Swedish opposition promises citizenship transition rules if it wins election

"Niels Paarup-Petersen, immigration spokesperson for the Centre Party, said that his party had now committed to making the issue part of coalition negotiations if the opposition parties win a majority in the election on September 13th. "When Tido hopefully falls, we will take up in our discussions with any future government that transitional rules should be applied and reintroduced," he told The Local. "Of course, it will be complicated, but as we've seen with teen deportations, if the Migration Agency sees that there is a strong possibility that new rules are coming that will affect people positively, they might not be eager to make decisions.""

"Ida Karkiainen, immigration spokesperson for the Social Democrats, said that her party also planned to make reintroducing transitional rules for citizenship a priority. "If we gain government power in 2026, this is one of the most important things to do on Swedish migration law and of the Swedish citizenship legislation," she told Swedish public radio broadcaster English-language station, Radio Sweden."

"Sweden's parliament on April 29th rejected a counter-motion backed by all four opposition parties which would have meant that people who have already applied for citizenship by the time new stricter citizenship rules come into force on June 6th would have their cases assessed under the rules in force when they applied. The opposition motion was only defeated because the Sweden Democrats sent in two MPs to vote that they had agreed to hold back under the parliament's pairing system, a move that opposition parties have criticised as a form of cheating."

Opposition parties in Sweden are aligned on introducing transitional rules for citizenship if they win the September 13 election. The Centre Party’s immigration spokesperson said the issue would be included in coalition negotiations if the opposition forms a majority. The Social Democrats’ immigration spokesperson said reintroducing transitional rules would be a priority for Swedish migration law and citizenship legislation if they gain government power in 2026. Sweden’s parliament rejected a counter-motion supported by all four opposition parties that would have assessed citizenship cases under the rules in force when applications were submitted. The motion failed only because the Sweden Democrats used the parliament’s pairing system to hold back votes, which opposition parties criticized as cheating. The Social Democrats expressed hope that most applicants would still be waiting for decisions under the affected timeline.

Read at www.thelocal.se