The Swedish government today avoided a major political crisis following the abstention of an independent Kurdish lawmaker, who opposes concessions to Turkey to remove Sweden’s membership in NATO, in a vote on a motion of censure had been filed against Justice Minister Morgan Johansson.
The motion of censure against the Minister of Interior and Justice was in danger of leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson, something that was avoided thanks to the abstention of the Iranian MP of Kurdish origin.
Independent lawmaker Amineh Kakabaveh, an Iranian Kurd and former Kurdish rebel fighter Pesmerga, who has been a member of the Swedish parliament since 2008, announced this morning that she would abstain from voting in the pro-government .
“I’m satisfied,” he said this morning, just before the vote.
Without its vote, the motion of censure secured the support of only 174 MEPs, despite one vote out of the required 175.
Kakabaveh had threatened to vote against the minister if she did not secure assurances about the complicated negotiations between Sweden and Turkey on NATO.
“Should we restrict our freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate in accordance with Erdogan’s demands?” She told the Swedish parliament.
“In the newspapers, they said that I represent the Kurdish interests despite the Swedish interests, but it is the Swedish national sovereignty that interests me,” said the MP, who comes from the radical left.
The vote comes at a sensitive time in negotiations with Turkey, which has torpedoed Sweden and Finland’s hopes of speedy NATO membership and boosting their security in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey accuses the two Nordic countries of offering shelter to individuals linked to organizations it considers terrorist.
Kakabaveh had backed Anderson in November, when the country’s first female prime minister was temporarily forced to step down after just one day as prime minister.
Anderson then promised that Sweden would strengthen its co-operation with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Ankara considers part of the PKK. Sweden was the first after Turkey to classify the PKK as a terrorist organization since 1984.
Sweden disagrees that the PYD or several other Kurdish organizations belong to the PKK.
Anderson’s Social Democrats at the time called it “unacceptable” for the party’s supporters to be considered terrorists.
“The agreement, which has been in force since November last year, remains in force,” Tobias Bodin told the TT news agency today.
The Social Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sweden is set to hold parliamentary elections in September.
SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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