Across Europe, people will go to the polls in early June to select their representatives in the European Parliament, with 21 seats up for grabs in Sweden. 

European elections usually see a much lower turnout than national elections: in 2019 only 55 percent of those eligible voted, compared to 84 percent in the 2022 national election. 

But the elections can still be important in Swedish domestic politics, allowing voters to show their dissatisfaction with the sitting government, bringing momentum to parties and party leaders who do well, and allowing new parties, like in the past the Pirate Party or the Feminist Initiative, to achieve real political power.  

When to vote

Who can vote? 

Swedish citizens who are over the age of 18 on election day – including dual nationals – can vote in European elections, even if they don’t live in Sweden. They must, however, have been registered as living in Sweden at some time in the past. 

Non-Swedish citizens who are living in Sweden can only vote if they have citizenship of an EU country. So for example Irish, French or German citizens living in Sweden can vote in European elections but Americans, Indians, Australians and so on cannot.

This is different from local and regional elections in Sweden, for which being a resident for three years in the municipality or region is enough to be eligible.

Brits in Sweden used to be able to vote before Brexit, but now cannot. 

If you are an EU citizen registered as living in Sweden, you should probably have already received a letter from the Swedish Election Authority (Valmyndigheten), asking to you apply to be included or excluded from the Swedish election register for the EU election.

The letter should include a form which you need to send in to the regional government where you live. Under EU rules, you are only vote in one country’s EU election.

How does the election work?

The system for European elections differs from most countries’ domestic polls.

MEPs are elected once every five years. Each country is given an allocation of MEPs roughly based on population size.

At present there are 705 MEPs. Germany – the country in the bloc with the largest population – has the most while the smallest number belong to Malta with just six.

Sweden elects its MEPs through direct proportional representation via the “list” system, so that parties gain the number of MEPs equivalent to their share of the overall vote. MEPs do not represent a particular region. 

So for example if the Social Democrats win 35 percent of the overall vote they will get 7 of the total of 21 MEPs. Exactly who gets to be an MEP is decided in advance by the parties who publish their candidate lists in priority order.

So let’s say that the Social Democrats do get 35 percent of the vote – then the people named from 1 to 7 on their list get to be MEPs, and the people lower down on the list do not.

In the run-up to the election, the parties decide on who will be toppkandidater (candidates heading the list) and these people will almost certainly be elected.

Once in parliament, parties usually seek to maximise their influence by joining one of the “blocks” made up of parties from neighbouring countries that broadly share their interests and values eg centre-left, far-right, green.

The parliament alternates between Strasbourg and Brussels.