Social Democrats: 44 and Out

If it was time for a political change anywhere, it was time in Sweden. For 44 years the Social Democrats had ruled the country, either alone or as head of a coalition--a longevity record unsurpassed in Europe today except by the Soviet Union's durable Bolsheviks. Last week, in a decision that echoed throughout Western Europe, Sweden's voters ousted the Social Democrats and cautiously mandated a new, more conservative course for their country. Nationwide parliamentary elections gave the nonsocialist bloc--the Center, Moderate and Liberal parties--50.8% of the vote, providing it with 180 of Parliament's 349 seats, v. 47.6% of the vote and 169 seats for the informal ruling alliance of the Social Democratic and Communist parties.

Early in the week, tired and haggard, Social Democratic Chairman Olof Palme, 49, tendered his resignation as Prime Minister--the post he had held since 1969--to the Speaker of Parliament, and vowed to "continue to be a driving force in Swedish politics." He will now head a caretaker government for a few weeks until Center Party Chairman Thorbjoern Faelldin (pronounced fell-dean), 50, names his Cabinet and becomes Prime Minister.

The issue most damaging to the Social Democrats arose late in the campaign: a charge by Faelldin that the government's ambitious program for construction of nuclear-power plants was callously endangering Sweden's environment and population. This apparently won the support of many environment-conscious Swedes.

The fundamental cause of Palme's defeat, however, was the growing popular feeling that Sweden's government was becoming a Leviathan. There is almost no quarrel with the generous benefits of the cradle-to-grave welfare cocoon created by the Social Democrats. But Swedes have been increasingly concerned that the ever growing concentration of state power and the extension of bureaucracy into private life have already begun to curtail individual rights and liberties (TIME, July 19). Frequently cited as an example of the increasing arbitrariness of the bureaucracy was the harassment of Writer-Director Ingmar Bergman by Swedish tax authorities, which drove him abroad into self-imposed exile earlier this year.

This image of the Social Democrats as architects of a spreading and insensitive bureaucracy is probably what led many young Swedes to become relatively conservative and thus vote, as they did last week, against the socialists. Fear of further concentration of power underlay another key campaign issue: the opposition to a labor union scheme for the gradual transfer of control to the unions of all private enterprises.

Typically Swedish. Many Swedes were turned off by the cold, urbane Palme, who often comes across as overbearingly arrogant. By contrast, Faelldin exuded an unthreatening sincerity. A pipe-smoking country boy who still raises sheep, cuts timber and grows oats and corn on his 668-acre farm, the new Prime Minister mixes easily with all kinds of people and speaks to them in simple language about their problems. Admitted an envious Social Democratic politician: "Faelldin is like your next-door neighbor. He's what people think of as typically Swedish. He's a clever, honest man."

He is also a master of a disarmingly dry humor. When the Social Democrats, for example, insinuated in the recent campaign that a nonsocialist government would threaten the welfare benefits of older people, Faelldin wryly retorted: "Do you think I'd take the pension away from my 76-year-old mother?"

Born in northern Sweden into a politically active family (his father was a member of the municipal council; his mother a founder of the local women's club), Faelldin joined the Center Party youth movement at age 14 and became Youth League president ten years later. Since 1958, except for a three-year interlude, he has represented his home district in Sweden's Parliament. After becoming Center Party chairman five years ago, he successfully began wooing many urban working-and middle-class voters to his previously predominantly agrarian party. They were attracted by his championing a clean, safe environment and his condemning the increasing amassing of power in Stockholm.

Faelldin assures Swedes that he, as Prime Minister, has no intention of "repealing any of the social benefits" and even promises to "try to better them." Yet he also interprets the election as a mandate to "break the power concentration" and halt the experimentation with new programs, which the socialists found so tempting. He is likely to move carefully, for he has stressed that "we politicians are ordinary people. We must not mislead people into thinking that we know and can do everything." This suggests that his countrymen can probably expect the breather they seem to want after the long, hectic Social Democratic reign.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.