The cabinet was formed as a direct consequence of the assassination of the incumbent prime minister Olof Palme on 28 February 1986.

[1] In the course of the first cabinet of Ingvar Carlsson, Sweden — as well as most other western countries in the late 80s — enjoyed a period of economic expansion.

In the middle of 1986 a debate concerning whether or not Sweden should implement a complete trade embargo towards apartheid South Africa emerged.

On 12 March 1987 the decision to implement a complete trade embargo towards South Africa and Namibia, starting on 1 July the same year, was taken.

In May 1988, Carlsson traveled to the capitols of several of the member states of the European Economic Community (EEC).

Early in 1988 the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sten Andersson visited Syria, Jordan and Israel.

In his memoirs the minister defends his statement, writing that the Baltic states were annexed which, according to Public international law, is not the same thing as occupation.

The scale of the corruption was far worse than any that India had seen before, and directly led to the defeat of Gandhi's ruling Indian National Congress party in the November 1989 general elections.

During the night between 5 and 6 October Stig Bergling, a former officer in the Swedish Security Service who had been convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union, managed to escape while on furlough.

Due to failure to present results the Stockholm county administrative chief of police Hans Holmér was forced to resign.

The new Minister of Justice Anna-Greta Leijon, who had authorised Ebbe Carlsson's involvement in the investigation, resigned on 7 June.

Shortly before Christmas 1985, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Affairs Birgitta Dahl, pledged to present a plan to phase out nuclear power in Sweden by 1995.

To form a broad consensus regarding the future of nuclear energy in Sweden, the cabinet invited the other political parties for discussion.

Before the general election in 1988, the three conservative parties agree on a proposal to implement a taxed health care allowance on 15 000 SEK per child and year.

The Green Party passed the election threshold for the first time, receiving 5.5 percent of the votes and thus twenty seats in parliament.