The basics
The word for "election" is val, which also means "choice" and "whale", just to make things extra confusing for Swedish learners. Sweden votes in three elections on the same day: riksdagsvalet (the election for the national parliament), regionvalet (the regional election) and kommunalvalet (the municipal election).
Swedish citizens over the age of 18 have rösträtt (right to vote). But although the national election tends to get more attention, non-citizens should know that you may still be able to rösta (vote) in the regional and local elections. If you're röstberättigad (eligible voter) you may have received a röstkort (voting card) in the mail.
The campaigning
The valkampanjer (election campaigns) are under way with the parties falling over themselves trying to present the most attractive vallöften (campaign promises) or, if you want to be more cynical, valfläsk (overly generous promises; literally election pork).
In squares all over Sweden you will see valstugor (election huts, where party workers talk to voters about their policies), TV listings will be full of partiledardebatter (party leader debates) and if you're unlucky you may hear a number of floskler (empty phrases).
This campaign is quite populist in tone, so you might hear politicians denounce media commentators as proffstyckare (professional opinionators).
The voting
You will be able to förtidsrösta (vote in advance), but if you're more traditionally-minded you can also go to your designated röstlokal (polling station) on valdagen (the day of the election).
When you're there, you pick up the röstsedel (ballot paper) of your preferred parti (party) and put it in the valurna (ballot box). If you want you can also personrösta, which is when you tick the name of a specific candidate who you think should represent the party as riksdagsledamot (member of parliament).
Alternatively, people may choose to rösta blankt, which is when you do turn up at the polling station on the day, but instead of voting you put a blank slip of paper in the ballot box as a form of protest.
Sweden generally enjoys high valdeltagande (voter turnout). In the 2022 election around 84 percent of eligible voters cast their vote.
The contenders
Moderaterna (the Moderates) have been ruling in a högerregering (right-wing government) together with Liberalerna (the Liberals) and Kristdemokraterna (the Christian Democrats) since 2022. They are also supported by Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden Democrats) in parliament and together this alliance is known as Tidöregeringen or Tidöblocket (Tidö government or Tidö bloc), named after the mansion where they signed their agreement after the last election.
The right wing is also known as de borgerliga in Swedish (the bourgeois – which doesn't automatically have the same strong connotations in Swedish as in English).
Their opponents are vänstern (the left wing) which consists of Socialdemokraterna (the Social Democrats), Miljöpartiet (the Green Party) and Vänsterpartiet (the Left Party). In recent years Centerpartiet (the Centre Party) has been siding with them.
Some of the parties also have nicknames. You often hear the Sweden Democrats referred to simply as SD, the Social Democrats as sossarna and the Centre Party as centern. But if you hear someone talking about vänstern, they usually mean the entire centre-left bloc, not just the Left Party.
The future
According to opinionsundersökningar (opinion polls), the centre-left bloc are in a clear lead, but there's still unlikely to be a clear-cut winner, which means lengthy post-election förhandlingar (negotiations) and maybe blocköverskridande (bipartisan) compromises. Minoritetsregeringar (minority governments) are not uncommon in Sweden.
The talman (speaker of parliament) puts forward a proposal for a new statsminister (prime minister) to the new parliament, which votes for or against. More than half of Sweden's 349 MPs have to vote against the förslag (proposal) to reject it, but it does not need the explicit support of a majority. Opposition parties may therefore choose to lägga ner sina röster (abstain) to make the process run smoothly if they don't think that they themselves are strong enough to be able to bilda regering (form a government).
If the speaker's nominee for prime minister is rejected by parliament (as happened three times after the 2018 election), he or she can repeat the process four times. If parliament is still unable to reach an agreement on the next prime minister an extra val (a new election) will be held.
Can you think of any other Swedish political words? Let us know and we'll add them to the list.
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