Ture König Königson (21 June 1910 – 13 October 1994) was a Swedish

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

labour-liberal politician, belonging to the People's Party. He was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

.Misgeld, Klaus, Karl Molin, Klas Åmark, and Jan Teeland.
Creating Social Democracy: A Century of the Social Democratic Labor Party in Sweden
'. University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1992. pp. 8, 24. Königson is primarily remembered in Swedish politics for having decided the outcome of the parliamentary vote on the 1957 pension reform. Königson's father was a typographer by profession, Königson became an industrial worker at the

Götaverken Götaverken was a Swedish shipbuilding company that was located on Hisingen, Gothenburg. It was founded in 1841, and ceased building ships in 1989. History The company was founded in 1841 by Scottish businessman Alexander Keiller (Gothenburg), Ale ...

shipyard in Gothenburg. Königson was a member of the Gothenburg city council 1951 to 1952, and held different municipal positions. In 1953 he became a member of the Second Chamber of the

Swedish Parliament The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportionally and serving, since 1994, f ...

, having been elected as a candidate of the People's Party.
Vem är det : Svensk biografisk handbok
', 1957. p. 541. Regarding the pension reform, the vote in the parliament had been preceded by a general referendum, in which the proposed reform had won the most votes (out of three alternatives) but no majority. At the time of the parliamentary vote in 1959, the government side counted with 115 seats and the opposition to the reform (including Königson's People's Party) had 115 seats. By abstaining from voting (the sole parliamentarian to do so), Königson decided the vote in the favour of the reform proposal. This type of action, to disobey party directives in a crucial parliamentary vote, is highly unusual in Swedish politics. Through his abstention, Königson became the most prominent parliamentary dissident in modern Swedish politics. After the vote, Königson declared that being a worker himself he could not vote against the pension reform. He stated that he could not have looked his colleagues at the shipyard in the eyes, had he voted no. Although he received support from the public for his decision, his political career was effectively ended. He was not put forth for re-election by the People's Party in the 1960 polls.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konigson, Ture 1910 births 1994 deaths Members of the Riksdag from the Liberals (Sweden) Politicians from Gothenburg