Hansson II Cabinet 1936–1939
Formal "red-green" majority coalition between the Social Democrats and Bondeförbundet (Farmers' League) under Per Albin Hansson, institutionalising the 1933 Crisis Agreement, presiding over the 1938 Saltsjöbaden Agreement, and dissolving at the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
The Hansson II Cabinet, sworn in after the 1936 general election, was Sweden’s first formal “red-green” majority coalition: Socialdemokraterna and Bondeförbundet — the Farmers’ League that would later become Centerpartiet — sharing cabinet responsibility under Per Albin Hansson. It institutionalised the cross-class compromise first negotiated in the 1933 Crisis Agreement, replacing the brief Pehrsson-Bramstorp “vacation government” that had held the line over the summer.
By forming this alliance between the working and agrarian classes, the cabinet isolated political extremes, built a stable foundation for the welfare state, and oversaw the historic compromise between organised labour and employers — the 1938 Saltsjöbaden Agreement between LO and SAF, foundational to den svenska modellen. In parallel, defence spending rose sharply in 1938 as the European security situation deteriorated.
The cabinet dissolved at the outbreak of 1939 World War II, when the need to broaden parliamentary backing for wartime decisions led to the Hansson III national-unity coalition that would govern Sweden through the war.