Karl Hjalmar Branting (help·info) (23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Sweish politician. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (1907–1925), and Prime Minister during three separate periods (1920, 1922–1923, and 1924–1925). When Branting first came to power in 1920, he was not only the first Swedish Prime Minister who took office following elections with universal suffrage, but also the first socialist politician in Europe to do so.