Riksdagshuset

Something anyone visiting Sweden should know is that to have a guided tour of riksdagshuset is free! (keyword: free!) They have tours in English and Swedish and you will get to see where riksdagen (the parliament) makes their decisions (and works out in a gym, and swimming pool, eats their lunches etc.), and hear about the buildings history and the other government buildings in view from the north window.

I joined in on a group doing the Swedish tour, and it went okay. I always understood the main idea of what the guide was saying, but there were a lot of missing words, but luckily since it was a tour you have a lot of visual things around you to add context(and they have nice brochures full of info(even lättläst!) you can pick up at the end). Luckily, we are going over the government in samhällskunskap (basically like Civics class) right now, and so I knew the words like regering, statschef, val, att rösta, ledamöter, uttskot, statsminister, and grundlagar. I got to add talman and kammare to the brain bank, found out what that urn in riksdagens kammare is for, that they still have stenographers and which office is the prime minister(top floor, to the left of the balcony, under the swedish flag!), got to see the finansutskottets meeting room (so pretty!), found out anyone can come and listen to when riksdagen has their meetings (someday when I actually understand Swedish, I am going to try that!), see some beautiful art they have about the building, find out in a simplified way how a proposal becomes a law, and that in the kammare they don’t sit organized in groups based on party (The guide said that there has never been a fight between members of different parties sitting next to each other – nice to hear that they are professional)

I am not a person who has ever been interested in politics, but it is somehow more interesting when you are learning about a government that is different that yours, and that you may get to take part in by voting in a few years. It is also made a bit more interesting due to the fact that there will be elections this autumn! I look forward to learning about all the parties and follow all the scandals (Sverigedemokraterna, I’m looking at you!). I was pretty politically unaware in Canada, and would like to turn that around with my fresh start here in Sweden.