19821989: Olof Palme The Social Democrats regained power in 1982, subsequently devaluing the krona, introducing a price freeze and cutting back on public expenditure. They lost their majority in 1985, having to rely on Communist support to get their bills through. Presiding over the party since 1969, and prime minister for nearly as long, was Olof Palme, probably now the most famous least known foreign leader. Assassinated in February 1986, his death threw Sweden into modern European politics like no other event. Proud of their open society (Palme was returning home unguarded from the cinema], the Swedes were shocked by the gunning down of a respected politician, diplomat and pacifist. The country's social system was placed in the limelight, and shock turned to anger and then ridicule as the months passed without his killer being caught. Police bungling was criticised and despite the theories Kurdish extremists, rightwing terror groups no one was charged with the murder. Then the police came up with Christer Pettersson, who despite having no apparent motive was identified by Palme's wife as the man who had fired the shot that night. Despite pleading his innocence, claiming he was elsewhere at the time of the murder, Pettersson was convicted of Palme's murder and jailed. There was great disquiet about the verdict, however, both at home and abroad: the three legal representatives in the original jury had voted for acquittal at the time; it was believed that Palme's wife couldn't possibly be sure that the man who fired the shot was Pettersson, since by her own admission she had only seen him once, on the dark night in question and then only very briefly. On appeal, Christer Pettersson was acquitted and released in 1989 and the mystery is still no closer to being solved, though the Swedish police appear to believe that they had the right man but not enough evidence to convict. Presentday politics Ingvar Carlsson was elected the new prime minister after Palme's murder, a position confirmed by the 1988 General Election when the Social Democrats for the first time in years scored more seats than the three nonsocialist parties combined. However, Carlsson's was a minority government, the Social Democrats requiring the support of the Communists to command an overall majority support that was usually forthcoming but that, with the arrival of the Green Party into parliament in 1988, could no longer be taken for granted. The Greens and Communists jockeyed for position as protectors of the Swedish environment, and any Social Democrat measure seen to be antienvironment cost them Communist support. Perhaps more worryingly for the government, a series of scandals swept the country, leading to open speculation about a marked decline in public morality. The Bofors arms company was discovered to be involved in illegal sales to the Middle East, and early in 1990 the Indian police charged the company with paying kickbacks to politicians to secure arms contracts.