4 Sweden was permitted to broadcast terrestrially. During the 1990s Sweden became a leading power in information technology. Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt (m) and American President Bill Clinton were the world's first heads of government to exchange e-mail. Mobile telephony spread fast during the same decade, thanks to fruitful cooperation between the manufacturer Ericsson and government-owned network operator Televerket (which is now part of TeliaSonera). Currently, Sweden is converting to digital terrestrial television and expanding a 3G network.
[edit] Sports
Sweden has produced many world famous athletes during this period, among them boxer Ingemar Johansson, alpine skiers Ingemar Stenmark and Anja Pärson, tennis players Björn Borg and Stefan Edberg, ice hockey players Börje Salming, Kent Nilsson, Mats Sundin and Peter Forsberg, heptathlete Carolina Klüft and football players Glenn Hysén, Tomas Brolin and Zlatan Ibrahimović. Sweden has hosted several high-profile sports events, for instance equestrian events of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 1958 FIFA World Cup and the European track and field championships of 2006, held in Gothenburg.
Sweden is #6 in the Winter Olympics medal count and #9 in the Summer Olympics medal count. Although this success can be partly explained by competing countries' casualties in the World Wars, and boycotts during the Cold War, Sweden remains a great power in sports.
See also sports in Sweden.
[edit] Events in Swedish post-war history
- Norrmalmstorg robbery
- M/S Estonia shipwreck
- Sweden joining the European Union in 1995
- Completion of Öresundsbron
- Gothenburg riots 2001
