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HELSINKI (AP) — Sweden's first female foreign minister and party leader, Karin Soder, has died. She was 87.
Center Party spokeswoman Ingrid Brask said Sunday that Soder died in Stockholm on Dec. 19 but gave no cause of death.
Soder entered Parliament in 1971 and was a lawmaker for 20 years. She held the foreign minister's position in 1976-1978.
In 1985, she became the first woman in Sweden to lead a political party when elected chairwoman of the Center Party. She quit two years later.
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told the TT news agency that Soder was a pioneer in Swedish politics and had "broken new ground."
She led Sweden's member organization of Save the Children between 1983 and 1995.
Soder is survived by her husband and three adult children.
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