Swedish prime ministers - Tage Erlander is the survivor!

[politicus]

Swedish Prime Ministers since 1858

Short overview: http://web.comhem.se/dier/Swedish%20Prime%20Ministers.htm

1. Louis De Geer, 1858-70 and 1875-80 (eliminated in round 16)
Baron, Chief Judge of Court of appeal (b. 18.7 1818; d. 24.9 1896)
Liberal (independent)
 
2. Axel Adlercreutz, 1870-74 (eliminated in round 6)
Baron, Chief Judge of Court of appeal (b. 2.3 1821; d. 20.5 1880)
Conservative (independent)

3. Edvard Carleson, 1874-75
Baron, Supreme Court Judge (b. 16.11 1820; d. 1.4 1884)
Conservative (independent) (eliminated in round 1)

4. Arvid Posse, 1880-83 (eliminated in round 5)
Count, landowner (b. 15.2 1820; d. 24.4 1901)
Farmer’s Party

5. Carl Johan Thyselius, 1883-84
Supreme Court Judge (b. 8.6 1811; d. 11.1 1891)
Conservative (independent) (eliminated in round 1)

6. Robert Themptander, 1884-88
Civil servant, Minister of Finance (b. 14.2 1844; d. 30.1 1897)
Liberal (independent) (eliminated in round 12)

7. Gillis Bildt, 1888-89
Baron, General, Diplomat, Marshal of the Realm (b. 16.10 1820; d. 22.10 1894)
Conservative (independent)  (eliminated in round 2)
 
8. Gustaf Åkerhielm af Mariannelund, 1889-91
Baron, Diplomat, Landowner (b. 24.6 1833; d. 2.4 1900)
Protectionist Party  (eliminated in round 3)
 
9. Gustaf Bostrom, 1891-1900 and 1902-05
Landowner (b. 11.2 1842; d. 21.2 1907)
New Farmer’s Party  (eliminated in round 4)

10. Fredrik von Otter, 1900-02
Baron, Admiral in the Navy (b. 11.4 1833; d. 9.3 1910)
Independent (eliminated in round 4)

11. Johan Ramstedt, 1905 (April to August)
Supreme Court Judge (b. 7.11 1862; d. 1935)
Independent   (eliminated in round 2)

12. Christian Lundeberg, 1905 (Aug to Nov)
CEO of a mining company (b. 14.7 1842; d. 10.11 1911)
Protectionist Party  (eliminated in round 2)

13. Karl Staaff, 1905-06 and 1911-14
Solicitor (b. 21.1 1860; d. 4.10 1915)
Liberal Party leader (eliminated in the final)

14. Arvid Lindman, 1906-11 and 1928-30
CEO Paper-mill (b. 19.9 1862; d. 9.12 1936)
Conservative Party leader (eliminated in round 13)

15. Hjalmar Hammarskjold, 1914-17
Professor international law, Judge in Hague (b. 4.2 1862; d. 12.10 1953)
Conservative (independent) (eliminated in round 10)

16. Carl Swartz, 1917 (March to Oct)
Tobacco Manufacturer (b. 5.6 1856; d. 6.11 1926)
Conservative Party  (eliminated in round 2)

17. Nils Edén, 1917-20
Professor of History (b. 25.8 1871; d. 16.6 1945)
Liberal Party leader (eliminated in round 9)

18. Hjalmar Branting, 1920, 1921-23 and 1924-25
Editor in Chief (b. 23.11 1860; d. 24.2 1925)
Social Democratic leader (eliminated in round 14)

19. Louis De Geer Jr, 1920-21
Baron, County Governor (b. 27.11 1854; d. 25.2 1935)
Independent  (eliminated in round 2)

20. Oscar von Sydow, 1921 (Feb to Oct)
County Governor (b. 1873; d. 1936)
Independent  (eliminated in round 2)

21. Ernst Trygger, 1923-24
Professor of Justice (b. 27.10 1857; d. 23.9 1943)
National Party leader  (eliminated in round 3)

