Riksdag

This article is about the Parliament of Sweden. For the Finnish Riksdag, see Parliament of Finland. For current members, see List of members of the Riksdag, 2022–2026.

Not to be confused with Rikdag.

The Riksdag (Swedish: [ˈrɪ̌ksdɑː(ɡ)] ^ⓘ, lit. transl. "diet of the realm"; also Swedish: riksdagen [ˈrɪ̌ksdan] ^ⓘ or Sveriges riksdag [ˈsvæ̌rjɛs ˈrɪ̌ksdɑː(ɡ)] ^ⓘ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (riksdagsledamöter), elected proportionally and serving, since 1994, fixed four-year terms. The 2022 Swedish general election is the most recent general election.

Riksdag of Sweden Sveriges riksdag
2022–2026 term
Type
Type	Unicameral
Leadership
Speaker	Andreas Norlén, (M) since 24 September 2018
First Deputy Speaker	Kenneth G. Forslund, (S) since 26 September 2022
Second Deputy Speaker	Julia Kronlid, (SD) since 26 September 2022
Third Deputy Speaker	Kerstin Lundgren, (C) since 24 September 2018
President by age	Tomas Eneroth, (S) since 18 October 2022
Structure
Seats	349
Political groups	Government (103)   Moderate Party (68)   Christian Democrats (19)   Liberals (16) Confidence and supply (73)   Sweden Democrats (72)   Independent (1)[1] Opposition (173)   Social Democrats (106)   Left Party (24)   Centre Party (24)   Green Party (18)   Independent (1)[2]
Elections
Voting system	Open list[3] proportional representation (modified Sainte-Laguë method) with a 4% election threshold[4] in constituencies based upon the Counties of Sweden See Elections in Sweden
Last election	11 September 2022
Next election	On or before 13 September 2026
Meeting place
Parliament House Helgeandsholmen Stockholm, 100 12 Sweden
Website
riksdagen.se
Footnotes

The Parliament House, seat of the Riksdag since 1905.

The constitutional mandates of the Riksdag are enumerated in the Instrument of Government (Regeringsformen), and its internal workings are specified in greater detail in the Riksdag Act (Riksdagsordningen).^[5][6] The seat of the Riksdag is at Parliament House (Riksdagshuset), on the island of Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm, in Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm. The Riksdag has its institutional roots in the feudal Riksdag of the Estates, traditionally thought to have first assembled in Arboga in 1435. In 1866, following reforms of the 1809 Instrument of Government, that body was transformed into a bicameral legislature with an upper chamber (första kammaren) and a lower chamber (andra kammaren).

Name

The Old Parliament House on Riddarholmen was the seat of the Riksdag from 1833 to 1905.

Kulturhuset at Sergels torg served as a temporary seat for the Riksdag, from 1971 to 1983, while the Riksdag building on Helgeandsholmen underwent renovation.

The Swedish word riksdag, in definite form riksdagen, is a general term for "parliament" or "assembly", but it is typically only used for Sweden's legislature and certain related institutions.^[7][8][9] In addition to Sweden's parliament, it is also used for the Parliament of Finland and the Estonian Riigikogu, as well as the historical German Reichstag and the Danish Rigsdagen.^[9] In Swedish use, riksdagen is usually not capitalised.^[10] Riksdag derives from the genitive of rike, referring to royal power, and dag, meaning diet or conference; the German word Reichstag and the Danish Rigsdag are cognate.^[11] The Oxford English Dictionary traces English use of the term "Riksdag" in reference to the Swedish assembly back to 1855.^[11]

History

Main article: History of the Riksdag

See also: Riksdag of the Estates

Historical distribution of seats in the Swedish Riksdag 1902–2018.

The roots of the modern Riksdag can be found in a 1435 meeting in the city of Arboga; however, only three of the estates were probably present: the nobility, the clergy and the burghers.^[12][13] This informal organization was modified in 1527 by the first modern Swedish king, Gustav I Vasa, to include representatives from all the four social estates: the nobility, the clergy, the burghers (property-owning commoners in the towns such as merchants etc.), and the yeomanry (freehold farmers). This form of Ständestaat representation lasted until 1866, when representation by estate was abolished and the modern bicameral parliament established. Effectively, however, it did not become a parliament in the modern sense until parliamentary principles were established in the political system in Sweden, in 1917.

