Riksdag Sentence Examples

In September 1888 he was elected a member of the first chamber of the Riksdag, where he attached himself to the conservative protectionist party, over which, from the first, he exercised great authority.

He was one of the king's secret managers during the troublesome and dangerous riksdag of 1789, but advised caution and compared the estate of clergy, which at one time held the balance between the jarring orders, to ice which might be walked upon but could not be driven over.

He was appointed a member of an ecclesiastical commission for reforming the church in 1787, in which capacity he was virtually minister of public worship. In 1791-1792 he became a leading member of the financial and general committees of the riksdag.

But he reappeared prominently on the political scene during the riksdag of 1800, and in 1805 was consecrated bishop of Hernosand.

At the Riksdag assembled at Stockholm in 1697, the estates, jealous of the influence of the regents, offered full sovereignty to the young monarch, the senate acquiesced, and, after some hesitation, Charles at last declared that he could not resist the urgent appeal of his subjects and would take over the government of the realm "in God's name."

His political career began during the mutinous riksdag of 1786, when he came boldly forward as one of the royalist leaders.

But it was at the stormy riksdag of 1789 that Wallqvist put forth all his powers.

At this memorable riksdag Wallqvist exhibited, moreover, financial ability of the highest order, and, as president of the ecclesiastical commission, assisted to equilibrate the budget and find the funds necessary for resuming the war with Russia.

During the brief riksdag of 1792, as a member of the secret committee, Wallqvist was at the very centre of affairs and rendered the king essential services.

Wearied of their importunities, yet revolting at the idea of submission to any member of the opposite sex, Christina settled the difficulty by appointing Charles her successor, and at the Riksdag of 1650 the Swedish crown was declared hereditary in Charles and his heirs male.

Signs are also not wanting that Christina was growing weary of the cares of government; while the importunity of the senate and Riksdag on the question of her marriage was a constant source of irritation.

During his whole reign (1751-1771) Adolphus Frederick was little more than a state decoration, the real power being lodged in the hands of an omnipotent riksdag, distracted by fierce party strife.

The two great pressing national questions, war and the restitution of the alienated crown lands, were duly considered at the Riksdag which assembled at Stockholm in March 1655.

In 1871 the Danish parliament (Riksdag) passed a law defining the political position of Iceland in the Danish monarchy, which, though never recognized as valid by the Icelanders, became de facto the base of the political relations of Iceland and Denmark.

It is true that the Riksdag of 1840 meditated compelling him to abdicate, but the storm blew over and his jubilee was celebrated with great enthusiasm in 1843.

He hastened back to Stockholm, after burying his father, summoned a Riksdag, which met at Arboga on the 15th of April 1561, and adopted the royal propositions known as the Arboga articles, considerably curtailing the authority of the royal dukes, John and Charles, in their respective provinces.

In January 1567 Eric extorted a declaration from two of his senators that they would assist him to punish all who should try to prevent his projected marriage; and, in the middle of May, a Riksdag was summoned to Upsala to judge between the king and those of the aristocracy whom he regarded as his personal enemies.

Most of the legislation during Oscar I.'s reign aimed at improving the economic position of Sweden, and the riksdag, in its address to him in 1857, rightly declared that he had promoted the material prosperity of the kingdom more than any of his predecessors.

The city is governed by a council including two mayors, and returns nine members to the second chamber of the Riksdag (parliament).

The club was suppressed by the dominant "Caps," who also sought to ruin Sprengtporten financially by inciting his tenants in Finland to bring actions against him for alleged extortion, not in the ordinary courts but in the riksdag itself, where Sprengtporten's political adversaries would be his judges.

Three days later, by the compact of Linkoping, Sigismund agreed to submit all the points in dispute between himself and his uncle to a riksdag at Stockholm; but immediately afterwards took ship for Danzig, after secretly protesting to the two papal prothonotaries who accompanied him that the Linkoping agreement had been extorted from him, and was therefore invalid.

While the Swedish peasants were well represented in the Swedish Riksdag, whose proceedings they sometimes dominated, the Danish peasantry had no political rights or privileges whatever.

Necessity compelled him to work rather with the people than the gentry; hence it was that the Riksdag assumed under his government a power and an importance which it had never possessed before.

In 1595 the Riksdag of Soderkoping elected Charles regent, and his attempt to force Klas Flemming, governor of Finland, to submit to his authority, rather than to that of the king, provoked a civil war.

