Share this
Sweden’s social democratic government will lose support if it breaks an agreement regarding the treatment of Kurds in Sweden.
Independent deputy Amineh Kakabaveh says she will not support the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in future votes if they do not live up to the agreement reached last autumn, according to state broadcaster SVT Nyheter.
The agreement was originally drawn up in response to dissatisfaction with how members and sympathisers of the People’s Defence Unit (YPG) are treated in Sweden.
Kakabaveh thinks Sweden’s Kurdish community should be treated better and that the government should not give into demands put forth by Turkey as a condition to support Stockholm’s bid to join NATO in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The SDP did not keep its promises,” the deputy said. “If (SDP) does not fulfil the entire agreement, I will not give support in decisive votes.”
Kakabaveh, a former member of the Left Party, will not support the SDP in the spring budget vote, she told the Ekot.
According to SDP’s Kenneth G. Forslund, the Riksdag’s Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, the agreement with Kakabaveh has been fulfilled.
There had been special meetings with the united opposition in Syria to negotiate common solutions for the future, he said.
Forslund said the issue would be resolved.
Kakabaveh’s support is crucial for the SDP, as her vote of confidence pushed Magdalena Andersson’s government over the threshold of 175 in November 2021. The SDP-Green Party government received 174 votes against, one vote away from the maximum number of no’s before a no confidence resolution passed.
On Wednesday, Turkey vetoed Sweden and Finland’s initial accession negotiations for NATO membership during an ambassadors’ meeting in Brussels.
In order to approve Helsinki and Stockholm joining the defence alliance, Ankara demands to be let back into the F-35 fighter jet programme, to be able to purchase F-16s from Washington to modernise its aging fleet, and that sanctions imposed on it for purchasing S-400 missile systems from Russia be lifted. Specific to the two Nordic countries, Turkey also wants further crackdown on Kurdish groups that it considers to be terrorist, and the extradition of several dozen wanted persons.
