{"id":5049,"date":"2016-06-14T19:48:46","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T17:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/?p=5049"},"modified":"2020-06-03T14:34:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T13:34:29","slug":"feel-mixed-about-swedish-royal-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/feel-mixed-about-swedish-royal-family\/","title":{"rendered":"What Swedes Think About Their Royal Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"King<\/a><\/p>\n

Sweden has been a constitutional\u00a0parliamentarian\u00a0monarchy<\/em> <\/a>since, well, a very long time. Which means there is a constitution, a parliament, elected by the Swedes, and a king – or, at some\u00a0point\u00a0in the future, a queen.<\/p>\n

King of Sweden<\/h3>\n

At the moment the official head of state is King Carl XVI Gustaf<\/a> (‘Carl Gustaf the sixteenth’, or in Swedish ‘Carl den sextonde Gustaf’<\/em>). He has no political power. However, every four years he\u00a0inaugurates\u00a0the newly elected parliament. A parliament that he has no power to have any influence on. Even less power than the normal Swede, since he is neither allowed to express his political opinion publicly nor given the right to vote. At least he gets some compensation by having yearly – on the 10th of December – the opportunity to join a glamorous dinner and hang out with some of the world’s smartest people and give them a nice prize, called the Nobel prize<\/a> – you might have heard of it before.<\/p>\n

Be Swedish – discuss the royal family<\/h2>\n

Sweden is a country full of equality-minded\u00a0people. Everyone gets a fair share of the fruits which Swedish society has accomplished. Most of what’s received will be paid back in the form of high taxes, but that’s something I go into depth with\u00a0in a later post.
\nYou, being\u00a0a new-Swede, you should start liking the royal family while being sceptic about anything that enables\u00a0someone to inherit wealth, power and privileges in any way. In conversations be able to state\u00a0in one sentence how outdated monarchy is<\/em>, and in the next that\u00a0you\u00a0think crown princess Victoria will make an excellent queen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Dela ut pris och klippa band<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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When talking about\u00a0to the main\u00a0duties of the Swedish royal family, you or one of your Swedish conversation partners will say a sentence that contains the following words: ‘dela ut pris och klippa band<\/em>‘, basically meaning ‘awarding prices\u00a0and joining\u00a0ribbon cutting ceremonies<\/em>‘. If your Swedish buddy didn’t say it after three minutes, it’s\u00a0up to you to.<\/p>\n

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Quick lesson in Swedish royal history<\/h3>\n
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Back in the early 19th century, Sweden ran out of kings. Which is why powerful Swedes decided to\u00a0do a king-casting. Because\u00a0back\u00a0then, cultural imports from France were very much\u00a0en vogue, they headhunted a former officer of Napoleon’s crew, a guy called Jean Bernadotte. This explains why\u00a0until today\u00a0the Swedish royal family doesn’t carry a more typical Swedish last name, like\u00a0Johansson\u00a0or L\u00f6vgrenqvist or something like that. Bernadotte sounds more fancy than Bergstr\u00f6m, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

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Members of the Swedish royal family<\/h3>\n
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