But Sigismund was both an alien and a heretic to the majority of the Swedish nation, and his formal deposition by the Riksdag in 1599 was, in effect, a natural vindication and legitimation of Charles's position.

This is managed by a board of seven delegates, the chairman being elected by the government, while the Riksdag (parliament) elects the remainder.

The cabinet councillors are appointed by the king and are responsible to the parliament (Riksdag) .

The king shares legislative powers with the Riksdag, (parliament or diet), possessing the rights of initiation and absolute veto.

The Riksdag consists of two chambers.

By revisers elected annually the Riksdag controls the finances of the kingdom, and by an official (justitieombudsman) elected in the same way the administration of justice is controlled; he can indict any functionary of the state who has abused his power.

The bank of the kingdom is superintended by trustees elected by the Riksdag, and in the same way the public debt is administered through an office (riksgaldskontoret), whose head is appointed by the Riksdag.

Forced by the unruliness of the magnates to lean upon the middle classes, the king summoned (1359) the first Swedish Riksdag, on which occasion representatives from the towns were invited to appear along with the nobles and clergy.

He was especially urgent for the confirmation of his nominee Johannes Magni as primate, in the place of the rebellious archbishop Gustavus Trolle, who as a convicted traitor had been formally deposed by the Riksdag and was actually an outlawed exile.

This act of violence, evidently designed to terrorize the Church into submission, was effectual enough, for at the subsequent Riksdag of Vesteras (June, 1527), the bishops durst not even present a protest which they had privately prepared, and the assembly Recess and itself was bullied into an absolute submission to the Ordinance royal will.

Finally, at the Riksdag of Vesteras, in 1544, though no definite confession of faith was formulated, a final breach was made with the traditions of the old religion.

At the time of his death the Riksdag was already a power in the state, and a Catholic reaction in Sweden was by no means an impossibility, if only the Catholics had been able to find capable leaders.

To a modern High Anglican these innovations seem innocent enough, and, despite the opposition of Duke Charles and the ultra-Protestants, they were adopted by the Riksdag of 1577.

But though the Jesuit Antonio Possevino was sent to Stockholm to complete John's " conversion," John would only consent to embrace Catholicism under certain conditions which were never kept, and the only result of all these subterraneous negotiations was to incense the Protestants still more against the new liturgy, the use of which by every congregation in the realm without exception was, nevertheless, decreed by the Riksdag of 1582.

On his arrival in Sweden, however, he tried to gain time by provisionally confirming what had been done; but the aggressiveness of the Protestant faction and the persistent usurpations of Duke Charles (the Riksdag of 1595 proclaimed him regent though the king had previously refused him that office) made a civil war inevitable.

Sigismund fled from Sweden, never to return, and on the 19th of March 1600 the Riksdag of Linkoping proclaimed the duke king Proclama- under the title of Charles IX.

At the Riksdag of the same year, the estates committed themselves irrevocably to Protestantism by excluding Proscription Catholics from the succession to the throne, and o prohibiting them from holding any office or dignity in Sweden.

This momentous change, which was to give a martial colouring to the whole policy of Sweden for the next hundred and twenty years, Regular dates from a decree of the Riksdag of Linkoping Army.

The Riksdag also changed its character at the same time.

The rights of the Riksdag were secured by the KonungafOrsakran, or assurance given by every Swedish king on his accession, guaranteeing the collaboration of the estates in the work of legislation, and they were also to be consulted on all questions of foreign policy.

From these tolls Gustavus derived, in 1629 alone, 500,000 rix-dollars, a sum equivalent to the whole of the extraordinary subsidies granted to him by the Riksdag.

The most pressing question of the day, the so-called Reduktion, or restitution of the alienated crown lands, was adjusted provisionally at the Riksdag of 1655.

He proposed that the whole matter should be thoroughly investigated by a special committee before the meeting of the next Riksdag, and that in the meantime a contribution should be levied on all classes proportionately.

The Riksdag which assembled in Stockholm in October 1680 begins a new era of Swedish history.

On the motion of the Estate of Peasants, which had a long memory for aristocratic abuses, the question of the recovery of the alienated crown lands was brought before the Riksdag, and, despite the stubborn opposition of the magnates, a resolution of the Diet directed that all countships, baronies, domains, manors and other estates producing an annual rent of more than 70 per annum should revert to the Crown.

The same Riksdag decided that the king was not bound by any particular constitution, but only by law and the statutes.

The Riksdag, completely overshadowed by the throne, was during the reign of Charles XI.

