Bjørn Olsen
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 November 1945 | |
| State Minister of Infrastructure | |
| In office 1 January 1926 – 1 January 1929 | |
| Member of the Cybrian Parliament | |
| In office 1 January 1915 – 7 May 1946 | |
| Constituency | Vornholm County |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bjørnsterne Gerhard Olsen 3 February 1891 Kedense, Cybria, Kingdom of Delkora |
| Died | 7 May 1946 Eldenvard, Cybria, Delkora |
| Nationality | Delkoran |
| Political party | National Labor (1930-1946) Agrarian Workers' Party (1915-1930) |
| Spouse(s) | Sille Olsen (m. 1912-1921) Maren Olsen (m. 1925) |
| Alma mater | University of Cybria (B.A.) |
| Occupation | Politician |
Bjørnsterne Gerhard Olsen (1891-1946) 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, leading a coalition government with the Liberals and Social Democrats. 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.
First minister
In his first budget as First Minister, Olsen secured a major increase in healthcare and education spending that was widely popular. After a protracted legislative battle, he won support for Delkora's first minimum wage bill. Olsen's Labor Ministry lowered working hours and strengthened collective bargaining rights by making it easier for employees to strike.
Olsen had a reputation as a larger than life figure who was known to be brash and aggressive in conversation. Still, he easily enamored himself with voters due to his unapologetic populism. He was known for his weekly radio broadcasts and frequent editorials in newspapers defending his government's policies, with aides describing him as being in "constant campaign mode." He was known to frequent pubs in downtown Eldenvard after the close of parliamentary business on Fridays, in one instance getting into a drunken brawl with the leader of the opposition. Olsen refused to travel with a State Police escort.
In addition to his government agenda, much of Olsen's early term was occupied by the continued effort at reforming NL. Although his "coup" had reformed the upper echelons of the state party, the political machines of the large cities remained intact and worked to thwart his agenda and take back power. An open civil war had erupted within NL between Olsen's leftist Populær Arbejde ("Popular Labor") faction and Knudsen's moderate Ægte Arbejde ("Real Labor") faction that began to have national political implications. Johannes Löfgren, the moderate national leader of NL, refused to work with Olsen or even campaign for NL candidates affiliated with Popular Labor. Olsen's faction, in turn, worked to oust Löfgren at NL Conventions throughout the 1930's.
One of Olsen's top priorities during his first term was a land reform bill that would utilize eminent domain to break up large estates in the countryside owned by a handful of aristocratic families. This land would then be used for construction of public housing projects and cultivation of new farmland. It faced stiff opposition and was twice voted down before passing in 1933 just ahead of the state election that year. Still, even after passage, it faced resistance in the form of legal challenges and sabotage. A string of incidents in which nobles from the affected estates attacked survey crews prompted Olsen to give a fiery speech from the steps of the Cybrian State House warning that he was prepared to declare a state of emergency to enforce the law:
"It is outrageous that there are no fewer than 2,000 people homeless in our state and thousands of children going hungry every day from the prohibitively high cost of groceries while some 30% of Cybria's arable land is held by just ten families. My government has tried to appeal to their sense of reason, their sense of compassion, but to no avail. Well, I will not sit by while even one person goes cold, hungry, or unclothed because of some greedy bastard holed up on 700 hectares of idle land in our countryside. And if the law isn't enough to make them cooperate, then I'm prepared to use the coercive force of our Home Guard and State Police to force them into submission."
The 1933 state election attracted unusual media attention due to Chancellor Sofia Westergaard's campaign efforts on behalf of Olsen's faction, while Löfgren campaigned for Knudsen's faction. It resulted in a landslide victory both for Olsen's government and the Popular Labor faction. At the municipal level, the party bosses that had long run the cities of Eldenvard, Darzenbrom, and others faced stunning defeats and were replaced with leftist mayors.
Having largely ousted the old guard from the party, Olsen went about democratizing its internal rules. He also secured the approval of a new, staunchly leftist manifesto for the party.
Strengthened by these victories, Olsen pushed forward with his agenda. He passed a sweeping expansion of social security services in the state that included a major increase in unemployment and health insurance, poverty assistance, strengthened pensions, the institution of free education at all levels, and a housing guarantee. To fund this, he overhauled the tax system, implementing a progressive tax, corporate tax, and a hefty wealth tax. Olsen also passed a major public works program that included a job guarantee intended to achieve full employment. His government raised all public sector salaries, and nearly doubled teacher salaries.
These policies were highly popular and credited with causing a major reduction in poverty in the state. Olsen's charisma and rhetorical approach in advocating for these policies, which included speaking from his own personal experience with poverty and appealing to the idea that the purpose of government is to help people, made him a beloved figure. His government was returned with a larger majority in the 1937 election.
Olsen was a close friend and ally of Chancellor Westergaard, campaigning for her throughout her time in office and supporting the implementation of her agenda in Cybria. During the Blockade of Banderhus, he spoke in support of her actions and called on First Minister Bjerre to resign. At the height of the crisis, he made a well-publicized visit to Royal Army troops stationed on Federal Road 12 at the Banderhus border, bringing them a delivery of candy, cigars, and whisky and telling them, "Keep up the good work, boys."
Olsen supported Westergaard's local government reform proposal, ensuring its passage in the Cybrian Parliament. After passage of this reform, his government sought an amendment to the state constitution establishing home rule for the newly-consolidated municipalities, which passed narrowly in 1938.
At the 1942 election, Olsen's government finally lost its majority and was replaced by a Conservative-Agrarian coalition. Olsen, still enjoying widespread popularity both in NL and among the public, stayed on as party leader and was a vocal critic of the new government. Although it had a majority, the new government made almost no progress in its effort to roll back Olsen's programs, with many of its MPs fearing the electoral consequences of voting against such popular policies.
Later years and death
With Olsen seen as a rising star in the party, there was speculation he was considering mounting a leadership challenge against Löfgren. These rumors were fueled by statements Olsen and his associates made to the press. Then, following a routine examination in late 1945, Olsen was diagnosed with advanced stage stomach cancer. He immediately began treatment, but his condition slowly worsened over the next several months, forcing him to step down as party leader.
Olsen died at the University of Cybria Medical Center on 7 May 1946 at the age of 55.
Legacy
Olsen is remembered as one of the most effective first ministers in Delkoran history, achieving nearly all of his government's policy objectives. Historians often credit him with helping pave the way for the New Kingdom economic reforms through his programs, which proved to be highly popular with the public and helped shift public policy debates to the left. His personal charisma and populism helped contribute to this, with one biographer describing Olsen as "a rare example of a long-serving politician who never lost his connection to the people."
Olsen's successful effort at transforming the National Labor organization in Cybria had far-reaching effects. From 1932 onward, the moderate establishment within NL that had controlled the party for decades saw its influence wane as Cybrian National Labor took advantage of its clout within the national party to slowly and methodically radicalize it by influencing appointments and pushing for changes to the NL constitution and bylaws. These efforts were aided by leftists elsewhere throughout Delkora, who were inspired by the example set by Olsen and Elvensar.
Monuments
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?".