Biography
One of the first professional politicians of Sweden, Hansson participated in the creation of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth in 1903 and presided over it as its chairman in 1908-09, a period in which universal suffrage and proportional representation was gradually to be enacted for all Swedish males by Conservative Prime Minister Arvid Lindman, later a rival of Hansson. Influenced generally by Karl Kautsky's reformist views on socialism, Hansson succeeded Hjalmar Branting as editor of Social-Demokraten in 1917 and was appointed his Minister of Defence in Sweden's first Social Democratic cabinet in 1920, following a Liberal-Social Democratic coalition enacting equal suffrage for men and women (in effect as of the 1921 election). Per Albin Hansson held this post in all of Branting's three cabinets between 1920 and 1925 (years which saw eight governments), performing numerous cut-backs on the military budget. Upon Branting's death in 1925, Per Albin Hansson rose to be embraced as chairman of the party. His legitimacy remained under dispute, however, and only in 1927 did he become the head of the Riksdag faction, before confirmed undisputedly as Branting's successor in a 1928 congress.
Upon losing power to Carl Gustav Ekman's pro-prohibition Liberals in 1926, Hansson worked from the opposition bench and, although heading what was to remain the largest party of the Riksdag to date, faced a major setback upon cooperating with the Communists in the infamous election of 1928. The Social Democratic Party was not to run along with the Communists (since 1995 the Left Party) until the 2010 election. In opposition to the Conservative - let be equally pragmatic and staunchly anti-Nazi - Lindman cabinet, Hansson pressed for the introduction of a welfare state rather than wide-scale nationalizations, coining his vision Folkhemmet ("the People's Home") in a Riksdag debate in 1928.
Following the fall of Ekman in 1932 due to a corruption scandal involving late industrialist Ivan Kreuger, the Social Democrats made gains to possess 104 seats and 41,7% of the electorate. Though not facing a majority, the inability of the Liberal parties (themselves unable to form a single faction until 1934), the Conservatives and Agrarians to form a majority government pressed for a minority government led by Hansson, expecting support from the Farmers' League through an agriculture policy favoring the interests of the League (kohandeln), although stopping short of inviting it into the cabinet. In June 1936, the uneasy majority enforced Hansson's resignation, leaving League chairman Axel Pehrsson-Bramstorp to form a three-month "Holiday Cabinet" until the elections in September, which saw a rise in support of the Social Democrats. Following further negotiations, Hansson formed a proper coalition government with Pehrsson-Brahmstorp as Minister of Agriculture that enjoyed a robust majority and would last until 1939.
Read more about this topic: Per Albin Hansson
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