External members Kristoffer Leandoer and Gun-Britt Sundström gave the surprising announcement in December that they wanted to leave the work of the Swedish Academy Nobel Committee. Mats Malm could not then give any clear information on how the Academy would solve the situation. But now he tells TT that the members will not be replaced.

"We gather to conclusions and prepare a long-term form of external expertise from 2021. The academy has always employed external specialists in different language areas, and intends to develop a stable structure for future work," he writes in a text message.

Kristoffer Leandoer and Gun-Britt Sundström left the Nobel Committee at the end of last year. Photo: Dan Hansson / SvD and Christine Olsson / TT

Negative signals

The solution with a Nobel Committee in which five external experts would participate in washing out a Nobel Laureate was something that the Academy agreed with the Nobel Foundation, after the institution's crisis. Members would sit on a two-year term.

That there were obviously schisms in the committee also caused several critics to question how the renewal work went.

Sara Meidell, cultural editor at Västerbottens-Kuriren, was one of those who wondered if "yet another turn of chaos" was to wait.

"It is what has been hopeful in this crisis, that the Committee has been a positive cornerstone of continued work," she said.

She assumed that the committee would be reassigned to maintain the legitimacy of the prize.

Opinions went apart

But among the members of the Academy, the views on the effectiveness of the committee went apart. Per Wästberg did not like the model because the external members do not have the same chance during their two years to immerse themselves in authorship for several years as the regular members. Mats Malm also allowed TT that the committee members' freedom of movement is limited because a candidate must have been on the "short list" in order to be eligible for a Nobel Prize.