All power was vested in the people as represented by the Riksdag, consisting, as before, of four distinct estates, nobles, priests, burgesses and peasants, sitting and deliberating apart.

This famous body, which consisted of 50 nobles, 25 priests, 25 burgesses, and, very exceptionally, 25 peasants, possessed during the session of the Riksdag not only the supreme executive but also the surpeme judicial and legislative functions.

It prepared all bills for the Riksdag, created and deposed all ministries, controlled the foreign policy of the nation, and claimed and often exercised the right of superseding the ordinary courts of justice.

During the parliamentary recess, however, the executive remained in the hands of the rad, or senate, which was responsible to the Riksdag alone.

This Riksdag was to mark another turning-point in Swedish the direst pressure.

To face the Riksdag with such a war as this upon their consciences was a trial from which the Hats naturally shrank; but, to do them justice, they showed themselves better parliamentary than military strategists.

When the Riksdag met in 1760, the indignation against the Hat leaders was so violent that an impeachment seemed inevitable; but once more the superiority of their parliamentary tactics prevailed, and when, after a session of twenty months, the Riksdag was brought to a close by the mutual consent of both the exhausted factions, the Hat government was bolstered up for another four years.

This revelation led to an all-round retrenchment, carried into effect with a drastic thoroughness which has earned for this parliament the name of the " Reduktion Riksdag."

Still more energetic on the other side, the Russian minister, Ivan Osterman, became the treasurer as well as the counsellor of the Caps, and scattered the largesse of the Russian empress with a lavish hand; and so lost to all feeling of patriotism were the Caps that they openly threatened all who ventured to vote against them with the Muscovite vengeance, and fixed Norrkoping, instead of Stockholm, as the place of meeting for the Riksdag as being more accessible to the Russian fleet.

But it soon became evident that the Caps were playing a losing game; and, when the Riksdag met at Norrkoping on the 19th of April, they found themselves in a minority in all four estates.

In the contest for the marshalate of the Diet the leaders of the two parties were again pitted against each other, when the verdict of the last Riksdag was exactly reversed, Fersen defeating Rudbeck by 234, though Russia spent no less a sum than £11,50o to secure the election of the latter.

The On the 1st of June the Reaction Riksdag, as it was generally called, removed to the capital; and it was now that the French ambassador and the crown prince Gustavus called upon the new senators to redeem their promise as to a reform of the constitution which they had made before the elections.

The senate, not the Riksdag, was the chief loser by the change; and, inasmuch as henceforth the senators were appointed by the king, and were to be responsible to him alone, a senate in opposition to the Crown was barely conceivable.

But Gustavus's first Riksdag, that of 1778, opened the eyes of the deputies to the fact that their political supremacy had departed.

The Riksdag of 1778 had been obsequious; the Riksdag of 1786 was mutinous.

Nevertheless, within three years, the king was obliged to summon another Riksdag, which met at Stockholm on the 26th of January 1789.

At his very first Riksdag, held at Norrkoping in March 1800, the nobility were compelled, at last, to ratify Gustavus III.'s detested Act of Union and Security, which hitherto they had steadily refused to do.

Shortly after this Riksdag rose, a notable change took place in Sweden's foreign policy.

The Orebro Riksdag (April - August 1812), remarkable besides for its partial repudiation of Sweden's national debt and its reactionary press laws, introduced general conscription into Sweden, and thereby enabled the crown prince to carry out his ambitious policy.

The antiquated Riksdag, where the privileged estates predominated, while the cultivated middle class was practically unrepresented, had become an insuperable obstacle to all free development; but, though the Riksdag of 1840 itself raised the question, the king and the aristocracy refused to entertain it.

Shortly after his accession (March 4, 1844) he laid several projects of reform before the Riksdag; but the estates would do little more than abolish the obsolete marriage and inheritance laws and a few commercial monopolies.

Yet, when fresh proposals for parliamentary reform were laid before the Riksdag in 1849, they were again rejected by three out of the four estates.

The Riksdag voted 2,000,000 dalers for additional armaments.

The way had been prepared in 1860 by a sweeping measure of municipal reform; and, in January 1863, the government brought in a reform bill by the terms of which the Riksdag was henceforth to consist of two Constitu- chambers, the Upper House being a sort of aristo- Reform, cratic senate, while the members of the Lower 1866.

On the 1st of September 1866, the first elections under the new system were held; and on the 19th of January 1867, the new Riksdag met for the first time.

