It has been a few days since the Liberals' chaotic extraordinary national meeting, where the Liberal leader, after hours of technical difficulties, received support by a narrow margin - 95 delegates in favor, 80 "blank votes" and eight who did not vote.
The new line means that the Liberals agree to sit in government with the Sweden Democrats. This has led to many defections ahead of the election this fall, but there are also opponents who remain and want to focus on pursuing liberal politics locally.
In Stockholm, the top candidate Jan Jönsson has dropped out, as has the second candidate Isabel Smedberg-Palmqvist. On Tuesday, a new ballot will be cast, and Rasmus Jonlund is one of the candidates for the top positions. He leads the "Stockholmslinjen", which excludes cooperation with the Sweden Democrats locally.
"I will not run a national campaign; I want to focus on the municipal level. Even those of us who do not like the new strategy but choose to accept it must be able to stay," he says.
If we do not open up to this opportunity, we will have an extremely weakened party organization, with even more people leaving and campaign workers who will not be active.
“Unthinkable collaboration”
In Lund, another Liberal stronghold, members have written a statement saying that it is unthinkable to cooperate with the Sweden Democrats in local politics.
"Our liberal compass is firm... we are opposed to a line that means the Liberals will sit in government together with the Sweden Democrats," they write.
Even in smaller municipalities such as Norrtälje and Ekerö, the municipal councilors are signaling that they have a different line locally.
"I will not conduct election work to get more people to vote for the Liberals in the parliamentary elections," says Robert Beronius on the Norrtälje Liberals' website.
Mohamsson's demands
Simona Mohamsson doesn't think it's strange that the Liberals are adapting locally to how collaborations and substantive politics look there. At the same time, the party now has a new line on the government issue, she emphasizes.
I assume that if you are a leading Liberal, you will also take this into account when considering what your commitment will look like going forward, she says.
If you are on the parliamentary list, loyalty applies.
It will be crystal clear, because they will need to put pressure on Ulf as prime minister after the election.
