‘Wedded’ couples not married after mayor error

Former Uppsala mayor Lena Hartwig married off 30 loving pairs in the springtime before she realized that her contract had run out and she no longer had the authority to act as an official, wrote the Upsala Nya Tidning newspaper.

She was no longer an official marriage registrar, meaning that the couples she had wed were indeed nothing more than engaged. Hartwig herself reported the matter to the municipal board.

The thirty marriages are no longer legally binding, according to the paper, and the couples must appeal to the government to have their liaisons made official or they will be forced to marry again.

Residents who have been affected by the mistake in the university town in eastern Sweden are disappointed with the news.

“That they can fail in something like this makes you lose faith in the municipality,” said the now unmarried Daniel Lennartsson Gran to the newspaper.

The man’s girlfriend, Evelina Wall, wants to sue the municipality. The pair’s wedding anniversary, which should have been on Valentine’s Day, has now been ruined, she told the paper.