Liberal Youth of Sweden

Youth wing of the Swedish Liberals

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Liberal Youth of Sweden Liberala ungdomsförbundet

Chairperson	Erik Berg
Secretary General	Christian Brundu
Founded	1934; 90 years ago (1934)
Headquarters	Hantverkargatan 25, Stockholm
Membership	2 550 (2020)
Ideology	Liberalism^[1] Liberal feminism^[1] European federalism
Mother party	The Liberals
International affiliation	International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY)
European affiliation	European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)
Website	www.luf.se

The Liberal Youth of Sweden (Swedish: Liberala ungdomsförbundet, LUF) is the youth wing of the Swedish Liberals. The Liberal Youth of Sweden has a long tradition of international cooperation and is a full member of the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) and the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC). They have published the magazine Liebling - Liberal Youth since 1961.

History

The Liberal Youth of Sweden traces its roots back to Verdandi, a radical student organisation founded in 1882 by Karl Staaff, the future prime minister and leader of the Liberal Coalition Party. In 1910 the Swedish Freeminded Youth League (Swedish: Sveriges frisinnade ungdomsförbund) was formed as the youth wing of the Freeminded National Association, Sweden's first grassroots liberal organisation, with Eric Festin as its first chairperson. The youth league was active during the First World War, but lost members afterwards. In 1923 the Freeminded National Association split over the prohibition of alcohol, and though the youth league tried to stay together it too split in 1927.

The two liberal parties reunited in August 1934 as the People's Party. The youth league was reunited in the same year as the Youth League of the People's Party (Swedish: Folkpartiets ungdomsförbund, FPU) with Bertil Ohlin as its first chairperson. When it was founded it had 1000 members in about 100 local associations, but many new members soon joined. In the 1930s FPU campaigned on issues such as the abolition of school fees, and in the 1950s began to demand that a proportion of GDP should go to aid. FPU also campaigned for Sweden to join NATO and for the TV and radio monopolies to be abolished. In the 1960s FPU became prominent under the leadership of among others Per Ahlmark and Ola Ullsten and influenced its mother party in a radical direction. However, a time of internal battles followed in the early 1970s, culminating in the chairmanship election of 1971 where the incumbent Per Gahrton was defeated by Lars Leijonborg by one vote's margin.

At the congress in 1991 the youth league changed its name to the Liberal Youth of Sweden after the People's Party had renamed itself the Liberal People's Party the previous year. LUF was (and is) noted for its support of Swedish membership of the European Union, which Sweden joined in 1995. After the mother party's success in the general election of 2002 the membership of LUF increased significantly.^[2]

On 28 February 2016 the Stockholm branch of the party passed a motion calling for the legalization of incest and necrophilia.^[3]

Organisation

LUF has 21 districts, the three largest being Stockholm, Väst and Skåne. The highest decisionmaking authority is the congress, which is held every year. 99 congress delegates are elected by the districts, with one seat for each district and the remainder allocated in proportion to their number of members. Once every two years the congress discusses and amends the Liberal Youth's policy programme. The most recent such congress was held in 2019 in Västerås.

Districts

Blekinge
Dalarna
Gotland
Gävleborg
Halland
Jämtland/Härjedalen
Jönköping
Kalmar
Kronoberg
Norrbotten
Skåne
Stockholm (covers Greater Stockholm area)
Södermanland
Uppsala
Värmland
Väst (covers Västra Götaland and Kungsbacka municipality)
Västerbotten
Västernorrland
Västmanland
Örebro
Östergötland

List of chairpersons

Bertil Ohlin, 1934–1939
Lennart Hartman, 1939–1945
Gunhild Palmqvist, 1945–1948
Nils Schön, 1948–1950
Sven Wedén, 1950–1952
Gunnar Helén, 1952–1954
Bengt Johnson, 1954–1957
Sven H. Åsbrink, 1957–1959
Göran C.-O. Claesson, 1959–1960
Per Ahlmark, 1960–1962
Ola Ullsten, 1962–1964
Gustaf Lindencrona, 1964–1966
Thomas Hammarberg, 1966–1969
Per Gahrton, 1969–1971
Lars Leijonborg, 1971–1973
Johan Schück, 1973–1974
Billy Olsson, 1974–1975
Bonnie Bernström, 1975–1977
Christer Nilsson, 1977–1979
Peter Örn, 1979–1983
Maria Leissner, 1983–1985
Torbjörn Pettersson, 1985–1987
Lars Granath, 1987–1989
Lotta Edholm, 1989–1991
Fredrik Malmberg, 1991–1995
Karin Karlsbro, 1995–1997
Erik Ullenhag, 1997–1999
Birgitta Ohlsson, 1999–2002
Fredrik Malm, 2002–2006
Frida Johansson Metso, 2006–2009
Adam Cwejman, 2009–2012
Linda Nordlund, 2012–2015
Henrik Edin, 2015–2016
Joar Forssell, 2016–2019
Romina Pourmokhtari, 2019–2022
Erik Berg 2022–

References

^ ^a ^b "HANDLINGSPROGRAM" (PDF). luf.se. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-05-23. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
^ "Liberal historia » Liberalism » Liberala ungdomsförbundet". Archived from the original on 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
^ "Incest and necrophilia 'should be legal', according to youth political group". The Independent. February 22, 2019. Archived from the original on 2022-06-14.