Bjørn Olsen

The Most Honorable Bjørn Olsen
First Minister of Cybria
In office 1 January 1930 – 1 January 1942
Leader of Cybrian National Labor
In office 12 January 1930 – 1 January 1942
State Minister of Infrastructure
In office 1 January 1926 – 1 January 1929
Member of the Cybrian Parliament
In office 1 January 1915 – 1 January 1942
Constituency	Vornholm County
Personal details
Born	Bjørnsterne Gerhard Olsen (1891-02-03)3 February 1891 Kedense, Cybria, Kingdom of Delkora
Died	(1952-05-07)7 May 1952 Eldenvard, Cybria, Delkora
Nationality	Delkoran
Political party	National Labor (1929-1952) Agrarian Workers' Party (1915-1929)
Spouse(s)	Sille Olsen (m. 1914-1921) Maren Olsen (m. 1925)
Alma mater	University of Cybria (B.A.)
Occupation	Politician

Bjørnsterne Gerhard Olsen (1891-1952) was a National Labor politician who served as first minister of the Delkoran state of Cybria from 1930 to 1942. A lifelong radical who started his political career as a member of the Cybrian State Parliament for the Agrarian Workers' Party, Olsen, with the help of Mette Elvensar, succeeded in orchestrating a takeover of the Cybrian National Labor organization by the AWP and subsequently reorganized it as a firmly leftist party.

As first minister, he introduced a major expansion of social security services, land reform, and devolution of power to local governments. Olsen was an important ally of Chancellor Sofia Westergaard, and ensured the successful implementation of her government's policies in Cybria. He is considered one of the most influential first ministers in Delkoran history, and his success in implementing his program served as a model for the New Kingdom economic reforms of the 1960's and 70's.

Early life

Olsen was born in 1891 in the municipality of Kedense in eastern Cybria. His parents owned a small farm that had been in the family for generations but struggled to make it profitable, resulting in Olsen living much of his early childhood in severe poverty. In school, he developed a reputation as an intelligent and outspoken young man but also a troublemaker, and was routinely disciplined for talking back to teachers and getting into fights.

In 1908, Olsen was accepted into the University of Cybria, where he began studying economics. It was around this time that he began reading leftist political theory and became an active member of the Communist Student Union. He was known to be disruptive in classes, challenging what he believed to the university's biased curriculum and getting into heated debates with professors. He was a regular contributor to the student newspaper, publishing articles criticizing university administrators for giving preference to the children of wealthy parents in the school's application process and suppressing students' freedom of speech by restricting on campus demonstrations.

Upon graduating in 1911, Olsen worked various odd jobs in Eldenvard, including as a carpenter, substitute teacher, and custodian. Although he had a disdain for electoral politics, he and several KSU associates decided to run for municipal council on an independent list in 1912 to challenge the city's corrupt National Labor political machine. After weeks of intense campaigning, and just days before the election, their list was removed from the ballot on a technicality following a successful challenge by the local NL. Disgusted, Olsen relocated to the town of Vornholm later that year.

In Vornholm, Olsen worked as a journalist for the local newspaper, covering politics. He became involved with the Agrarian Worker's Party, an upstart far-left party that advocated for land reform and government aid for struggling farmers. He met his first wife Sille while organizing with the party; the two married in 1914. The following year, he stood for election to the Cybrian State Parliament on the AWP list, winning a seat.

Legislator

In the State Parliament, Olsen proved to be a fiery orator. In his maiden speech, he called for Cybria to put an end to poverty by providing a job guarantee and instituting a living wage. He was a vocal opponent of the state's discrimination against its Traveller minority.

With the outbreak of the Divide War in 1916, Olsen took part in anti-war organizing efforts in Cybria and elsewhere, helping to coordinate a major demonstration in Norenstal. Taking advantage of his visibility as a state legislator, he spoke out against Delkoran involvement and called for Cybria to refuse to supply manpower or resources for the war.

Olsen was often frustrated by National Labor, which was at the time dominated by corrupt party bosses from the large cities who were resistant to progressive policies. He reflected in personal writings that, "Even our most moderate proposals are routinely blocked by a cabal of thieves who claim to be our allies yet are really no better than the basest Conservative." Still, with the AWP struggling to make an electoral breakthrough that would position it for government, Olsen and others in the party began considering the possibility of using an entryist strategy to take over Cybria's National Labor organization.

Olsen was a strong proponent of this course, believing that the AWP would never be able to win enough seats to overtake NL, and that the only way to achieve their agenda was to radicalize the party from within. The AWP formally adopted an entryist strategy in 1918; although Olsen and others already in office retained their AWP membership, the rest formally joined NL and, over the course of the next several years, went about covertly infiltrating the party and running for various positions within it. In 1923, Olsen was elected leader of the AWP.

The 1926 Cybria state election produced a badly-hung parliament following a corruption scandal implicating the NL leader. He was forced to step down ahead of the election, and NL lost its plurality to the Conservatives; the AWP in turn, picked up a large number of seats, becoming the third largest party. After the Conservatives were unable to form a government, the new NL leader, Thorkild Knudsen, approached Olsen about the possibility of forming a coalition. An agreement was reached which required NL to support a package of AWP proposals.

By 1929, the AWP held a slim majority of seats on the Cybrian NL organization's candidate selection committee. Olsen met with Knudsen in November and demanded his support for the AWP full program, not yet revealing the infiltration. Outraged, Knudsen rejected the demand. After the meeting, Olsen announced that the AWP was withdrawing from the government and moved for a vote of no confidence against Knudsen. After Knudsen lost the vote, a snap election was called, and parties began preparing their electoral lists; the infiltrated NL candidate committee purged Knudsen and other moderates from the party's lists, replacing them with leftist candidates.

Recognizing the deception, Knudsen sued in the Cybrian Constitutional Court, arguing that the electoral lists were illegal and amounted to a "coup". The Court ruled against him, finding that the lists had been composed in accordance with both state law and the party's internal rules. In a last ditch effort, Knudsen appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court, which declined to hear the case on the grounds of jurisdiction.

In the resulting election, NL picked up several seats, regaining its status as the largest party. The newly-constituted NL caucus moved to oust Knudsen as party leader and in the meantime nominated Olsen as its chancellor candidate. He was sworn in as First Minister on 1 January. The following day, the NL caucus voted to merge with the AWP. Now a member of NL, Olsen stood as a candidate for leader of the party, winning by a large margin.

Monuments

Olsen's statue outside the Cybria State House

Olsen is commemorated by a statue outside the Cybria State House (Cybria Statshuset) in Eldenvard. The statue faces the entrance to the State House, and depicts Olsen staring resolutely and pointing. Its sculptor described it as a tribute to Olsen's tenaciousness as First Minister, and as a reminder: "Everyone who works in the Cybrian Parliament and government, at the end of the day, is confronted with the question: how have you served the people?".