Political Opposition in Swedish EU Politics: A Study on Riksdag Chamber Debates 2010/2011-2020/2021

Sammanfattning: In a democratic system, various party political views are set against each other, i.e. there are opposing positions, for voters to choose between, because in a democratic system the power proceeds from the people. However, national parliaments within the EU are criticised for their democratic deficit, which can be caused by the lack of opposition, a so called opposition deficit. The problem is consequently that voters do not have the possibility of using their power by choosing from differentiated alternatives. In this paper the visibility and normalisation of the EU and opposition in EU politics have been studied in the Swedish Riksdag’s Chamber between the parliamentary sessions 2010/2011-2020/2021. The results of the study shows, that the EU was mentioned in 39% and opposing party political views in EU politics in 3,3% of all interpellation debates within the set time frame, and that a normalisation of EU affairs has not occurred within the years studied. The conclusion is that the Riksdag suffers from an opposition deficit in EU affairs. The proposal for continued research is hence to structure an explanatory research design, aiming to answer the question why the Riksdag and other national parliaments within the EU suffer from an opposition deficit.