Starting Over In Stockholm

By Michael S. Serrill

The irony was inevitable. While Olof Palme's life reflected his belief in an open society, his funeral was surrounded by the tightest security Stockholm had ever seen. As the hand-drawn catafalque carrying the slain Prime Minister's coffin wound through the streets, 2,000 police, paramilitary troops and army sharpshooters watched, guns at the ready, from street corners and rooftops. Half a million Swedes watched the procession, along with more than 600 foreign dignitaries, including 13 Presidents and 19 Prime Ministers. "There are few statesmen who have had such influence on international affairs and social change," said United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar at a memorial service at Stockholm's city hall. Said U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, who met privately with Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov to discuss bilateral concerns shortly after the funeral: "Palme was a man of compassion. We share your grief."

The somber ceremony marked a kind of coming-of-age for a country long untouched by political violence. The man who was tapped to launch the new era in Sweden is Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, 51, the mild-mannered politician elected by Parliament three days earlier to succeed Palme. After the new Prime Minister had spent a week in the public eye and held a series of meetings with visiting foreign leaders, the contrast with his predecessor was vivid. While Palme often dazzled his listeners with his rhetorical brilliance, Carlsson's speeches tended to be as wooden as Swedish birch. And while Palme could be arrogant and abrasive, Carlsson seemed cautious and conciliatory, more given to self-deprecation than grand gestures.

But straitlaced Swedes, many of whom did not always approve of Palme's flamboyant ways, welcomed the new leader. Said a Social Democratic loyalist: "If Swedes make any comparisons, they will most likely be to Carlsson's advantage." Noted one young economist: "Political life will be boring without Palme, but hopes are now pinned on Carlsson's being a man of cooperation."

Born Nov. 9, 1934, in the provincial town of Boras in southwest Sweden, Carlsson grew up in modest circumstances. The son of a seamstress and coffee-factory worker, he graduated from a commercial high school and went on to earn a degree in political science at the University of Lund in 1958. With Palme, Carlsson became a political protege of Prime Minister Tage Erlander, the architect of the Swedish welfare state. His first major post was as Minister of Education in the government formed by Prime Minister Palme in 1969. Carlsson served Palme until his death, acting as his personal deputy and attending to the mundane details of political life that did not interest his boss.

Now that the understudy has the starring role, political observers wonder whether Carlsson will maintain the high international profile that Palme fashioned for Sweden or will preoccupy himself with domestic issues. He takes office at a time when many Swedes are beginning to view Sweden's cradle-to-grave social-service system as a drain on their prosperity. There is some question whether Carlsson can provide the leadership to continue to fend off challenges from the nonsocialist opposition.

Carlsson says that little will change, especially in foreign affairs. "It has been the Swedish attitude that it is not only up to the superpowers to decide about the future of the world," he told a press conference last week. The new Prime Minister insists that he will be a persistent critic of the arms race and a strong supporter of the Third World. For starters, Carlsson will travel to the Soviet Union in April to attend already scheduled meetings with Communist Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Three days before the former Prime Minister was buried, the search for his killer finally produced an arrest. Police jailed a Swedish man in his 30s on suspicion of "complicity" in the murder. The suspect, who was not named, had been near the scene of the crime when it happened. His lawyer, who admitted that his client bore a "certain resemblance" to a police sketch of the killer, insisted that he was innocent. --By Michael S. Serrill Reported by Julian Isherwood and John Kohan/Stockholm

With reporting by Julian Isherwood, John Kohan/Stockholm