prime-ministers-of-sweden

"It's understandable that in the current situation (due to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine), more people are thinking about security issues. The security situation has changed dramatically in the last week."

"The best thing for the security of Sweden and the Swedish people is to join NATO...We believe Sweden needs the formal security guarantees that come with membership in NATO."

"There is a constitutional practice that a coalition government should resign when one party quits. I don't want to lead a government whose legitimacy will be questioned."

"The Nordic welfare model is in many aspects a good model but it needs more of a choice for individuals."

"Om alla liknar Carl bekräftas vanföreställningarna av moderaterna. Det blir ett parti för Carl Bildt-kopior."

"Ska vi vara ärliga så är en hel del av jobbproblematiken kopplad till utrikes födda."

"We have a strong economy but we don't have the job creation we need. We want more job creation."

"I våldets Sverige så får hederliga medborgare flytta åt sidan. I rädsla för att vara nästa som drabbas av våldsverkaren, med vapen i hand, med drogögon mitt i ansiktet, så vet vi inte vad den här personen är kapabel att göra"

"Ursvenskt är bara barbariet. Resten av utvecklingen har kommit utifrån. [...] Det kan ibland vara bra att ödmjukt påminna om att väldigt mycket av det som är Sverige har skapats i utveckling, just för att vi varit öppna för att ta emot andra människor och andra erfarenheter"

"Jag är feminist, men vill inte driva de här frågorna så hårt att jag skapar motsättningar i samhället."

"Jaha, jag har bråttom. Öpp öpp! Håll er borta."

"För mig är det oerhört slående vad politisk stabilitet betyder för ekonomisk utveckling när man ser det kinesiska exemplet."

"Den som är satt i skuld är inte fri."

"Kanske jag blir lite för duktig ibland... Kanske är jag för påläst och kan ibland uppfattas som lite mästrande."

"Jag leder inte världens mest briljanta regering. Statsråden tillhör inte den yppersta intellektuella eliten och särskilt vackra är vi inte heller."

"Fri rörlighet för arbetskraft vill vi ha, men inte social turism. Där får vi inte vara naiva."

"Bush är underskattad i Europa och han är en skicklig politiker, även om vi inte tycker om hans politik."

"Jag har trots allt läst på kemisk–teknisk linje på gymnasiet, så jag förstår vad det handlar om."

"For us, democracy is a question of human dignity. This includes the political liberties, the right to freely express our views, the right to criticize and to influence opinion. It embraces the right to health and work, to education and social security."

"Yet, alongside Western weaknesses, there were also serious problems for the Soviet system, while the American position was less bleak, in both absolute and relative terms, than the successive electoral defeats of presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in presidential elections in 1976 and 1980 might suggest. Moreover, the failure of the Communists to benefit substantially from the changes in Portugal, Spain and Greece was matched by Communist weakness elsewhere in Western Europe. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, French President from 1974 to 1981, and Helmut Schmidt, German Chancellor from 1974 to 1982, combined to act as a very strong stabilising force and to relaunch the EEC project. Within the Socialist International, the so-called Socialist Triangle of Willy Brandt, Olof Palme, Swedish Prime Minister, and Bruno Kreisky, Austrian Chancellor, was dominant. In Italy, the Communist Party, the most powerful in Western Europe, adopted a ‘Euro-Communism’ that was opposed to Soviet direction. Enrico Berlinguer, who became Party Secretary in 1973, a key figure, was committed to the existing democratic system and pursued what was termed the ‘historic compromise’ with the established Christian Democrat-dominated political system. A pact was negotiated in 1976, with the Communist Party agreeing not to try to overthrow the Christian Democratic government. Euro-Communism was a term coined in 1975 by Western European Communist leaders keen to demonstrate their democratic credentials. More generally in Western Europe, the declining position of heavy industries was a challenge to the trade unions that were central to left-wing political parties, and notably to the Communists."

"The bourgeoisie seemed to live in the illusion that an effort for peace presupposed an almost unreserved support for the American position. The hallmark of a balanced bourgeois critique seems to be that it should be heard as little as possible. Preferably be almost silent. That it is surrounded by so many reservations that it loses every meaning and that it is guaranteed not to affect any business."

"They build their democratic institutions with pedantic conscientiousness."

"Human beings will find a balanced situation when they do good things not because God says it, but because they feel like doing them."

"Apartheid cannot be reformed. It has to be eliminated."

"Former Prime minister Tage Erlander spoke on radio a year ago about the people's home and about how he visited his senile mother at a residential hospital outside of Karlstad. When he came to visit her she told him; I'm so happy here. Everyone is so nice to me and I get good care and nice food. But who is paying for all this? Is it you Tage? And Erlander said; no I'm not paying, you're paying for this yourself mother. You have paid for this your entire life. You have grown up in this society, you have taken care of the family all these years, you have been a good citizen. And you have the right to be taken care of when you get old and infirm, not because of charity, not because you have a thick wallet, but because you are a Swedish citizen. This is your society, our society. You have the same right to this as anyone else. That is the welfare state and it is our greatest pride!"