Updated 12:05 | Published at 11:56 am
Per Bolund’s hasty resignation notice brings to life an internal demand within the MP:
Ditch the mouthpieces and add a party leader.
– No one knows where the party is going and which line applies, says the former Member of Parliament Lorentz Tovatt.
The Green Party’s spokesperson Per Bolund announced on Thursday that he is resigning as spokesperson at the party congress this fall.
– It is exactly the right time to let a new mouthpiece take over, he says to DN.
Internally in the MP, there has been growing opposition to the party having two mouthpieces for some time. The model is considered by the critics to contribute to a lack of clarity, both in front of the voters but also internally. A heavy argument is the weak confidence figures that the MP’s mouthpiece has had for a very long time.
– In today’s media landscape, it is difficult enough to profile a single party leader and therefore of course impossible to get voters to appreciate and get to know two. The same ambiguity arises internally. No one knows where the party is going and which line applies, says former MP Member of Parliament Lorentz Tovatt, who wants the party to have a leader.
The youth association Grön Ungdom also pushes the issue with the justification that politics today is more about people than it has been in the past. Then it becomes more difficult for a party that has two faces to reach out to voters.
– The Green Party is at a disadvantage when we have two mouthpieces instead of one person. It will be unclear for the voters, says Rebecka Forsberg, spokeswoman for Grön Ungdom.
Even the party’s star shot in northern Sweden, the municipal councilor in Gällivare Henrik Ölvebo, is behind the party’s transition to a mouthpiece.
– Today it is more difficult to build trust. It is more difficult to reach. It is easier to build trust around one person than two. I believe that clarity is important, especially for those of us who are around four percent.
– I still think there are a lot of misconceptions about what the MP does and then we have to respond to them, push through and be clear. I think we can do that with a mouthpiece.
The question of how many mouthpieces the MP should have could become a big battle at the upcoming party congress in November. A centrally located source in the party tells Aftonbladet that the issue is high on the party board’s agenda ahead of the party meeting.
– It is likely that there will be a fight between different parts of the party. The question is who has the ability to mobilize now, says the source.
Formally, the party must change the statutes if the system with two mouthpieces is to be abandoned. The same applies if you want to change the requirement that the mouthpieces must be represented by a man and a woman. Then a two-thirds majority at one congress or a simple majority at two congresses is required.
The issue has previously been up for voting at general meetings, but has then been voted down by a majority.
The election committee is currently tasked with nominating two spokesperson candidates. Should the general meeting change it, the speaker election can be postponed, for example to an extraordinary general meeting or until the next time a speaker ends.
The Green Party’s party secretary Katrin Wissing says via her press secretary Axel Sandin that she does not want to comment on the demand because the issue will be dealt with at the party meeting this fall.
“Currently, there is nothing more to say about the process other than that the nomination period begins in the summer and that, as usual in the Green Party, it will be an open process. Regarding the mouthpiece model, any changes are a decision that is entirely up to the members,” writes Sandin in a text message.