Political situation

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, which means that Sweden has a king called King Carl XVI Gustav. Even though is title is “head of state”, he has no real power. His influence is limited to official and ceremonial functions. He has a representative role, which means that he represents Sweden when he travels around the world and during important ceremonies in Sweden. There is also a queen called Queen Silvia, a Crown Princess called Victoria, a Prince called Daniel, another Prince called Carl Philip, and another Princess called Madeleine. Although, due to the recent marriage of the Princess Victoria and the high costs linked to the marriage, a lot of swedes are starting to question the necessity of keeping the royal family. A lot of people are arguing that we now live in a new era and that the royal family is just not needed anymore and costs too much money for the taxpayers. However, not many politicians have supported this point of view because of the high risk of loosing a lot of votes.

The nation's legislative body is the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament), with 349 members, which chooses the Prime Minister. The current Prime Minister, elected for the second time in a row is called Fredrik Reinfeldt.

He detains the most of the power in the country and represents Sweden politically. He represents the political party called “Moderaterna” which is a party that tends to have a rather “right-side” political party’s opinions even though Sweden is a generally considered as a Socialist country due to the high level of equality. Parliamentary elections are held every four years, on the third Sunday of September.

Politically, Sweden likes to see itself as a neutral country even though in practice it is not. During the Second World War and the Cold War, Sweden did not publicly join either of the sides. However, they spied on the Soviet Union for the USA during the cold war and let the Germans transport merchandise through the country to avoid conflict.

Generally speaking, Sweden is in a very good shape politically and economically. It is one of the most democratic countries in the world and is the country with the highest level of equality.