SWEDISH ELECTION LIVE: Follow The Local as Sweden elects new government
When written en val, it means a whale, while ett val is a choice or election.
En val comes from the Old Swedish term for a whale, hval, which is the word still used in Icelandic, Danish and Norwegian.
Val meaning choice is related to two other words in Swedish: välja (to choose) and vilja (to want, similar to will in English).
Elections consist of choosing a candidate, so it’s natural that the word evolved to refer to these, too.
It has the same meaning in Norwegian (val), Danish (valg) and German (Wahl).
In Sweden, elections to the parliament, as well as municipal and regional assemblies, take place every four years on the second Sunday in September.
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Snap elections are also possible, but these are extraval or “extra elections”, and are held in addition to the scheduled elections which occur every four years. If an extra election is called, it must be held within three months.
Sweden is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy.
Essentially, this means that the head of state is a monarch rather than a president, so there are no presidential elections, only parliamentary elections. The head of state is King Carl XVI Gustaf, who is not elected.
Sweden uses proportional representation and seats in the parliament are allocated in a way which is designed to reflect the distribution of votes across the country as closely as possible, meaning that the popular vote and the eventual allocation of seats to each party will broadly match.
Unlike the US system, for example, this means that your vote matters no matter where you live, rather than a Democrat vote being ‘wasted’ if it comes from a predominantly Republican state.
It also means that there are a lot of parties in the Swedish parliament – eight in 2022 – so coalitions are common. Although tactical voting is usually less of an issue in systems which use proportional representation, it does still occur, as voters may vote for a party at risk of dropping out of parliament, or vote for a weaker party in their preferred ruling bloc, even if they prefer another party or candidate.
Voters do not specifically elect a prime minister or statsminister.
They either vote for a specific party (rösta på parti), in which case the number of seats awarded to that party are allocated according to a list decided by the party itself, or they can vote for a specific candidate (rösta på person eller personrösta). This means that someone lower down on the party’s list can be allocated a seat if they get more personal votes than someone placed higher.
There are also elections to the European parliament which are held at some point between April and June every fifth year. European elections were held in summer 2024, so the next won’t be until 2029.
Example sentences:
Varför pratar alla om det amerikanska valet? För att det påverkar hela världen.
Why is everyone talking about the American election? Because it affects the whole world.
Varför har vi inte presidentval i Sverige? För att Sverige har en statsminister och en kung, och ingen president.
Why don't we have presidential elections in Sweden? Because Sweden has a prime minister and a king, not a president.
Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is available to order. Head to lysforlag.com/vvv to read more about it. It is also possible to buy your copy from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Bokus or Adlibris.
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