Alfred Petersson

Who was Alfred Petersson?

Per Alfred Petersson was a Swedish politician and minister for agriculture in several cabinets.

Petersson was born into a well-to-do farmer's family in Söderåkra parish, Kalmar County, and took over the family farm Påboda in 1887. He was active in local and regional politics. In 1894 he both became a member of the Kalmar County Council and was elected member of the Second Chamber of the Swedish parliament.

Appointed minister of agriculture in the short-lived coalition cabinet of Christian Lundeberg, formed in 1905 specifically to handle the issue of the dissolution of the union with Norway, he was the first farmer to become a member of the Swedish cabinet and took an active part in the negotiations with Norway.

He was instrumental in the downfall of the liberal cabinet of Karl Staaff in 1906 over the issue of suffrage. Staaff's proposition was to extend the right to vote to adult males having paid their state and municipal taxes. The so-called Påboda program was to have proportional elections to both parliamentary chambers, rather than the majoritarian system in place and retained in the Staaff proposition.