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Swedish word of the day: statsminister

A word of the day to mark the Swedish parliament's prime ministerial vote – let's have a closer look at what it means.

Published: 24 November 2021 09:12 CET
Updated: 29 November 2021 09:09 CET
Swedish word of the day: statsminister
Sweden has had 33 prime ministers (so far). Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

The word statsminister – literally “state” and “minister” – is the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian word for a prime minister.

It is primarily used for Nordic prime ministers, with prime ministers of other countries, such as the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson and Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison, being referred to as premiärminister (plural: premiärministrar).

Sweden has had 33 different statsministrar (with the first being Louis de Geer from 1876-1880), and the most recent being Social Democrat Stefan Löfven, who became Sweden’s prime minister in 2014. 

Sweden has had universal suffrage since 1921, meaning men and women are both able to vote (although the minimum voting age at this time was 23 years of age).

Since then, the Social Democrats have been in power for the vast majority of time.

Two of Sweden’s prime ministers have died in office. The first was Social Democrat Per Albin Hansson, prime minister between 1932 and 1946 (minus June to September 1936, when the now-Centre Party were briefly in power).

The second was Social Democrat Olof Palme, who was Sweden’s prime minister between 1969 and 1976, and then again between 1982 and his assassination in 1986.

The Swedish prime minister’s official residence has been Sagerska huset, referred to as Sager House in English, since 1995.

Sagerska huset is located on Strömgatan in central Stockholm. Prior to this, prime ministers did not have an official residence – those holding the position kept their private residences while in power. 

The establishment of an official residence for prime ministers came about after a cross-party agreement on increased security for prime ministers after Palme’s assassination.

Sweden’s prime minister has been officially appointed by the speaker of parliament since 1976. Before this date, the monarch had this responsibility.

Similarly, until 1976, Sweden’s prime minister held the title of Hans Excellens Statsminister or His Excellency Prime Minister, whereas now he is referred to as Herr Statsminister, Mr Prime Minister, or Fru Statsminister for a female prime minister.

Examples:

Kommer Sverige få sin första kvinnliga statsminister i dag?

Will Sweden get their first female prime minister today?

Vem är din favoritstatsminister? Jag gillar Olof Palme.

Who is your favourite prime minister? I like Olof Palme.

Villa, Volvo, Vovve: The Local’s Word Guide to Swedish Life, written by The Local’s journalists, is now 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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WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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