22. Rikard Sandler, 1925-26
Teacher, Headmaster (b. 29.1 1884; d. 12.11 1964)
Social Democrat  (eliminated in round 2)

23. Carl Ekman, 1926-28 and 1930-32 (eliminated in round 6)
Editor in Chief (b. 6.10 1872; d. 15.6 1945)
Nonconformist Liberal Party leader

24. Felix Hamrin, 1932 (Aug to Sept)
Manufacturer (b. 14.1 1875; d. 27.11 1937)
Nonconformist Liberal Party  (eliminated in round 2)

25. Per Albin Hansson, 1932-36 and 1936-46
Politician (b. 28.10 1885; d. 6.10 1946)
Social Democratic leader (eliminated in round 15)

26. Axel Pehrsson in Bramstorp, 1936 (June to Sept)
Farmer (b. 19.8 1883; d. 19.2 1954)
Farmer’s Party leader  (eliminated in round 2)

27. Tage Erlander, 1946-69
Politician (b. 13.6 1901; d. 21.6 1985)
Social Democratic leader

28. Olof Palme, 1969-76 and 1982-86
Politician (b. 30.1 1927; d. 28.2 1986)
Social Democratic leader (eliminated in round 14)
 
29. Thorbjorn Falldin, 1976-78 and 1979-82
Farmer (b. 24.4 1926)
Centre Party leader (eliminated in round 1)

30. Ola Ullsten, 1978-79
Politician (b. 23.6 1931)
Liberal Party leader (eliminated in round 1)


31. Ingvar Carlsson, 1986-91 and 1994-96
Politician (b. 9.11 1934)
Social Democratic leader (eliminated in round 4)

32. Carl Bildt, 1991-94 (eliminated in round 7)
Politician (b. 15.7 1949)
Conservative Party leader

33. Goran Persson, 1996-2006, Social Democratic (eliminated in round 8 )

34. Fredrik Reinfeldt, 2006, Conservative Party  (eliminated in round 11)

[politicus]

Eliminate:

Thorbjorn Falldin
Ola Ullsten
Axel Pehrsson
Carl Swartz

Just for being a short-termers

Immune:

Hjalmar Branting
Carl Bildt

Good start criterion. But a bit unfair to Falldin, who ruled for 5 years combined. The four guys I picked + Gillis Bildt  and de Geer Jr. all served less than 18 monts. A couple of them less than a year.

[politicus]

Guess I'll start voting once the old ones are gone.

Some of the old ones will probably survive for a long time. At least if people read up on them. A guy like de Geer Sr. could even win it.
Why not help to get rid of the short termers? (there are a lot of them in Sweden). We need more voters!

[politicus]

Round 1 results:

Immune for three rounds: Branting, Carl Bildt

Eliminated: Carleson, Thyselius, Falldin, Ullsten

(My votes where Thyselius, Carleson, Lundeberg and Ramstedt. I deleted them from the OP to avoid cluttering it)

Round 2

Killer round. Eliminate 10! (We need to get rid of those pesky short termers!)

My votes in round 2:

Gillis Bildt, 1888-89
 
Johan Ramstedt, 1905 (April to August)

Christian Lundeberg, 1905 (Aug to Nov)

Carl Swartz, 1917 (March to Oct)

Baron Louis De Geer Jr, 1920-21

Oscar von Sydow, 1921 (Feb to Oct)

Ernst Trygger, 1923-24

Rikard Sandler, 1925-26

Felix Hamrin, 1932 (Aug to Sept)

Axel Pehrsson in Bramstorp, 1936 (June to Sept)

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Result of round 2:

Eliminated:

Gillis Bildt
 
Johan Ramstedt

Christian Lundeberg

Carl Swartz

Baron Louis De Geer Jr

Oscar von Sydow

Ernst Trygger

Rikard Sandler

Felix Hamrin

Axel Pehrsson in Bramstorp

I have decided to eliminate only 9 in the great purge, since the last 7 candidates received one vote each and a coin toss between 7 would be too unfair.

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Round 3:

Eliminate 1 from the era prior to the introduction of universal suffrage in 1921 and 1 after.

