– If the numbers we see now are the election results next autumn, then we are in a crisis, says LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik to news. She is sitting on a sofa at the Sundvolden hotel, where a major LO conference is taking place today. Next to her sit the leaders of LO’s two largest unions, Jørn Eggum in the Community Confederation and Mette Nord in the Trade Union. They also use the “k-word”: – Of course there is a crisis. Fellesforbundet, Fagforbundet and LO have never been bigger. And then support for what is our political party is at a historic low. It is a paradox, says Eggum and continues: – 17.5 per cent. You don’t win elections on that, and we can’t live with that over time. The fact that the Progress Party, according to Norstat’s latest poll, is bigger than the government parties Ap and Sp together is a crisis, Mette Nord believes. – There is a crisis because what these parties want to implement will mean worse conditions for working people. It will be a welfare state in decay, she says. NOT THE TOPIC: Replacing Jonas Gahr Støre as leader is not the topic now, say the three. Photo: Mats Rønning / news Leadership change “not a topic now” The background for the LO leaders’ unrest is the Labor Party’s declining support over time – most recently actualized by the recent party barometer for news and Aftenposten: The Labor Party receives a support of 17.5 per cent in the Høyre and Fremskrittspartiet survey has a majority alone The Progress Party is larger than both government parties combined – All three of you sit on the APS central board. Have you also been clear there that this is a crisis for the Labor Party and the labor movement? – We have raised our issues and worked as we have always done. So have we been good enough? We clearly don’t have that when we are where we are, says Eggum. – The American Democratic Party made a drastic choice during the election year and changed its presidential candidate. Ap has a national meeting in the spring. Will you now protect Jonas Gahr Støre and clearly express that he will lead the Labor Party also in the election campaign next autumn? – This is not the time to discuss the leader of the Labor Party. It is not a debate that I think will benefit us. It is the national meeting of the Labor Party that elects the leader, and from our side this is not an issue, says Følsvik. – Not for you either, Eggum? – It is not a theme. We haven’t discussed it there. It is as Peggy says: The National Assembly both elects and possibly does not re-elect leaders. I think it can turn around. Følsvik, Eggum and Nord find comfort in the fact that many old Ap voters have sat on the fence. It is this voter reserve that LO leaders hope will contribute to re-election next autumn. – This can be turned around! says Peggy Hessen Følsvik. Eggum in Fellesforbundet points out that there is still some time left before both the election and the national meeting of the Labor Party. – When you get closer to elections, when you see the dividing lines more clearly, then I am not so worried that we will have the results that we are on now, says Eggum, who also points out that several hard internal nomination battles in Ap will then have its conclusion. – Følsvik, if you were to use one sentence to convince the voters who are sitting on the fence to vote for the Labor Party, what would it be? – That we should create security in people’s working days and in people’s everyday lives. Rente Eggum believes that lower interest rates and better finances for most people in 2025 will be able to contribute to correcting the Labor market slump. – When people are unable to pay their bills, that is what the current government is measured against, he says. THINK IT CAN TURN AROUND: The LO leaders deny that the battle is lost. Photo: Mats Rønning / news Eggum also cites political scandals and dissatisfaction with the power regime and the high electricity prices as explanations for the fall for Ap og Sp. He believes that a new government will provide less secure jobs: – When there is low unemployment like now, you don’t think about security in working life. Because you take that as a prerequisite. But you won’t get that with the liberalization that the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party stand for, says Eggum. Reversal of changes in the Working Environment Act, increased exposure to competition and possible cuts in sick pay, as the Liberals want and the FRP has opened for. In addition to cuts in the trade union contribution, increased deductibles and softer working time regulations, this is one of the things the LO leaders fear most in the event of a change of government. – We see that these classic right-wing cases will come up again and hit working people, where it hurts the most, who want to take people’s security away, says Følsvik. FLYING HIGH: Frp leader Sylvi Listhaug can be happy about good opinion polls at the moment. Photo: Reidar Gregersen / news – Appearing desperate The leader of the Progressive Party Sylvi Listhaug says she wishes the LO leadership was as concerned with ordinary people and its own members as they are with attacking the FRP. – This only appears desperate from Peggy Hessen Følsvik, who is mostly invisible in matters that matter to people, and who is now trying to paint a false image of the Progressive Party, she says to news. – That LO talks about safety for working people at the same time as productivity growth falls, almost 9 out of 10 new jobs that have been created in recent quarters have come in the public sector and where there is low job creation, falls on its own unreasonableness. FEAR PROPAGANDA: Høyre’s Henrik Asheim. Photo: Aurora Ytreberg Meløe / news Conservative deputy leader Henrik Asheim also rejects the criticism. – If Ap and LO want to run an election campaign based on intimidation propaganda about the Conservative Party’s policy, we will live with that just fine, he says. – The biggest problem in Norwegian working life is not those who are in work, but the almost 700,000 people who are completely outside the working life. The Conservative Party will use all the tools we have to help more of them into work. Asheim points out that under the Støre government there have been a few more in temporary positions, and that the degree of organization has decreased slightly. Published 20.11.2024, at 12.27 Updated 20.11.2024, at 14.18
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– Yes, there is a crisis – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
