Sweden Votes to Strip Citizenship From Fraudsters and Terrorists

STOCKHOLM - On Wednesday the Swedish Parliament took the second and decisive vote to amend the constitution so that Swedish citizenship can, in certain cases, be taken away.

A constitutional change needs two identical votes with a general election in between. The first was held on 20 May. Today's vote was the final step.

The amendment comes into force on 1 January 2027. That does not mean citizenship can be revoked from New Year's Day. Parliament first has to pass an ordinary law setting out the exact rules.

The result was 292 in favour and 51 against. The Social Democrats, the Moderates, the Sweden Democrats, the Centre Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals voted yes. The Left Party and the Greens voted no. Six members were absent and nobody abstained.

Who could lose it

Citizenship can only be taken from someone who also holds citizenship of another country, so that nobody is left stateless. The rules must also respect Sweden's international obligations.

The first case is citizenship obtained through false or misleading information, or through bribery, threats or deception. The lie has to have been decisive - meaning the person would never have been granted citizenship had the truth been known.

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The second case is a final conviction for a crime that seriously harms Sweden's vital interests.

The government says this mainly means crimes against national security, such as high treason, espionage and treason, along with terrorist offences and crimes that fall under the International Criminal Court.

Gang crime included

It also covers certain serious organised crime that threatens society itself - shootings and bombings on such a scale that they undermine the state's ability to keep order in an area. An ordinary violent crime is not enough.

Children under 18 will not lose their citizenship if a parent is stripped of theirs over a crime.

A minority of just ten MPs can also delay the ordinary law on revocation by a year, unless five-sixths of those voting pass it straight away.

The actual law is still missing

The outgoing government has worked on a bill, but it was never presented to Parliament. It will be up to the next government to decide whether and how the rules are written.

In March, Migration Minister Johan Forssell received an official inquiry on revoking Swedish citizenship. It proposes that the Swedish Migration Agency make the decisions and that the law take effect on 1 January 2028.

It also proposes that false information must have been given knowingly - a requirement the constitution itself does not set. None of this has been decided.

"Anyone who commits crimes should not be able to become a Swedish citizen, and anyone who has already become a Swedish citizen and commits serious crimes should be able to lose it," Forssell said, calling the reform historic.

Left and Greens tried to sink it

The change was bundled with a constitutional right to abortion and an opening to restrict freedom of association for groups engaged in serious profit-driven crime. The package could only be accepted or rejected as a whole.

The Left Party and the Greens therefore opposed all of it, even though they backed other parts. The Centre Party objected that the wording on Sweden's vital interests was too vague, but voted yes anyway.

"Under relative silence, we are now taking steps to make Swedish citizenship both unequal and less legally secure," said Left Party MP Caroline Täljeblad in the debate.

She pointed out that even someone who never meant to give false information could lose their citizenship. Green MP Jan Riise warned that the wording lacked clear limits and risked letting the state redefine over time what citizenship means.

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