Swedish government survives no-confidence vote as former Kurdish fighter abstains
The Swedish government was able to survive a no-confidence vote just months before the country holds its elections and it all came down to the vote of a former Kurdish fighter. Amineh Kakabaveh, who is an independent member of the Swedish parliament, was a former Kurdish peshmerga fighter and she decided to abstain from voting. As a result, the non-confidence motion ended up getting 174 votes – one less than the number needed for it to pass. However, Kakabaveh’s demands can cause more problems down the line and threaten Sweden’s chances of joining NATO.
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The no-confidence motion was brought against Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and her government because of their inability to stop the rising gang violence in the country. The opposition also blamed the Social Democrat government of incompetence when it comes to immigration.
Kakabaveh, however, did not vote against the government during the no-confidence motion on Tuesday and earlier, she told Reuters she would help the government if it affirmed that "we support the Kurds and people from those organisations coming to Sweden are not terrorists".
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This may have saved the government from losing the motion, but it can become a key point for Türkiye who has been quite critical of Sweden’s attempts of joining the NATO. Türkiye has maintained that Sweden has links to Kurdish groups – who are considered terrorists by them – and the latest incident can bolster their claims in blocking Sweden and Finland from joining the alliance.
However, the Swedish government has maintained that they have no associations with any terrorist group and their only cooperation is with Syrian Democratic Union Party – a Kurdish group.
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