Swedish Leader May Be Sunk by Kurd Lawmaker Who Irks Turkey



Niclas Rolander
Fri, June 3, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Sweden’s prime minister may next week have to put her fate in the hands of a Kurdish-born lawmaker who has drawn the ire of Turkey, just as the Nordic country is seeking to overcome the veto of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to its bid for membership of the NATO defense bloc.

Magdalena Andersson said on Thursday she will resign if her Justice Minister Morgan Johansson loses a confidence vote brought by the opposition in parliament, due on June 7. The motion needs one extra vote to pass, putting the spotlight on Amineh Kakabaveh, a non-affiliated member of legislature with Kurdish background.

While Andersson’s Social Democrats are gaining in polls just three months before the next elections, the situation is complicated by Sweden’s joint application with Finland for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The bid, reversing two centuries of Sweden’s military non-alignment, is currently being stalled by Turkey, which has demanded that the country do more to clamp down on Kurdish groups that Erdogan views as terrorists. In exchange for her support, Kakabaveh has previously agreed with Andersson’s party to expand cooperation with one of those groups, Syrian PYD.

“As long as our agreement holds, I will not support a motion of no confidence,” Kakabaveh said in an interview. “I’m awaiting an answer” from the government, she said.

Johansson has faced harsh criticism from the opposition, which blames him for not doing enough to curb a wave of crime and deadly shootings that have engulfed Swedish suburbs, where conflicts between rivaling gangs have intensified.

The number of gun homicides in Sweden almost trebled from 2012 to 2021, and in the first five months of the year, 31 people were shot to death in the country of 10 million. That development sets Sweden apart from the rest of Europe, where deadly shootings have decreased in the last decade.

At a news conference in parliament, Andersson slammed the opposition initiative, saying it was dangerous political brinksmanship.

“We now have three months to go before the election,” Andersson said. “We are in a very delicate situation for our and Finland’s application to NATO, and creating political turmoil and uncertainty is completely irresponsible.”

On Friday, the Center Party said it would not support the vote of no-confidence against Minister Johansson. “The government needs to do much more to increase security for Swedes, but it is not achieved through a political game that doesn’t solve any problems, 100 days before the election,” party leader Annie Loof said on Facebook.