It has been a long and wobbly process, so in a way it's symbolic that it should be messy all the way to the finish line, says political scientist Andreas Johansson Heinö.
Several party members questioned the legitimacy of the extraordinary national meeting during the digital meeting, which was characterized by technical difficulties and challenges to both the agenda and the meeting announcement.
It will be a weak mandate when the process looks the way it does. There is no doubt that the democratic process has been flawed. There have not been particularly reasonable opportunities for a counter-candidate, and members are not allowed to vote on the substantive issue but only on renewed confidence in the party leader, says Andreas Johansson Heinö.
Similar to a coup
He believes that it is easy to understand the outrage surrounding the extraordinary national meeting, which has been described by many as coup-like.
There is probably a lot to it. On the other hand, it is also possible to understand and legitimize the idea that a party in such a deep crisis needs to do this. The leadership's goal is obviously to save the party in parliament, and it is a goal that most people in the party reasonably support.
Andreas Johansson Heinö does not believe that the meeting, which he describes as farcical, will have particularly great significance for voters.
It will probably be remembered as a funny episode, and then forgotten. However, it further weakens the internal mandate for the party leadership, which will now find it even more difficult to get members on board.
Technology not mature
Instead of a quick re-vote with a large majority, it took just over four hours - during which the meeting had to be paused several times due to technical difficulties - before party leader Simona Mohamsson could be re-elected.
This is not how we should have it in Sweden when it comes to congresses. Digital is not quite where we would like it to be. We are not mature enough to abandon physical meetings for digital meetings; it became painfully obvious tonight, but it could of course have happened in other parties as well, says Andreas Johansson Heinö.