The Riksdag refused to sanction his favourite project of a reform of the Swedish army on the Prussian model, for which he laboured all his life, partly from motives of economy, partly from an apprehension of the king's martial tendencies.

In these circumstances, the " Landtmanna " party in the Riksdag, who desired the lightening of the military burden, joined those who desired the abolition of landlordism, and formed a compact and predominant majority in the Second Chamber, while the burgher and Liberal parties were reduced to an impotent " intelligence " minority.

It consisted mostly of the larger and smaller peasant proprietors, who at the time of the old " Standers Riksdag " were always opposed to the nobility and the clergy.

In the first Riksdag, however, the so-called " compromise," which afterwards played such an important part in Swedish political life, came into existence.

He persuaded his ministers to constitute a special inquiry into the proposed abolition of land taxes, and in the address with which he opened the Riksdag of 1875 laid particular stress upon the necessity of giving attention to the settlement of these two burning questions, and in 1880 again came forward with a new proposal for increasing the number of years of service with the militia.

The new premier succeeded in persuading the Riksdag to pass a bill increasing the period of service with the colours in the army to six years and that in the militia to forty-two days, and as a set-off a remission of 3 o% on the land taxes.

Influenced by the economic reaction which took place in 1879 in consequence of the state of affairs in Germany, where Prince Bismarck had introduced the protectionist system, a Protec- protectionist party had been formed, which tried to tionist gain adherents in the Riksdag.

During the Riksdag of the same year, however, the premier, Themptauder, emphatically declared himself against the protectionist party, and while the parties in the Second Chamber were equal in number, the proposed tax on corn was rejected in the First Chamber.

In the Riksdag of 1887 there was a majority for protection in the Second Chamber, and in the first the majority against the tax was so small that the tax on corn would have triumphed in a combined meeting of the two chambers.

The new Riksdag assembled in May with a free trade majority Charles XV., of the minister of justice, Baron Louis Gerhard de 1859-1872.

The victory of the free traders was not, however, destined to be of long duration, as the protectionists obtained a majority in both chambers in the next Riksdag (1888).

Instead, then, of twenty-two free traders representing the majority of the Stockholm electors, twenty-two protectionists, representing the minority, were elected, and Stockholm was thus represented in the Riksdag by the choice of a minority in the capital.

He desired that it should be applied to a fund for insurance and old age pensions for workmen and old people, to the lightening of the municipal taxes by state contributions to the schools and workhouses, to the abolition of the land taxes and of the obligation of keeping a horse and man for military service, and, lastly, to the improvement of the shipping trade; but the Riksdag decided to devote it to other objects, such as the payment of the deficit in the budget, the building of railways and augmentation of their material, as well as to improvements in the defences of the country.

This measure caused much dissatisfaction, and gave rise to a strong agrarian movement, in consequence of which the government, in the beginning of 1895, before the assembling of the Riksdag, made use of its right of raising the two duties on corn just referred to, 3s.

The Riksdag of 190o, in addition to grants for the fortifications at Boden, in the province of Norrbotten, on the Russian border, and other military objects, voted a considerable grant for an experimental mobilization, which fully exposed the defects and faults of the old system.

The Riksdag, however, did not accept the new plan in its full extent.

In order to prevent this, it was proposed to readjust the number of the members of the Riksdag.

The question N as only settled in 1894, when a bill was passed fixing the number of the members of the Riksdag in the First Chamber at 150, and in the Second at 230, of which 150 should represent the country districts and 80 the towns.

The question of protection being now considered settled, there was no longer any reason for the continued separation of the two " Landtmanna " parties, who at the beginning of the Riksdag of 1895 joined issue and became once more a compact majority in the Second Chamber, as they had been up to the Riksdag of May 1887.

He accordingly introduced in the Riksdag of 1896 a very moderate bill for the extension of the franchise, which was, nevertheless, rejected by both chambers, all similar proposals by private members meeting the same fate.

When at last the bill for the reorganization of the army, together with a considerably increased taxation, was accepted by the Riksdag of 1901, it was generally acknowledged that, in return for the increased taxation, it would only be just to extend the right of taking part in the political life and the legislative work of the country to those of the population who hitherto had been excluded from it.

The government eventually laid a proposal for the extension of the franchise before the Riksdag of 1902, the chief feature of which was that the elector should be twenty-five years of age, and that married men over forty years should be entitled to two votes.

