A Sweden Democrats MP apologized for the party’s decision to send two additional MPs to block a motion on transitional rules. The apology followed a breakdown of the pairing system when two party members who had been paired off participated in a vote. The MP said the action may have been formally permitted but was still wrong, and he apologized to the Speaker, the opposition, partner parties, and the Swedish people. He stated he voted against the opposition’s counter-motion to add transitional provisions to the new citizenship law, while still believing exempting affected people would have been a mistake. He argued that the pairing system was manipulated to secure a different outcome than the parliament’s actual majority conditions indicated, and he urged colleagues to reflect and restore trust.
"On April 29th, the pairing system broke down when two Sweden Democrat members who had been paired off [out of the vote] participated in the vote. It may have been formally permitted. It was still not right. I can only speak for myself: But as an MP for the Sweden Democrats, I want to say sorry to the Speaker, to the opposition, to our partner parties and to the Swedish people."
"I still believe that it was right to vote to reject the opposition's motion. However, the way in which the majority was secured by having two members from my party who had been paired off participate in the vote despite the pairing agreement that had been reached was wrong."
"If all 349 MPs had been present and voted, he explained, the opposition counter-motion would have passed in the Riksdag, as the Swedish parliament is known. It is therefore difficult to reach any conclusion other than that the pairing system was manipulated to achieve a different outcome than that which the actual majority conditions in the Riksdag pointed towards on that particular day."
"He called on his party colleagues "to reflect self-critically" and to understand that they have a "responsibility to help restore trust between the parties and the members"."
Read at www.thelocal.se
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]