Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh has managed to hang onto power in Malmö. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
Malmö Mayor Katrin Stjernfeldt Jammeh has beaten off a post-election challenge from the local Moderate leader Torbjörn Tegnhammar, after the Centre and Liberal Parties abstained. Stjernfeldt Jammeh was voted back for another four years as the city's mayor shortly after 2pm on Monday, winning 29 votes from councillors compared to 24 for Tegnhammar, according to the Sydsvenskan newspaper.
On the night of Sweden's general election on September 9th, Tegnhammar had celebrated victory at the glitzy Malmö Live conference venue, alongside his counterparts in the centre-right Alliance Niels Paarup-Petersen, from the Centre Party, and Roko Kursar from the Liberals.
If he had succeeded in ousting the Social Democrats, it would have been the first time the party had lost control of the city, one of its key strongholds, in 24 years.
But in post-election negotiations, Tegnhammar failed to find a way to steer the city without becoming dependent on the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.
On Sunday, Kursar wrote an article in Sydsvenskan explaining why his party's four councillors would abstain from voting, arguing that there was no way for the Alliance parties to take power without giving the Sweden Democrats the deciding vote.
"With the mandates we have today, we cannot take power in Malmö in a coalition consisting of the Moderates, Liberals and Centre party, without the active or passive support of the Sweden Democrats," he said.
