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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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SWEDEN DEMOCRATS

REVEALED: Sweden Democrats’ secret social media ‘troll factory’

A Swedish reporter went undercover for a whole year to confirm the existence of a far-right troll factory, run by the Sweden Democrats to spread content of benefit to the party and degrade its political opponents.

Published: 7 May 2024 15:34 CEST
REVEALED: Sweden Democrats' secret social media 'troll factory'

In the Kalla Fakta programme for broadcaster TV4, a reporter spent five months working undercover for the Sweden Democrats, first on the YouTube channel Riks, previously owned by the party, and later for the party’s communications team.

“I was undercover for a whole year, five months of which I was working [for the party],” Kalla Fakta’s reporter Daniel Andersson told The Local. “Two of them I was on Riks, the YouTube channel, and three of them I was in the communications department.”

During this period, Andersson wore a hidden camera to show how the YouTube channel, which the party claims is independent, is in fact closely linked with the party.

Andersson said he found out about the troll factory just before moving over to the communications department.

“They are in the same office building, Riks rents their office from the Sweden Democrats, so during lunch the departments often met, ate lunch together and talked a lot about it. That’s where I overheard secretive talks about anonymous accounts on social media, and they didn’t want to say what their name was or why they had them.”

The Sweden Democrats are also Riks’ largest source of financing, with daily meetings taking place between the channel’s owner, Jacob Hagnell, and Sweden Democrat head of communications Joakim Wallerstein.

Kalla Fakta’s report revealed that the party’s communications wing has been tasked with managing a large number of anonymous social media accounts, referred to within the party as a “troll factory”, an organised group of fake accounts with the aim of influencing public opinion and debate by spreading pro-Sweden Democrat content.

“We’re going to talk a lot more about how they operate in the next episode, in a week,” Andersson said. “But what we saw very early was that it was very, very systematic, it’s organised. And the purpose is to create a huge load of posts on different social media to create an illusion of the fact that the Sweden Democrats and their image of the world and of Sweden is larger than it is.”

“The boss is Joakim Wallerstein, the communications chief of the Sweden Democrats. He’s also the mastermind behind this – we also identified Riks as a part of it, where he is creating a conservative ecosystem, troll factory, to manipulate people’s views of the world,” he added.

Back in 2022, the Sweden Democrats were accused of running a “troll factory” by left-wing newspaper Dagens ETC. At the time, the party rejected the accusations, calling ETC’s article “unserious and obvious activism” in an email to SVT, while admitting that a group called Battlefield, responsible for moderating the party’s comments boxes on social media, did exist at one point.

In the new Kalla Fakta programme and in another interview with Dagens ETC, Wallerstein admits that these anonymous accounts exist, although he rejects the term “troll factory”.

“I don’t think I’ve been running so called troll sites, for the simple reason that I haven’t been spreading false information,” he told Kalla Fakta.

Andersson believes this is nothing more than damage control from the party.

“He doesn’t want to acknowledge that it is a troll factory. He doesn’t see a problem with the fact that they are anonymous, or the fact that the connection to the party is hidden,” Andersson said.

By Paul O’Mahony and Becky Waterton

Hear TV4’s reporter Daniel Andersson explain more about the investigation in the next episode of The Local’s podcast, Sweden in Focus. Out on Friday, May 10th. 

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