On 22 June 1866, the Riksdag decided to reconstitute itself as a bicameral legislature, consisting of Första kammaren or the First Chamber, with 155 members and Andra kammaren or the Second Chamber with 233 members. The First Chamber was indirectly elected by county and city councillors, while the Second Chamber was directly elected by universal suffrage. This reform was a result of great discontent with the old Estates, which, following the changes brought by the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, was no longer able to provide representation for large segments of the population.

By an amendment to the 1809 Instrument of Government, the general election of 1970 was the first to a unicameral assembly with 350 seats. The following general election to the unicameral Riksdag in 1973 gave the Government the support of only 175 members, while the opposition could mobilize an equal force of 175 members. In a number of cases a tied vote ensued, and the final decision had to be determined by lot. To avoid any recurrence of this unstable situation, the number of seats in the Riksdag was reduced to 349, from 1976 onwards.

Powers and structure

Main article: Constitution of Sweden

The Riksdag performs the normal functions of a legislature in a parliamentary democracy. It enacts laws, amends the constitution and appoints a government. In most parliamentary democracies, the head of state commissions a politician to form a government. Under the new Instrument of Government^[14] (one of the four fundamental laws of the Constitution) enacted in 1974, that task was removed from the Monarch of Sweden and given to the Speaker of the Riksdag. To make changes to the Constitution under the new Instrument of Government, amendments must be approved twice, in two successive electoral periods with a regular general election held in between.

There are 15 parliamentary committees in the Riksdag.^[15]

Membership

Main article: Member of Parliament (Sweden)

See also: List of members of the Riksdag, 2022–2026

As of September 2022, 163 members, or 46.7% of the 349 members are women. Five parties have a majority representation of female MPs as of 2022: the Left Party (17 of 24, 70.8%), the Green Party (12 of 18, 66.7%), the Liberals (9 of 16, 56.3%), the Center Party (13 of 24, 54.2%), and the Social Democratic Party (55 of 107, 51.4%). The party with the lowest share of female MPs is the Sweden Democrats (18 of 73, 24.7%).^[16]

Members of the Riksdag are full-time legislators with a salary of 71 500 SEK (around $6,300) per month.^[17]

According to a survey investigation by the sociologist Jenny Hansson, Members of the Riksdag have an average work week of 66 hours, including side responsibilities. Hansson's investigation further reports that the average member sleeps 6.5 hours per night.^[18]

The former second chamber, nowadays used for committee meetings

The Riksdag building exterior, from the west, at night

Presidium

The presidium consists of a speaker and three deputy speakers. They are elected for a 4-year term. The Speaker is not allowed to vote, but the three deputies are allowed to vote.

Government

Main article: Government of Sweden

The speaker of the Riksdag nominates a Prime Minister (Swedish: statsminister, literally minister of state) after holding talks with leaders of the various party groups in the Riksdag. The nomination is then put to a vote. The nomination is rejected (meaning the Speaker must find a new nominee) only if an absolute majority of the members (175 members) vote "no"; otherwise, it is confirmed. This means the Riksdag can consent to a Prime Minister without casting any "yes" votes.

After being elected the Prime Minister appoints the cabinet ministers and announces them to the Riksdag. The new Government takes office at a special council held at the Royal Palace before the Monarch, at which the Speaker of the Riksdag formally announces to the Monarch that the Riksdag has elected a new Prime Minister and that the Prime Minister has chosen his cabinet ministers.

The Riksdag can cast a vote of no confidence against any single cabinet minister (Swedish: statsråd), thus forcing a resignation. To succeed, a vote of no confidence must be supported by an absolute majority (175 members) or it has failed.

If a vote of no confidence is cast against the Prime Minister this means the entire government is rejected. A losing government has one week to call for a general election or else the procedure of nominating a new Prime Minister starts anew.^[19]

Parties

Main article: Politics of Sweden

No party has won a single majority in the Riksdag since 1968. Political parties with similar agendas consequently cooperate on several issues, forming coalition governments or other formalized alliances.

Two major blocs existed in parliament until 2019, the socialist/green Red-Greens and the conservative/liberal Alliance. The latter—consisting of the Moderate Party, Liberals, Centre Party, and Christian Democrats—governed Sweden from 2006 through most of 2014 (after 2010 through a minority government). The Red-Greens combination disbanded on 26 October 2010 but continued to be considered the main opposition until the 2014 election, following which the Social Democrats and the Green Party formed a government with support from the Left Party.^[20]

In 2019, after the 2018 election in which neither bloc won a majority of seats, the Social Democrats and Green Party formed a government with support from the Liberals and Centre Party, breaking the center-right Alliance. In March 2019, the Christian Democrats and Moderate Party signaled a willingness to talk with the Sweden Democrats.^[21]

Interior of the Riksdag building.

