The Left Party in Sweden, which has opposed Stockholm’s decision to apply for NATO membership, has reportedly lost votes because of its support of the terrorist organization PKK terrorist organization's Syrian wing, the YPG.
In the last general election on Sept. 11, the socialist party garnered 1.3 points fewer votes than it did in the previous election four years ago, mostly because of its support to the PKK/YPG and its objections to sending arms to Ukraine in its war against Russia, according to local sources.
The party polled 8% in the 2018 election, which fell to 6.7% in 2022, Left Party Assistant Secretary Hanna Gedin told Swedish state news agency TT on Tuesday.
Gedin explained that the party attributes its decline to two reasons: They oppose the government’s sending weapons to Ukraine and their politicians waving PKK flags in the town of Visby has negatively influenced voting results.
Posing with terrorist flags
On July 7 this year, images spread on social media showing Left Party members of parliament Daniel Riazat, Momodou Malcolm Jallow and Lorena Delgado Varas posing with flags of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization in Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU.
Then Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson condemned the parliamentarians for openly posing with terrorist symbols.
"The PKK is a designated terror organization, not just in Sweden, but in the EU and posing with such flags is extremely inappropriate," Andersson had told TT.
Andersson’s justice and interior minister at the time, Morgan Johansson, too took to Twitter to slam the leftist politicians’ behavior as "unacceptable."
"The PKK has the blood of countless innocents on its hands. It was recognized as a terrorist organization in 1984 by Olaf Palme’s government," Johansson said and called on the Left Party to "abandon" their PKK protests.
NATO quandary
Sweden is facing pressure from Türkiye over its sheltering of such groups as it seeks to ascend to NATO with its Nordic neighbor Finland. The two countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for NATO membership in mid-May.
Türkiye, a NATO member for over 70 years, has been withholding its ratification of their accession, which requires unanimous approval, accusing the two of tolerating and even supporting terrorist groups. Ankara has repeatedly demanded that Nordic nations take a tougher stance on terrorism.
The sides inked a memorandum in June at a NATO summit to address the Turkish side’s security concerns and Stockholm and Helsinki promised "to not provide support" to the PKK or its Syrian affiliate YPG. They also lifted an arms embargo on Türkiye that was imposed following its 2019 Syria operation against the PKK/YPG.
Sweden’s new prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, visited Türkiye last month and pledged to work toward countering terrorism threats to Türkiye.
Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have warned that Türkiye will not give the nod to the memberships until the memorandum is implemented and "concrete steps" are taken, including the extradition of criminals and freezing of terrorist assets.
Most recently, Sweden returned an alleged PKK member to Türkiye, who Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said was on the list of people Ankara wanted from Stockholm.
"It’s a good start but Sweden needs to do more before we can approve their NATO membership," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ separately said.
This week, Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen will pay an official visit to Türkiye and meet with Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Thursday to discuss the trilateral NATO deal.