Crisis before elections in September: Sweden's Prime Minister threatens to resign

The world is reporting on Sweden and the country's historic step into NATO, but in Sweden the headlines are not about the defense alliance or the Turkish blockade - but about a looming government crisis.

The situation escalated rapidly: from criticism of the interior minister to a motion of no confidence against him to the threat of the social democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson to resign if her minister were overthrown.

It's about the fight against gang crime and the upcoming election campaign.

Every single vote in parliament now counts – and so even joining NATO plays a role again, albeit only indirectly.

Matthias Wysuwa

Political correspondent for northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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It began with a report from the Constitutional Committee.

He is supposed to control the government and the committee had a lot to criticize on Thursday: from the government's crisis management in the corona pandemic to individual statements by Morgan Johansson, the Minister of Justice and the Interior, on other topics.

And because the focus was already on the minister and his duties, the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats apparently thought it was a good time to table a motion of no confidence in him.

Johansson has been criticizing the right-wing populists for a long time.

It's about fighting gang crime in the country.

Johansson allowed "crime to spread in our country and Sweden to become a country of gangsters," the Sweden Democrats said in justification of the motion of no confidence.

Gang crime is a key issue

In recent weeks, shootings have again caused a stir in Sweden.

Now that the NATO question has actually been settled in the country, the fight against gang crime should be one of the most important issues in the election campaign: a new Reichstag will be elected in September.

There is a consensus among the parties that more needs to be done – the governing Social Democrats also want more police and tougher penalties.

Even there, people have long been talking about the fact that not everything has obviously gone well with integration over the past few decades.

But the bourgeois opposition is demanding even more commitment and refers to the dramatic numbers, since 2017 alone there have been more than 1,800 shootings with almost 250 dead.

The Sweden Democrats should be hoping to gain a foothold with the issue anyway: in a recent survey, the Social Democrats were able to make strong gains - the bourgeois moderates and the Sweden Democrats are far behind in second and third place.

The country looks to the non-attached

So it could have stayed with a small warm-up exercise by the right-wing populists for the election campaign.

But when the moderates decided, together with other bourgeois parties, to support the motion of no confidence, Andersson had had enough: the prime minister scolded Sweden for not being in a position to play political games.

You are faced with a choice "and in our neighborhood there is a war".

It is irresponsible to create a situation of political chaos and insecurity.

Anyone who thinks that the problems with the gangs can be traced back to a single minister does not understand the problem.

And then she announced that she would resign if the motion of no confidence against Johansson was successful.

That's when the chaos really broke out - and suddenly the keyword NATO came into play.

The vote planned for Tuesday will be very close.

The Center Party announced on Friday that it would not vote for it.

Nevertheless, the other opposition parties are not missing much to get the necessary 175 votes together.

So the non-attached MEPs are now being looked at very closely.

One, a former Sweden Democrat, has already said he wants to vote in favor of the motion of no confidence - because he is banking on a government crisis making Sweden's NATO entry more difficult.

Because he thinks nothing of joining.

And then there is a second non-attached MP that the country is now looking at: Amineh Kakabaveh.

She comes from the left of the political spectrum, has Kurdish roots, and so the link to NATO membership has been drawn again.

Because when Turkey blocked the accession process, Ankara's criticism was obviously also directed at them - the Turkish ambassador in Stockholm had already been quoted with extradition requests.

But now it could depend on her voice.

Kakabaveh initially did not say on Friday whether she would vote against the minister.

However, she has let it be known that she is in talks and also wants to talk to the Social Democrats about arms exports to Turkey and the classification of certain Kurds as terrorists.

Apparently she wants to make sure that the government doesn't make too many concessions to Ankara.

Andersson did not want to say on Friday who she is currently negotiating with.

But she again criticized the opposition, citing the war in Ukraine and the country's NATO application, which is in a "very delicate situation".

There's no need for bickering now.