The second chamber.

Current party representation in the Riksdag^[22]

Party		Leaders	Seats	Seat share (%)
	Social Democratic Party	Magdalena Andersson	107	30.7
	Sweden Democrats	Jimmie Åkesson	73	20.9
	Moderate Party	Ulf Kristersson	68	19.5
	Left Party	Nooshi Dadgostar	24	6.9
	Centre Party	Muharrem Demirok	24	6.9
	Christian Democrats	Ebba Busch	19	5.4
	Green Party	Märta Stenevi / Daniel Helldén	18	5.2
	Liberals	Johan Pehrson	16	4.6
Total			349	100

Elections

See also: Elections in Sweden

The offices of the parliament are housed in several buildings, including the former Royal Mint on Mynttorget Square.

All 349 members of the Riksdag are elected in the general elections held every four years. All Swedish citizens who turn 18 years old no later than on the day of the election and have at one point been registered residents are eligible to vote. To stand for election, a candidate must be eligible to vote and be nominated by a political party. A minimum of 4% of the national vote is required for a party to enter the Riksdag, alternatively 12% or more within a constituency. Substitutes for each deputy are elected at the same time as each election, so by-elections are rare. In the event of a snap election, the newly elected members merely serve the remainder of the four-year term.^[23]

Constituencies and national apportionment of seats

Main article: National apportionment of MP seats in the Riksdag

The electoral system in Sweden is proportional. Of the 349 seats in the unicameral Riksdag, 310 are fixed constituency seats allocated to 29 multi-member constituencies in relation to the number of people entitled to vote in each constituency. The remaining 39 adjustment seats are used to correct the deviations from proportional national distribution that may arise when allocating the fixed constituency seats. There is a constraint in the system that means that only a party that has received at least four per cent of the votes in the whole country participates in the distribution of seats. However, a party that has received at least twelve per cent of the votes in a constituency participates in the distribution of the fixed constituency seats in that constituency.^[24][23]

2022 election results

Main article: 2022 Swedish general election

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Swedish Social Democratic Party	1,964,474	30.33	107	+7
	Sweden Democrats	1,330,325	20.54	73	+11
	Moderate Party	1,237,428	19.10	68	−2
	Left Party	437,050	6.75	24	−4
	Centre Party	434,945	6.71	24	−7
	Christian Democrats	345,712	5.34	19	−3
	Green Party	329,242	5.08	18	+2
	Liberals	298,542	4.61	16	−4
	Nuance Party	28,352	0.44	0	New
	Alternative for Sweden	16,646	0.26	0	0
	Citizens' Coalition	12,882	0.20	0	0
	Pirate Party	9,135	0.14	0	0
	Humanist Democracy	6,077	0.09	0	New
	Christian Values Party	5,983	0.09	0	0
	Knapptryckarna	5,493	0.08	0	New
	Feminist Initiative	3,157	0.05	0	0
	Independent Rural Party	2,215	0.03	0	0
	Direct Democrats	1,755	0.03	0	0
	Climate Alliance	1,702	0.03	0	New
	Unity	1,234	0.02	0	0
	Communist Party of Sweden	1,181	0.02	0	0
	64 other parties (fewer than 1,000 votes)	4,264	0.07	0	0
Total		6,477,794	100.00	349	0
Valid votes		6,477,794	98.93
Invalid/blank votes		69,831	1.07
Total votes		6,547,625	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,775,390	84.21
Source: Sweden's Election Authority[25]

Alliance			Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	Kristersson's Bloc (M+SD+KD+L)		3,212,007	49.59	176	+2
	Andersson's Bloc (S+MP+V+C)		3,165,711	48.87	173	−2
Invalid/blank votes			69,831	–	–	–
Total			6,547,625	100	349	0
Registered voters/turnout			7,495,936	87.18	–	–
Source: VAL

Historical composition of the Riksdag

Swedish parliamentary election (since 1948)

