STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s prime minister threatened to step down if the opposition ousted the justice minister after the centre-right opposition earlier on Thursday threatened to do so in a vote of no-confidence.
The Moderates, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats parties said they would support a no-confidence vote against Justice and Interior minister Morgan Johansson after the populist Sweden Democrats party called for one next week.
The four parties plus one more member of parliament would be needed for the vote to be passed.
Prime Minster Magdalena Andersson told a news conference she would “certainly” step down and that the government would then resign too if Johansson were voted out.
“Then there will be a government crisis, and that is not what Sweden needs,” she said.
Sweden, together with Finland, last month applied to join the NATO alliance amid security concerns in the Nordic region over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Sweden Democrats complain that Johansson’s fight against crime is not good enough.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
