The Swedish government survives the vote of confidence in the midst of NATO’s tensions with Turkey
The Swedish government has barely survived a vote of confidence in the Riksdag in the midst of increasing crime in the country.
The vote of confidence in Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson took place like that the country aims to join NATO’s military alliancedespite strong opposition from Turkey.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson had said that she would resign if her Social Democratic minority government lost the vote of confidence.
The decisive feature that avoided a major political crisis came from Amineh Kakabaveh, an independent and pro-Kurdish Iranian-born legislator.
Kakabaveh – a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – abstained from voting to cast only 174 votes against Johansson.
In Tuesday’s vote in Sweden’s Riksdag with 349 seats, the right-wing opposition needed a majority of 175 to overthrow the government and therefore only one vote fell. There were 97 votes for the Swedish Minister of Justice, as well as 70 abstentions and eight absent.
Turkey – which as a NATO member has a blocking voice – has opposed the bids from Sweden and neighboring Finland in the middle of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
President Erdogan has accused the two Nordic countries of supporting militant Kurdish groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a group listed as a terrorist by the EU and the United States.
In May, Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden claimed that the PKK has links to certain Swedish legislators, who are alleged to have taken a stand against Ankara.
In recent years, Sweden has been hit by an increase in organized crime with several gang-related shootings in the major cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
Last week, the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats had demanded the no-confidence vote and claimed that Johansson had allowed “Sweden to become a gangster country”.
But Kakabaveh said the justice minister deserved to remain in office and had succeeded in fighting violence against women and so-called honor killings.
“I know that Morgan Johansson is a politician who cares about the rule of law, I do not trust the opposition,” she said before Tuesday’s vote.
The independent MP had initially threatened to vote against the Minister of Justice over Sweden’s negotiations with Turkey on NATO membership.
In November, Kakabaveh’s vote had enabled Andersson to become Sweden’s first female prime minister.
Sweden will hold its next parliamentary election on 11 September.