My votes:

Before: Fredrik von Otter
After: Trygger

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Result of round 3:

Before 1921:

Åkerhielm (after coin toss)

After:

Ernst Trygger

Round 4:

Eliminate three PMs by voting 3-2-1

My votes:

3 Fredrik von Otter
2 Gustaf Bostrøm
1 Ingvar Carlson

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Result of round 4

4 Ingvar Carlson
3 Gustaf Bostrøm
3 Fredrik von Otter
2 Axel Adlercreutz

Ingvar "The Shoe" Carlson, Bostrøm and von Otter eliminated

Round 5:

Normal round:

Arvid Posse

[politicus]

Result of round 5:

Arvid Posse is eliminated 2-0

Round 6:

Eliminate 2 PMs

My vote:

Axel Adlercreutz

Nils Eden

[politicus]

Result of round 6:

Adlercreutz and Ekman eliminated.

Round 7, normal round.

None of the weak PMs left. Only relatively good ones.

Hjalmar Hammarskjold, man of principles and a solid defender of neutrality during WW1, but not an important PM.
Basically a compromise candidate, that didn't scare anyone.

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Result of round 7

Bildt 2
Persson 1
Hammarskjold 1

Carl Bildt is eliminated

Round 8, normal round

My vote: Nils Eden

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Result of round 8

I change my vote to Goran Persson in order to avoid a coin toss.

Persson eliminated.

Round 9:

Nils Eden, once more

[politicus]

Result of round 9:

Eden eliminated

Round 10, normal round.

We are down to the Top 10 now and its getting harder! The 4 remaining Social Democrats are giants of Swedish politics and de Geer is the founder of modern Sweden. Themptander was an unusually capable PM. Staaf and Lindman played important parts in securing democracy (in very different ways).

Reinfeldt could be a possibility, but the fair thing to do would be to eliminate Hammarskjold first. So that's my bid. After all Reinfeldt did break the Social Democrats monopoly on power by creating a modern brand of "welfare Conservatism", improved the economy in a tough international economic climate and has secured important reforms.

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Result of round 10

Hammarskjold 3
Reinfeldt 1

Hjalmar Hammarskjold is eliminated.

Round 11, normal round

Fredrik Reinfeldt, a capable and pretty successful PM, but he is up against the big boys now, so its time to go Freddie.

[politicus]

Result of round 11

Fredrik Reinfeldt eliminated 3-0. A quick round, but the regulars had voted unanimously against him and there was no chance Freddie would have survived.

Round 12, normal round:

Robert Themptander

The alternative is Arvid Lindman and I think his historical role in anchoring the Swedish right on the democratic side of the political Gulf (bad metaphor, sorry...) is more important, than Themptander solving the defense question, and RT didn't secure free trade after all, even if he only lost on a technicality.

[politicus]

Result of round 12

Themptander is eliminated 3-0.

Round 13

Now its getting really hard. The top 7 of Swedish PMs are an impressive bunch.
But it has to be Lindman this time for me. Simply because the rest are so damn great. They either ruled Sweden for very long and successful terms or had tremendous international influence like "Branting of Europe". Palme did a little of both.
Both Lindman and Hansson supported eugenics, which counts against them in my book, but was common at the time.

I dislike de Geer for not helping Denmark in 1864 and Hansson for allowing German troop transports to Norway during WW2 and the sale of Swedish iron ore to the Germans. But avoiding war with Germany was the right thing to do for Sweden, so that doesn't make him a bad PM, just a cynic, like most politicians.

As a Scandinavian I cant vote against Staaff, who secured Norways peacefull split from Sweden in 1905. An inter-Scandinavian civil war at that time would have been horrible.
He was also "the poor mans advocate" whom the reactionaries and militarists hated so much they made asstrays portraying his skull. And he fought the anti-democrats with such vigor and laid the ground work for universal suffrage. Kind of the father of modern Swedish Liberalism too.

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Result of round 13

Lindman 2
Per Albin Hansson 1

Lindman eliminated

Round 14, normal round

Hjalmar Branting. Great man on the international stage, but unsuccessful at home, where he lost power twice and failed to gain a majority for the Social Democrats (as everybody expected after the introduction of universal suffrage), also failed to pass labour protection legislation. Had the shortest term in office of the remaining PMs.

