There is no seriousness in considering a party leadership for one week. It is an important assignment for Sweden, and you cannot have it for one week, Jan Jönsson tells journalists ahead of the Stockholm Liberals' annual meeting on Thursday.
He says that many of the members are "very sad, some are very angry", but that there are "some who are also happy" after Mohamsson's turnaround toward the Sweden Democrats.
Shortly before the meeting, Simona Mohamsson appears. The hard-pressed party leader is the opening speaker and will also participate in a question-and-answer session in a district where many are critical.
"We're going to talk about the future of the Liberals," she says briefly, walking past the press corps without stopping.
There have been two factions
Stockholm is home to many big names in the party. Among them are Minister Lotta Edholm and legal policy spokesperson Martin Melin. Both support Mohamsson's line.
But I fully understand that members think it may have gone too fast or that they have a different opinion. You must be allowed to have that, says Edholm.
Melin is asked if the split is harming the party.
In some ways it can harm the party. But it can also harm the whole party, because there have been two factions. And neither of them has been good. Now it will be definitive, he says.
Decisive meeting on Sunday
Jan Jönsson has long been a prominent name among the Stockholm Liberals, but he is leaving both the party board and politics in general since Mohamsson opened up on Friday to sit in government with the Sweden Democrats. He will step down from city hall "sometime this summer," he says.
I, of course, hope that the party will survive in parliament because we need a liberal party.
The Liberals, who are suffering from historically low opinion poll numbers ahead of the autumn elections, have called for an extraordinary national meeting on Sunday. There, they will vote on confidence in Mohamsson - in practice - on the party's shift toward the Sweden Democrats.
None of Mohamsson's critics have so far openly expressed interest in challenging her on Sunday, but economic policy spokesperson Cecilia Rönn has been mentioned as a challenger.
