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– I think it feels very good, I don’t think we should have this kind of procedure in Sweden. This is contrary to our basic aspirations for gender equality policy. Bigami has been banned at all times in Sweden and then there must also be an opportunity to close this kind of gap that has existed, says Justice Minister Morgan Johansson.
In Sweden, it is not allowed to marry several people at the same time. But polygamy that has taken place abroad, if the parties have no connection here, today is considered valid by the Swedish Tax Agency.
The government now wants to change this and proposes that a marriage that has been contracted by someone who is already married, as of July 1 of this year, should no longer be recognized.
The government investigator proposed to accept polygamy that has been held in accordance with foreign law, before that date. Among other things, because those involved may have shaped their lives for a long time after being married.
But Justice Minister Morgan Johansson goes further, believing that the ban should apply regardless of when the people involved marry, as long as the polygamous marriage is not registered in the population register. Something that the Civil Committee of the Riksdag has requested.
– We want to try to make sure this doesn’t happen in Sweden and counteract it as much as possible, so we opted to give it a retroactive effect in this way, says Morgan Johansson.
On the other hand, the government does not want to annul all the polygamous marriages that are already registered in Sweden, an issue that, among others, the Swedish Democrats and Christian Democrats pursue.
There is a risk that it will negatively affect affected women, according to Morgan Johansson.
– If these marriages are dissolved only immediately, in that way, then they lose, for example, the right to division of property and there is also the risk that they will lose the right to inheritance, he says.
The government proposes that, in exceptional cases, a polygamous marriage be recognized, also in the future. For example, that a woman is granted the right to inherit when the man dies.