I dislike Hansson the most of the remaining PMs, but since he was the founder of "the Swedish model" and historians generally consider him the greatest PM Sweden ever had, it would be hackish to  vote him out now. PAH needs to be in the final four.

[politicus]

Result of round 14

Branting 4
Palme 1

Branting eliminated

Round 15, normal round

My vote: Olof Palme

Defender of the third world with high international profile, but bad economic management at home. Lost power in 1976 for the first time in 40 years and can be said to have squandered Erlanders inheritance.

This may be influenced by the fact, that I simply like Staaff too much to eliminate him, so do some research on him, if you wanna be fair.

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Result of round 15:

Palme eliminated 4-0

Round 16:

My vote:

Per Albin Hansson

Founder of the Swedish "Folkhem" (universal welfare model) and the most influential PM Sweden has ever had, so this is mainly a moral choice. He supported eugenics, accepted German troop transports through Swedish territory during WW2 and expelled Baltic refugees to the Soviets afterwards, knowing many would end up i Gulag camps (or worse).

(Keeping Swedish neutrality was obviously a smart move (and it saved the lives of Danish Jews), but he went to far trying to please the Germans IMO.)

 

[politicus]

Depending on one's moral values one might also object to the guy having two families, one with his wife and one with his mistress.
On the other hand, I don't get the love for de Geer here so I'll vote for him.

One obvious reason could be, that the link I provided in the OP is very positive towards him.
What was wrong with de Geer IYO?

I don't have the in depth knowledge of Swedish 19th century history to fully evaluate de Geer, (and I doubt any of the rest of the voters have it). But liberal economic reforms, implementing a modern constitution in 1865, freedom of religion, improved inheritance rights for women and record breaking economic growth all sounds good. He also tried to have the death penalty abolished, which was far ahead of his time. On top of that he was a poet. So he sounds like one of the good guys.

Like most of the (very few) Danes with any historical knowledge worth mentioning, I dislike him for the Ulriksdal-conference, but that can clearly be seen as a wise decision too.

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Result of round 15

Hansson 5
de Geer 1

Per Albin Hansson eliminated


Round 16, normal round, semi-finale

My vote: Karl Staaff

I like him the most, but I feel that a finale between Swedens two longest serving PMs Louis de Geer (17 years) and Tage Erlander (23 years) will be the right one. Compared to them Staaff was a short termer
Still there are plenty of reasons to keep Staaff in the finale.

- The peacefull dissolution of the union with Norway was unique at a time where no other country had ever been allowed to just walk away from its regent without a war.

- A general pension system is also an important achievement.

- Staaff was a true FF regarding the creation of real democracy and the interests of the common man.

Since I am a Staaff fan I am willing to change my vote, if Gustaf can convince me why de Geer was a HP.

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Result of round 16

Louis de Geer 2
Karl Staaff 1

De Geer eliminated.

I was hoping for more votes in the semifinal, but apparently not, so lets move to the finale.

Karl Staaff vs. Tage Erlander

Now that you guys have secured his place in the finale, I wanna be a hack and say Staaff for survivor! But the opposition is formidable.

Erlander is called Swedens "longest PM" both because of his height and his 23 years in power, which is otherwise unheard of in a fully functioning democracy. The arch typical moderate hero, who dropped all elements of socialism from the party platform and secured broad consensus behind most of his policies. Pragmatic, smart and with a sense of self-irony that few politicians possess. Made the folkhem ideal a reality to a greater degree than anyone could have expected and consolidated his party's position as the natural governing party in Sweden.

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Its a 3-3 tie at the moment. Four posters have voted here previously, but not in the final: Kalwejt, Batmacumba, Napoleon and Gustaf, so maybe one of them will return to break the tie.

Otherwise Ill count the number of times people have voted and attribute an equal number of points to their votes in this final.

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Is it to late for me to bumble in and break the tie in Erlander's favour?

No, that fine.

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With a narrow 4-3 victory Tage Erlander is the survivor!

I would be interested in why Nhoj and Julio voted against de Geer in the semifinal and why Gustaf doesn't like him, since he is portrayed so favorably in the texts I have come across.