The Swedish government averts political crisis with last-minute settlement | News
The deal stems from having won support from an independent politician who is determined that Stockholm does not grow in Turkish conditions to support Sweden’s attempt to join NATO.
The Swedish government has reached an agreement at the last minute to ensure that its Minister of Justice will survive a no-confidence vote in parliament, which averts a political crisis.
Tuesday’s deal stems from having won support from an independent politician who is determined that Stockholm will not delve into Turkish conditions to support Sweden’s attempt to join NATO.
The potential crisis comes just three months before the general election and less than a year after the overthrow of the Social Democratic government and then regained power within a few weeks.
The no-confidence vote, which is scheduled to be held in parliament at 12.00 (10:00 GMT), was launched by the right-wing extremist Sweden Democrats who accuse Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson of not being able to stop the growing gang violence.
Sweden has fought to reduce the shootings and bombings that have plagued the country in recent years, usually due to rivalry with gangs or organized criminals fighting for the drug market.
– We have reached a point where the single most important criminal policy measure is to give Morgan Johansson an early retirement pension, said the Sweden Democrats’ Member of Parliament Henrik Vinge in the Riksdag last week.
The Conservative Moderates, together with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats, had announced that they would support the motion.
These four parties control 174 seats in parliament, but they needed one more vote for the motion to pass.
If the Riksdag were to vote against Johansson, he would have lost his job.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson made it clear last week that she would resign if a no-confidence vote goes through against Johansson, and said that all government decisions are made collectively.
Declaration on Turkey
With one vote missing, the situation hung on parliamentarian Amineh Kakabaveh, a former left-wing party member who has been in parliament as independent since 2019.
Kakabaveh, who is of Iranian-Kurdish origin, has become a rallying point in Swedish politics over Turkey’s opposition to Stockholm’s attempts to join NATO.
Ankara accuses Stockholm of providing a refuge for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a “terrorist” group by Turkey and its Western allies, and has demanded the extradition of people it considers extremists and the lifting of an arms embargo.
Kakabaveh, who has no direct political connection to the PKK, had sought assurances that the ruling Social Democrats would not delve into Turkish demands and say that she would otherwise vote against Johansson.
Early on Tuesday, Kakabaveh told the Swedish media that she had received the insurance she wanted.
In November last year, she and the government reached an agreement in which she would give a decisive vote to bring the government to power in exchange for a deeper cooperation with the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the political branch of the main Syrian Kurdish militia, YPG.
Turkey also considers the YPG militia “terrorists”.
The Social Democratic government confirmed on Tuesday that the agreement was still in force, indicating that it was prepared to stand up to Erdogan’s demands.
“I’m happy,” Kakabaveh said.
Analysts had pointed out that even if Andersson resigned, she would probably have remained prime minister in an interim government with general elections scheduled for September.