Per Ahlmark

Per Axel Ahlmark (15 January 1939 – 8 June 2018) was a Swedish politician and writer. He was the leader of the Liberal People's Party from 1975 to 1978, and Minister for Employment and Deputy Prime Minister in the Swedish government from 1976 to 1978. He also served as a member of the Swedish parliament from 1967 to 1978.

Early life and education Ahlmark was born in Stockholm, Sweden, as the son of the professor in medicine Axel Ahlmark and the dentist Gunvor Berglund. He completed upper secondary education at Södra Latin in Stockholm and earned a BA in political science from Stockholm University in 1964.

On 7 November 1975, Ahlmark succeeded Gunnar Helén as leader of the Liberal People's Party. from 1975 to 1978. From 1976 to 1978, in the first non-socialist government in Sweden in forty years, Ahlmark served as Minister for Employment and Deputy Prime Minister. On 7 March 1978, Ahlmark retired from party politics for personal reasons. From 1978 to 1981 he served as chairman of the board of the Swedish Film Institute.

He was a strong supporter of the state of Israel.

Ahlmark served as an advisor to the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity since 1987, and was a member of board of the Geneva-based NGO UN Watch since 1993. His next work, Det öppna såret ("The Open Wound"), makes a summary of new research regarding democracy and dictatorship respectively in terms of war, genocide/mass murder, and famine. His last book in the same field was Det är demokratin, dumbom! ("It's the Democracy, Stupid!"), published in 2004.

Ahlmark supported the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, and was extremely critical of Hans Blix (who is also a prominent member of the Swedish Liberal People's Party and served as Ahlmark's deputy chairman in the Liberal Youth of Sweden).

In February 2006, Ahlmark wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he had officially nominated former U.S. undersecretary of state John Bolton and American investigative reporter Kenneth R. Timmerman for the Nobel Peace Prize. Calling them "the good guys" for having exposed Iran's nuclear weapons program and worked to curtail it, he again criticized his former deputy Hans Blix and the IAEA for having been "duped for 18 years" by Iran.

The Per Ahlmark Foundation On account of Ahlmark's 70th birthday in 2009, a new foundation called The Per Ahlmark Foundation was established in October 2008 by the Jewish assembly in Stockholm. The stated purpose of the foundation is to "promote scientific research and education in political science, the history of ideas and Jewish history, as well as in economics, all with particular focus on issues concerning democracy and human rights".

Personal life Ahlmark was first married to the journalist Lillemor Melsted in 1965.

Ahlmark died on 8 June 2018 at the age of 79.

Honors and awards Defender of Jerusalem Award, Jabotinsky Foundation, 1986 (co-recipients: Luis Alberto Monge, Eliahu Essas) Honorary fellow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1992 Dialogue Award, Norwegian Jews, 1996 Honorary Medal, Danish Raoul Wallenberg Society, 1998 Torgny Segerstedt Award, Sweden–Israel Friendship Association, 1999 Honorary doctor, Hebrew College, Boston, 2000 Order of Brilliant Star, Government of Taiwan, 2000 Honorary doctor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2002 (co-recipients: Umberto Eco, Steven Spielberg) Bertil Ohlin Medal, Liberal Youth of Sweden, 2004 Jan Karski Award, American Jewish Committee, 2004