When economies are not doing well we historically saw countries veering to the right. Also today we see more and more extreme right, call it middle right or far right, potato potato. With that the usual growth in nationalism and xenophobia. In Sweden we see the political parties giving in to this fashion by agreeing to restricitive measures. From June 2026 anyone wanting to become Swedish will have to have lived in the country for eight years. Currently this is the international norm of five years. Being similarly fashionable the Dutch far right coalition wants to change the five years to ten years.

Sweden wants to go further. They want to change its constitution to allow Swedish citizens to be stripped of their nationality. The idea is that those who commit crimes that threaten national security should lose their nationality. This already exists in countries like the UK and Netherlands. The Swedish government also points to Denmark where nationality can already be removed because of an act that is “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the state”. The Danish law was recently extended to include some forms of serious gang crime.

And of course, there is nothing wrong with the idea of removing someone’s nationality/citizenship if he or she is clearly a threat to the country. Most countries in the world have similar provisions in law where it comes to those who join, or are in, the military of an enemy. In certain situations this could even lead to statelessness, irrespective of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. And why not!

But changing the constitution for these extreme and hopefully rare cases can be a slippery slope. In other countries In fact, certain politicians and parties wanted to strip the nationality of anyone who used bribes or who provided false information, or for gangsters and organised crime. We could say that these sound like reasonable situations where we permanently banish a citizen, strip them of their nationality. But what is next? Should a future government decide that certain religions are part, or not part, of Sweden as a society? Or where sexuality and gender should be an issue, or perhaps a parking or speeding fine?

Under Sweden’s constitution, revoking someone’s nationality is currently not allowed and the change will be voted on next year in its parliament.

In my opinion criminals should be properly prosecured, convicted and ideally rehabilitated. Although I don’t like to see any of those serious criminals and terrorists on our streets, banishing and removing them to another country does not always take away the problem. In fact, it could even exacerbate the issue and can prevent rehabilitation. I think it is better for all nationals/citizens to keep constitutional protections in place and deal with the issues rather than trying to export them.

Written by
Kris von Habsburg