VPK/V   S   MP   B/C   FP/L   M   KDS/KD   ND   SD   MD
1948	8 112 30 57 23
1952	5 110 26 58 31
1956	6 106 19 58 42
1958	5 111 32 38 45
1960	5 114 34 40 39
1964	8 113 35 43 33 1
1968	3 125 39 34 32
1970	17 163 71 58 41
1973	19 156 90 34 51
1976	17 152 86 39 55
1979	20 154 64 38 73
1982	20 166 56 21 86
1985	19 159 43 51 76 1
1988	21 156 20 42 44 66
1991	16 138 31 33 80 26 25
1994	22 161 18 27 26 80 15
1998	43 131 16 18 17 82 42
2002	30 144 17 22 48 55 33
2006	22 130 19 29 28 97 24
2010	19 112 25 23 24 107 19 20
2014	21 113 25 22 19 84 16 49
2018	28 100 16 31 20 70 22 62
2022	24 107 18 24 16 68 19 73

See also

• Sweden portal
• Politics portal

• Parliament House, Stockholm
• Referendums in Sweden

References

1. Dante Thomsen (1 May 2023). "En gräns har passerats, jag lämnar Sverigedemokraterna". SVT Nyheter. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
2. Rosanna Berg (12 February 2024). "Jamal El-Haj lämnar Socialdemokraterna men sitter kvar i riksdagen – blir politisk vilde" [Jamal El-Haj leaves the Social Democrats but stays in the Riksdag - becomes an independent] (in Swedish). SVT Nyheter. Archived from the original on 12 February 2024. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
3. Candidates require 5% of their party's vote total in their constituency in order to override the default party-list order
4. A party may earn seats even if they fail to reach 4% of the vote nationally if they obtain 12% of the vote in a given constituency
5. Instrument of Government, as of 2012. Retrieved on 16 November 2012. Archived 8 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine
6. The Riksdag Act, as of 2012. Retrieved on 16 November 2012. Archived 1 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine
7. Nöjd, Ruben; Tornberg, Astrid; Angström, Margareta (1978). "Riksdag (riksdagen)". Mckay's Modern English-Swedish and Swedish-English Dictionary. David Mckay. p. 147. ISBN 0-679-10079-2.
8. Gullberg, Ingvar (1977). "Riksdag". Svensk-Engelsk Fackordbok. PA Norstedt & Söners Förlag. p. 741. ISBN 91-1-775052-0.
9. "Riksdag". Nationalencyklopedin. 2014. Archived from the original on 15 May 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
10. Holmes, Philip; Hinchliffe, Ian (2013). Swedish: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. p. 670. ISBN 978-1134119981. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
11. "Riksdag, n.". Oxford English Dictionary. June 2012. Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
12. "riksdagen.se". Archived from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
13. Bellquist, Eric Cyril (1935). "The Five Hundredth Anniversary of the Swedish Riksdag". American Political Science Review. 29 (5): 857–865. doi:10.2307/1947230. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1947230. S2CID 147534635.
14. The Swedish Constitution, Riksdagen Archived 10 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
15. "The 15 parliamentary committees". Sveriges Riksdag / The Swedish Parliament. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
16. Riksdagsförvaltningen. "Ledamöter & partier". riksdagen.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
17. Riksdagsförvaltningen. "Frågor & svar samt statistik över ledamöternas arvoden". www.riksdagen.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 29 September 2022. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
18. "Hansson, Jenny (2008). De Folkvaldas Livsvillkor. Umea: Umea University" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2009.
19. Riksdagsförvaltningen. "Forming a government". www.riksdagen.se. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
20. "Vi accepterar inte att Sveriges framtid, jobben och klimatet sätts på spel". Regeringskansliet (in Swedish). 26 August 2017. Archived from the original on 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
21. Sweden, Radio (22 March 2019). "Christian Democrats willing to talk to all parties, including Sweden Democrats". Sveriges Radio. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
22. "Ledamöter & partier". riksdagen.se (in Swedish). Riksdag. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
23. Riksdagsförvaltningen. "Elections to the Riksdag". www.riksdagen.se. Archived from the original on 23 April 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
24. See e.g.: SOU 2008:125 En reformerad grundlag (Constitutional Reform) Archived 5 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Prime Ministers Office.
25. "Val till riksdagen – Slutligt valresultat – Riket". Valmyndigheten (in Swedish). 18 September 2022. Archived from the original on 18 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.

Bibliography

• Larsson, Torbjörn; Bäck, Henry (2008). Governing and Governance in Sweden. Lund: Studentlitteratur AB. ISBN 978-91-44-03682-3.
• Petersson, Olof (2010). Den offentliga makten (in Swedish). Stockholm: SNS Förlag. ISBN 978-91-86203-66-5.

External links

• The Riksdag – official site
• The history of the Riksdag

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