There is an indirect message to all party leaders in the classic TV sketch where Sven Melander urges his drinking brother Helge to "think of the percentage".

Poor opinion figures are often devastating for a party leader's position, not least internally.

For Nyamko Sabuni, the gloomy message of opinion polls has been drummed in almost continuously since she was elected Liberal party leader in the summer of 2019.

Life far below the parliamentary barrier has demoralized the party and as the election now approaches, hopelessness has spread within the party.

Also the anxiety among individuals to lose their positions of trust.

In the 2018 election, the Liberals received 5.5 percent of the vote.

During Nyamko Sabuni's time as party leader, the party has become accustomed to voter support of just over two percent.

In SVT / Novus' latest voter barometer, which was presented on Thursday, the Liberals landed at 2.1 percent.

Questioned internally

The percentage is important in several ways.

A party in crisis is forced to answer questions about this, rather than what policy it wants to pursue.

For Nyamko Sabuni's part, it has also meant that she has always been questioned internally.

And the critics internally have at times been loud.

The reason is the divided party she tried to gather.

It is basically about the view of the Sweden Democrats and which parties the Liberals can cooperate with.

After the collaboration with the Social Democrats, Nyamko Sabuni has brought the party back to the bourgeois sphere, but has not succeeded in uniting one party behind this line.

But it has also been about Sabuni's personal shortcomings.

She was elected Liberal Party leader on the grounds that she was a clear, combative and fearless politician.

Instead, she has emerged as a hesitant and cautious party leader, afraid to say the wrong thing and afraid to challenge her critics in her own party.

She has also stumbled on the words sometimes and expressed pure frogs, which the internal critics with life and desire threw themselves over.

An example of this is an interview in DN where she opened up to let the Sweden Democrats into a bourgeois government, despite the fact that the party's national assembly had just recently made the exact opposite decision.

In a text message to the party board members, she apologized after harsh criticism for this and called it "a pancake".

Mentioned escape plane

Most recently, she got lost in what can best be described as a bad Norway story.

In a podcast, she talked about fleeing to Norway if Sweden was attacked by Russia, which triggered massive criticism.

The security policy situation has deteriorated drastically after Russia's attack on Ukraine and many Swedes feel a growing concern about the development.

The fact that a party leader in the Riksdag speaks in this way hardly inspires confidence, and the reactions to this may have been the triggering factor behind Sabuni's resignation.

Apparently no attempt was made by the party to persuade her to stay.

Instead, Johan Pehrson is now taking over to try to save the liberal ship from doom in the autumn elections.

The conditions are not the best: abysmal opinion figures and a state of affairs that has marginalized the Liberals in the public debate.

The election this autumn is about winning or losing.

Johan Pehrson's mission to save the party may seem almost impossible.

He can become the party leader who leads the Liberals out of the Riksdag.

But he can also become a liberal hero if the party manages to stay in the Riksdag.