The Riksdag, however, finally agreed to a proposal by Bishop Billing, a member of the First Chamber, that an address should be presented to the king asking for a full inquiry into the question of extending the franchise for the election of members to the Second Chamber.

Processions of many thousands of workmen were organized, in Stockholm and in other towns of the kingdom, just before the Riksdag began the discussion on the above-mentioned bill of the government, and when the bill was introduced in the chambers a general and wellorganized strike took place and continued during the three days the debate on the bill lasted.

At last, after vain negotiations and discussions, the Swedish government in 1895 gave notice to Norway that the commercial treaty which till then had existed between the two countries and would lapse in July 1897 would, according to a decision in the Riksdag, cease, and as Norway at the time had raised the customs duties, a considerable diminution in the exports of Sweden to Norway took place.

He succeeded all the better as the new elections to the Riksdag of 1900 showed clearly that the Swedish people was not inclined to follow the ultraconservative or so-called " patriotic " party, which resulted in the resignation of the two leaders of that party, Professor Oscar Alin and Count Marschal Patrick Reutersvard as members of the First Chamber.

This proposal was approved of by the Swedish Riksdag on the 3rd of May 1905.

The king solemnly pro- The First tested against what had taken place and summoned extra- an extraordinary session of the Riksdag for the 10th ordinary of June to consider what measures should be taken Riksdag, with regard to the question of the union, which had 1905' arisen suddenly through the revolt of the Norwegians on the 7th of June.

The Riksdag declared that it was not opposed to negotiations being entered upon regarding the conditions for the dissolution of the union if the Norwegian Storthing, after a new election, made a proposal for the repeal of the Act of Union between the two countries, or, if a proposal to this effect was made by Norway after the Norwegian people, through a plebiscite, had declared in favour of the dissolution of the union.

The Riksdag further resolved that loo million kroner (about £555,000) should be held in readiness and be available as the Riksdag might decide.

On the resignation of the Ramstedt ministry Mr Lundeberg formed a coalition ministry consisting of members of the various parties in the Riksdag, after which the Riksdag was prorogued on the 3rd of August.

From the 2nd to the 19th of October the extraordinary Riksdag was again assembled, and eventually approved of the The Second arrangement come to by the delegates at Karlstad with regard to the dissolution of the union as well ordinary as the government proposal for the repeal of the Act of Union and the recognition of Norway as an independent state.

The government bill having, however, been passed by the Second Chamber, the prime minister proposed to the king that the Riksdag should be dissolved and new elections for the Second Chamber take place in order to hear the opinion of the country, but as the king did not approve of this Mr Staaff and his government resigned.

A government bill was introduced, proposing the settlement of the question on the basis of the bill carried by the First Chamber in the Riksdag of the preceding year.

In the Riksdag of 1884 a new patent law was adopted, the age at which women should be held to attain their majority was fixed at twenty-one years and the barbarous prison punishment of " bread and water " abolished.

In order to meet the cost of the new army organization the Riksdag of 1902 increased the revenue by progressive taxation, but only for one year.

The Riksdag, however, delayed coming to a decision, and contented itself by earmarking money for an insurance fund.

At last the Riksdag of 1901 accepted a Bill for insurance against accidents which also extended to agricultural labourers, in connexion with the establishment of a state institution for insurance.

His father, Erik Johansson of Rydboholm, "a merry and jocose gentleman," but, like all the Swedish Vasas, liable to sudden fierce gusts of temper, was one of the senators who voted for the deposition of Archbishop Trolle, at the riksdag of 1517 (see Sweden, History), for which act of patriotism he lost his head.

The nobility and the majority of the Riksdag supported John, however, in his endeavours to unify the realm, and Charles had consequently (1587) to resign his pretensions to autonomy within his duchy; but, fanatical Calvinist as he was, on the religious question he was immovable.

The Riksdag ordinance of 1617 first converted a turbulent and haphazard mob of " riksdagmen," huddling together like a flock of sheep " or drunken boors," into a dignified national assembly, meeting and deliberating according to rule and order.

The Riksdag of 1682 proposed a fresh Reduktion, and declared that the whole question of how far the king was empowered by the law of the land to bestow fiefs, or, in case of urgent national distress, take them back again, was exclusively his majesty's affair.

The king, at the suggestion of the crown prince (see GUSTAVUS III.), thereupon urged the senate to summon an extraordinary Riksdag as the speediest method of relieving the national distress, and, on their refusing to comply with his wishes, abdicated.