Sweden last week chose a Social Democrat as leader, right in step with the West Germans. But Sweden's Social Democrats have been in power for 37 years, save for a 100-day lapse in 1936, and their new Prime Minister is 13 years younger, and somewhat livelier, than is Willy Brandt. As Minister of Communications, Olof Palme helped steer the country from left-to right-hand traffic in 1967. According to his critics, that was the only time Olof has moved away from the left since he started shaving. Conservatives in his own country call him a renegade from his class. Staid politicians elsewhere in Scandinavia consider him too impulsive. Many Americans resent his bitter criticism of the Viet Nam war. Now all will be hearing a lot more of the outspoken, provocative Palme. Last week, at the age of 42, Palme was named to succeed veteran Prime Minister Tage Erlander, 68, as head of Sweden's ruling Social Democratic Party. Next week King Gustaf VI Adolf will formally name him the nation's new Prime Minister. He will be the youngest head of government in Europe.
Erlander, who has led Sweden for nearly a quarter of a century, is a splendid father image—tall, shambling and folksy. Palme (pronounced Pal-muh), who is Erlander's protégé, is something else. The son of a wealthy, conservative Stockholm family, he was educated in an exclusive prep school, served two years in a cavalry regiment, and in 1947-48 spent what he recalls as "an absolutely wonderful year" at Ohio's Kenyon College, majoring in political science and economics and earning a bachelor's degree.
After winning his law degree, Palme went to work as Erlander's secretary and speechwriter. He also married Lisbeth Beck-Friis, a child psychologist and leading feminist who shares his upper-class background (she renounced her title of baroness).. Elected to the Riksdag in 1956, he proved brilliant, energetic and devastating in parliamentary debate. Palme began to soar politically, won Cabinet rank in 1963, became Minister of Communications in 1965, and two years later took the education portfolio. He has long since become Swedish television's favorite Cabinet personality. He even played a role—strictly political—in I Am Curious (Yellow).
That stirred a controversy, but it was nothing compared with the uproar that followed his February 1968 march through Stockholm's streets shoulder to shoulder with the North Vietnamese ambassador to Moscow, during a torchlight parade protesting U.S. involvement in the Viet Nam war. In a speech to the protesters, Palme claimed that democracy in Viet Nam was "represented in a considerably higher degree by the National Liberation Front than by the U.S. and its allied juntas." Swedes in general oppose the war, but the manner of Palme's gesture blew up a storm. Conservative Swedes were furious (red), and the American ambassador was summoned home for "consultations." No successor has yet been named. Later, Palme adopted a low silhouette; realizing that Erlander was contemplating quitting and that the top job was within reach, he cut back on his TV exposure, tidied up his once sloppy style of dress, even tamed his cowlick.