Where do the parties get their money?

The support is calculated by a formula in the Act on State Support to Political Parties (1972:625), and the board makes no assessment of the parties. A party gets 324,704 kronor for each seat, counted over the last two elections, if it won at least 2.5 percent of the votes nationwide. On top of that comes office support: a basic grant of 5.8 million kronor to parties with at least four percent, and a supplement per seat of 16,350 kronor for governing parties and 24,300 kronor for the others, since the opposition does not have the Government Offices to help it.

That is why the money follows the election result. The Centre Party and the Left Party get exactly the same, because they won the same number of seats in the 2022 election, 24 each. Party support goes to the parties, not to the parliamentary groups, which have their own support for their work in parliament.

Municipalities and regions may give party support to parties represented in their councils, under the Local Government Act (chapter 4, sections 29 to 31). Each council decides how large the support is, and it must be divided by the number of seats the parties hold. Every year the parties must report that the money has gone to strengthening their position in local democracy, and the council can stop the support to a party that does not report.

There are no national statistics on how much is paid out. When Statistics Sweden last counted, it was 348 million kronor in the municipalities in 2006 and 231 million kronor in the county councils in 2007, more than the state paid. SVT has calculated that the parties receive about 1.2 billion kronor a year in public support from the state, regions and municipalities together. The amount per resident varies a lot: the City of Gothenburg paid out 33.3 million kronor in 2024, and Uppsala Municipality 8.2 million kronor in 2025.

Swedish parties depend more on public money than parties in most other Western European countries, according to a comparison by SVT. Membership fees and gifts are a smaller part of their income here.

Since 2018 the Act on Transparency in Party Financing (2018:90) applies. Parties that stand in elections to parliament, regional councils or the European Parliament must report their income to Kammarkollegiet every year by 1 July of the following year, as must their affiliated organisations and the members who themselves receive contributions for their political work. Kammarkollegiet publishes the reports, and anyone can search them and compare the parties.

The income is split into public support, membership fees, lotteries, own business activities and contributions. A contribution larger than half a price base amount, about 30,000 kronor, must be reported with the donor's name. If it comes from a company or an organisation, the name is published. If it comes from a private individual, Kammarkollegiet is told who it is, but the name is not published. This page names no individual donors.

Parliament has adopted stricter rules that take effect on 1 July 2027 (SFS 2026:1461) and apply to the reports for 2028 onwards:

Revolving doors means people moving between political posts and jobs at PR firms, interest organisations and companies that want to influence policy, and sometimes back again. It is legal and often natural, but it can give those who hire them contacts and knowledge of how decisions are made that others lack. This page describes the rules, not individual people.

Since 2018 there has been a law on restrictions for ministers and state secretaries after leaving office (2018:676). Anyone leaving such a post must, for twelve months, notify new jobs outside the state to the Revolving Door Board (Karensnämnden), which can impose a cooling off period of at most twelve months or bar the person from working on certain issues. The board must prefer a subject restriction to a cooling off period, and its decisions cannot be appealed. The number of notifications follows changes of government: 43 in 2023, the year after the election, and 2 in 2025.

The law covers only ministers and state secretaries. Political advisers in the Government Offices, members of parliament and local politicians have no cooling off rules, and there is no rule for those going the other way, from a job as a lobbyist into politics.

The index measures how corrupt the public sector is perceived to be, based on assessments by experts and business leaders collected by, among others, the World Bank and the Economist Intelligence Unit. It measures perceptions, not how many people are convicted of bribery. Sweden has lost nine points since 2015. In 2024 Denmark had 90 points, Finland 88, Norway 81, Sweden 80 and Iceland 77.

A lower score in the index does not mean that any particular party or agency is corrupt.

Today there is no register of who tries to influence parliament and the government, and Sweden has long been one of few Western European countries without one. GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti corruption body, and the OECD have recommended that Sweden introduce rules for contacts with lobbyists.

On 1 July 2027 the Act on Transparency in Communication Intended to Influence Political Decisions (2026:1459) takes effect. Companies, organisations and consultants that try to influence members of parliament, ministers, state secretaries, political advisers, party staff in parliament, employees of the Government Offices or members of government inquiries must register with Kammarkollegiet within 30 days. Three times a year they must report which issues they have pursued, whom they have contacted and for which clients, and once a year how many people work on it and what it costs. The register will be public on Kammarkollegiet's website. Parties, agencies and people speaking only for themselves are not covered, and the law does not apply to contacts with municipalities and regions.