Greens and Left winners of Sweden’s EU election

The Green Party overtook the far-right Sweden Democrats as Sweden’s third biggest party in the EU parliament, when it won 13.8 percent of the vote as the big surprise of the election on Sunday – less than the exit polls predicted, but still an improvement on the previous election.

The preliminary results have the Social Democrats as the biggest party with 25.1 percent of the vote, a slight improvement on the previous EU election five years ago which would make this the first time the centre-left party improves its standing in an EU election. It’s followed by the Moderates – who run Sweden’s conservative government – at 17.4 percent, which is also an improvement on the 2019 EU election.

The Sweden Democrats appear to be the losers of the election, taking a tumble for the first time in a national election since the party entered the Swedish parliament in 2010. The preliminary results have them at 13.2 percent with 100 of 6,275 districts left to be counted.

The Left Party can enjoy the biggest improvement on the 2019 election, with 10.9 percent of the vote. The remaining parties – the Centre Party, Christian Democrats, and Liberals – which were at risk of dropping out of the EU parliament, all cleared the four percent threshold.

Swedish vocabulary: to improve – att förbättra

Swedish voter turnout falls in EU election

Turnout for the Swedish EU election fell compared to last year, the first time it’s gone down since the country joined the EU. 

According to preliminary statistics (with just over 500 districts left to be counted), only 50.7 percent of eligible voters cast their vote in the election, down from 55.3 percent in 2019. It’s in line with the rest of the EU, where preliminary data estimate a turnout of 51 percent.

In 2004, only 37.9 percent of eligible voters in Sweden went to the polls.

It’s a sharp difference compared to the Swedish national election, which generally enjoys high turnout. In the Swedish parliamentary election of 2022, 84.2 percent voted.

Swedish vocabulary: to vote – att rösta

MP sang racist chants at Sweden Democrat election night party

A Sweden Democrat member of the Swedish parliament was caught on tape singing racist chants on election night.

While interviewing another member of the Sweden Democrats at their EU election night party, an Expressen reporter recorded MP David Lång singing along to L’amour toujours, a techno hit which has been co-opted by far-right groups in Germany in recent years who have replaced the lyrics with “Ausländer raus, Deutschland den Deutschen” (“foreigners out, Germany for Germans”). 

“Ausländer raus,” sang Lång before saying “oh shit, are you recording this?” upon which he tried to grab the recording equipment from the Expressen reporter. He is then said to have left the party 20 minutes later and refused to answer any questions about the incident.

Sweden Democrat group leader Linda Lindberg told Expressen in a written statement: “My interpretation is that there were no ulterior motives behind David’s actions, but it’s blatantly obvious that he was heavily over-refreshed and generally buffoonish. As group leader I will speak to him tomorrow about this and stress that we expect better behaviour in the future.”

Swedish vocabulary: over-refreshed – överförfriskad

Swedish housing associations close to buckling under debts

More and more Swedish bostadsrättsföreningar – a type of housing association and the most common form of apartment ownership in the Nordic country – are struggling to make ends meet, despite raised fees and postponed renovations during the financial crisis.

At the end of the year, 370 housing associations had debts registered with Sweden’s Enforcement Authority, reports Swedish newswire TT. That’s up from 93 associations at the end of 2013 – or in other words, an increase of almost 300 percent in ten years.

Before buying an apartment, it’s always worth checking the state of the housing association’s finances, and this need not be as hard as it sounds. There are a few things to look out for, such as its debts, upcoming renovations or whether it owns or rents the land.

Swedish vocabulary: debts – skulder