Sven Andersson (politician)

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Sven Olof Morgan Andersson (born April 5, 1910 in Gothenburg , † September 21, 1987 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish politician .

biography

Andersson became politically active from an early age and was initially from 1929 to 1932 President of the Social Democratic Youth Association (Sveriges socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbund) in the Gothenburg district. Between 1934 and 1940 he was a member of the National Committee of the SSU. In 1940 he was elected member of the Reichstag for the first time as a candidate for the Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti (SAP) , to which he initially belonged until 1944.

After the Second World War , he was general secretary of SAP from 1945 to 1948, making him one of the closest collaborators of the party chairmen Per Albin Hansson and Tage Erlander . After he was re-elected as a member of the Reichstag in 1948, in which he was a representative of SAP until 1976, Prime Minister Erlander initially appointed him minister without portfolio .

After a government reshuffle, he was Minister of Communications between 1951 and 1957. During this time he initiated a program for the reorganization of the State Railways ( Statens Järnvägar ) and the start of a nationwide television program for the radio service ( Radiotjänst ). In 1955, the station portfolio was expanded for the first time to include the second radio station P2 . In 1956 television programs were broadcast. In 1957 the company was renamed Sveriges Radio . Finally, he carried out the expansion of power generation through hydropower plants .

In 1957 Erlander appointed him Minister of Defense. He kept this office under his successor Olof Palme . As part of a further cabinet reshuffle, Palme finally appointed him Foreign Minister in 1973 in his government, which was in office until 1976. Andersson, an advocate of Swedish policy of neutrality , was a strong critic of the US Vietnam War as both defense and foreign ministers . Later he was chairman of a commission set up by Palme to investigate the violation of Swedish territorial waters by unknown submarines . The commission came to the conclusion that these were submarines of the USSR .

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