Parliament of Sweden approves by a large majority the entry into NATO

He The Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) approved this Wednesday by 269 votes in favor and 37 against the entry of this Nordic country into NATOa historic decision that puts an end to two centuries of military non-alignment.

The expected decision had the support of six of the eight groups with parliamentary representation and only the Environment Party and the Socialist Left Party voted against.

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He Sweden’s NATO membership, along with Finland’s, is motivated by the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and it was approved at the June 2022 Alliance summit in Madrid, after Turkey lifted its veto at the last minute in exchange for certain conditions, embodied in an agreement.

Twenty-eight of the thirty member countries have subsequently ratified that agreement, with Turkey and Hungary failing to do so.

But while Ankara and Budapest have recently given the green light to Finland’s entry, in the absence of a vote in their respective chambers, they have not done the same with Sweden, especially Turkey, which maintains the veto on Stockholm.

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He Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoganassured last Friday that negotiations with Sweden would continue and reproached it for not extraditing people that Ankara considers linked to terrorist organizations, especially from the Kurdish sphere.

Talks between the three countries had been interrupted more than a month earlier by Ankara after a pro-Kurdish group carried out a symbolic execution of Erdogan in Stockholm and the burning of the Koran by a far-right outside its embassy in the Swedish capital.

He Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billströmassured last Friday that his government will not take any additional measure to what was agreed in Madrid and that when a new anti-terrorist legislation is foreseeably approved on June 1, the “last piece of the puzzle” will have been fitted.

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He Swedish government is confident that NATO membership will be formalized at the July Alliance summit in Vilniusalthough the social democratic opposition, which began the accession process in 2022 and today voted in favor, was skeptical and urged the Executive not to take anything for granted.

During a previous debate of more than six hours held this Wednesday, the two parties that voted against the motion criticized the fact that a referendum on the matter had not been held, a possibility that the previous Social Democratic government rejected months ago.

EFE

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