Increased turnout among Swedes living abroad in this year's election

At the beginning of September, Sweden Democrats members of parliament Jessica Stegrud and Victoria Tiblom campaigned on the Spanish sun coast. Food, music and politics were promised to the Spanish Swedes, reported the newspaper Sydkusten. In addition, a bus transport to the consulate in Málaga to vote.

Swedes living abroad have increased in number and become an increasingly important voter group for the parties. The association Swedes in the world also works to get more people to exercise their right to vote. In the 2022 election, turnout was only 32 percent, according to the Swedish Tax Agency.

The government therefore gave the Swedish Electoral Authority the task of better informing Swedish voters abroad about the election this spring. The authority sent a special letter to roughly 80,000 Swedes abroad, who were about to drop out of the voter's register or who have dropped out in the last 15 years.

The investments seem to be paying off. In Spain, almost 6,400 Swedes have voted early, an increase of just over 60 percent compared to the 2022 election.

- The government has called for more generous opening hours. There has also been more information from the government, the Electoral Authority and Swedes in the world, says Natalia Lakso, third embassy secretary at the Swedish embassy in Madrid.

The Electoral Authority has sent most so-called foreign ballots to Great Britain. Here, too, voting has increased sharply, from 3,097 in the 2022 election to over 5,000 this year.

- There are around 100,000 Swedes living in Great Britain. We believe that many take the opportunity to vote early when they are at home in Sweden on vacation before returning here, says Anna Yazgan at the embassy in London.

She also says that many who visit the embassy take with them the kit for postal voting that the Swedish Electoral Authority has sent out.

- Many have come and picked up several kits for friends and family who cannot travel, says Anna Yazgan.

These postal votes do not go through the embassy, ​​but are sent directly to the Electoral Authority.

This year, Swedes could vote in eight places in Great Britain, where the polling stations in Liverpool and Manchester were new.

The Swedish Electoral Authority sends the second largest number of foreign ballots to Norway. Around 600 more voted here, for a total of just over 5,300 voters. Second embassy secretary Therese Lundmark says that votes have been received for one more consulate in this election and the opening hours have been adjusted to be as accessible as possible.

- One of the days it was a little more difficult to get to the embassy to vote because of the suspensions in connection with the funeral of King Harald, she says.

Svenska Dagbladet has been in contact with the embassies in Paris and Bern, which also report increased voting.

Swedes abroad are often assumed to vote more to the right than voters living in Sweden. But the latest research is from 2014. At that time, the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg wrote a report in which it emerged that the Social Democrats were greatly underrepresented and the Moderates greatly overrepresented among foreign voters.