DUBLIN: The Irish government was on the verge of collapse on Thursday after the party whose votes Prime Minister Leo Varadkar depends on to pass legislation said it would seek to remove the deputy prime minister in a breach of their cooperation agreement.
The crisis comes three weeks ahead of a EU summit in which the Irish government has an effective veto on whether Britain’s talks on leaving the bloc progress as it determines if EU concerns about the future of the Irish border have been met.
In a row that escalated rapidly, the opposition Fianna Fail party said it would put a motion of no confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald before parliament on Tuesday over her handling of a legal case involving a police whistleblower.
That would break the three-year “confidence and supply” agreement that allowed Varadkar’s Fine Gael party to form a minority government 18 months ago.
Fianna Fail initially indicated it might withdraw its threat if Fitzgerald resigned but Fine Gael members of parliament passed a unanimous motion of support in Fitzgerald at an emergency meeting on Thursday evening.
Asked after Fine Gael’s statement whether the country was headed for an election, a senior Fianna Fail source replied: “Straight toward one.”
The source declined to be named as the party’s frontbench was due to hold an emergency meeting early on Friday to decide its next move.
“This is ... dangerous politically at a time when the country does not need an election,” Foreign Minister Simon Coveney of Fine Gael told national Irish broadcaster RTE, in an apparent reference to the Brexit talks he had earlier described as a “historic moment” for the island of Ireland.
The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will be the UK’s only land frontier with the bloc after its departure, is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly solved before it decides next month on whether to move the talks onto a second phase about trade, as Britain wants.
Coveney told parliament on Thursday that the government was not yet ready to allow the talks to move on to the trade issues at the Dec. 14-15 summit and needed more clarity from London.
A breakdown of the government’s cooperation deal, which has worked relatively smoothly up until now between two parties that differ little on policy but have been bitter foes for decades, would likely lead to an election in December or January.
The Fianna Fail move comes after Fitzgerald admitted she was made aware of an attempt to discredit a police whistleblower in a 2015 email, but failed to act. Fine Gael say she adhered to due process.
Since Varadkar’s appointment as Fine Gael leader in May, his party has narrowly led Fianna Fail in opinion polls that suggest both parties would increase their support but still struggle to form anything but another minority government.
Irish government on verge of collapse ahead of EU Brexit summit
Irish government on verge of collapse ahead of EU Brexit summit
Sweden plans to tighten rules for gaining citizenship
- The country has for years struggled to integrate migrants, with many not learning the language and living in disadvantaged areas with higher crime and jobless rates
STOCKHOLM: Sweden said Monday it planned to tighten rules to acquire citizenship, introducing “honest living” and financial requirements, a language and general knowledge test and raising the residency requirement from five to eight years.
If approved by parliament, the new rules would enter into force on June 6, Sweden’s national holiday, and would apply even to applications already being processed.
Migration Minister Johan Forssell, whose right-wing minority government holds a majority with the backing of the far-right Sweden Democrats, told reporters it was currently too easy to acquire Swedish citizenship.
“Citizenship needs to mean more than it does today,” he said.
“Pride is something you feel when you’ve worked hard at something. But working hard is not something that has characterised citizenship.
“It has been possible to become a citizen after five years without knowing a single word of Swedish, without knowing anything about our Swedish society, without having any own income.”
Referring to a case that recently made headlines, he said: “You can even become one while you’re sitting in custody accused of murder.
“This obviously sends completely wrong signals, both to those who do right by themselves and those who are already citizens.”
Following a large influx of migrants to Sweden during the 2015 migrant crisis, successive left- and right-wing governments have tightened asylum and migration rules.
The country has for years struggled to integrate migrants, with many not learning the language and living in disadvantaged areas with higher crime and jobless rates.
Under the new rules, those who have criminal records — in their home country or in Sweden — and who have served their sentence would have to wait up to 17 years before being allowed to apply for citizenship, up from the current 10 years.
In addition, those deemed to not adhere to “honest living” requirements would not be granted citizenship.
That could include racking up mountains of debt, being served restraining orders or even having a drug addiction.
Applicants would also have to have a monthly pre-tax income of 20,000 kronor ($2,225), excluding pensioners and students.
The citizenship tests would be similar to those used in neighboring Denmark and the United States, the government said, with the first tests due to be held in August.
