– There is something jarring, says Johnny Litsheim in the old Ap bastion Høyanger. news meets him in the cafe that the local pensioners’ team runs in the industrial municipality, where the cornerstone company Hydro Aluminum is based. The Labor Party is well used to this, with election results of more than 40 percent. IN THE THINKING BOX: Jonny Litsheim believes many people in Høyanger are considering voting for parties other than Ap. Photo: NIKOLAI AKSE HELGÅS / news But Litsheim and his friends at the pensioners’ cafe have a hard time recognizing the party. – There is no Ap anymore like there was in the old days. The values Ap had have somehow been twisted to the right and vice versa. I think there will actually be many people in Høyanger who vote for a party other than Ap, says Litsheim, who is in the think tank himself. – It’s going to hell. Do you have the explanation? Neither do I, says another of the regulars, Torfinn Roar Fimreite. Prime Minister and Ap leader Jonas Gahr Støre says he understands that the party’s declining support is causing concern among core voters. – I get it. Høyanger is a strong place for us, important industry, we have long traditions there. I want to reassure them that we stand for what we stand for: Justice, work, industry, good distribution, says Støre to news. “The most important thing is to make sure that the prices do not increase so that they create problems for the companies, people and pensioners in Høyanger” “We have to come up with solutions. It is a responsibility of us who sit in the government. Then I understand that others in the party focus more on the problems they hear about” Explanations Lack of crisis response. Weak management. An unpopular government partner in the Center Party. It is one of the explanations given by central Ap people themselves for the voter flight. The horror poll of 16.9 percent last week caused the alarm to go off in the Labor Party. But well-informed AP sources believe the party should have appointed a crisis staff a long time ago. In recent days, news has contacted a dozen people who hold, or until recently held, key positions in the Labor Party. The conclusion is clear – more expensive electricity, food and fuel cannot alone explain the falling measurements. The sources give five main explanations for the question of why support for the Labor Party has fallen so deeply: Lack of crisis response after weak election results in 2017 and 2021. Weak governance – both at the party office and at the Prime Minister’s office. The staff at the Prime Minister’s office lack routine and authority, both internally and externally. A crew in government that does not deliver well enough. An unpopular government partner in Sp. Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre in a lonely walk on his way across Youngstorget. Sources in the party believe that the explanation for the decline is complex. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Peker på Sp The feedback from the central party sources that news has spoken to resonates with the café guests in Høyanger. Not least when it comes to government partner the Center Party. – You have to ask Sp why things are not going well with Ap. They have made the traps, claims Olav Øye. – What does it take for Ap to become big? – It was a difficult question, in these times. At least they have to change what they are doing. That is for sure. Don’t let others control you, says Øye. GOVERNMENT PARTNER: – You have to ask Sp about why things are not going well with Labor, says pensioner Olav Øye in Høyanger. Photo: Nikolai Akse Helgås / news He believes the Labor Party could benefit from governing alone. Johnny Litsheim thinks so too. – When he (Støre, editor’s note) is in collaboration with him in Sp, he with the grin, then it is clear that they lose votes, says Johnny Litsheim. Party secretary Kjersti Stenseng says it is well known that the Labor Party’s goal was a majority government in which SV was also included. – We now have good government cooperation with the Center Party. We have a Hurdals platform with a lot of good Ap and Sp policy, and we are clear that it is SV who is our partner in the Storting, says Stenseng. – Perhaps it would have been a little easier if SV was on the inside? – I am most concerned that the government we have now with the Labor Party and the Center Party should deliver good policies to solve the situation we are in, says party secretary Kjersti Stenseng. The pensioners in Høyanger will not absolve Støre himself of all responsibility either. – He strives for his life and doesn’t get anything done, says Fimreite. – When you get down to 15-16 percent, then something is wrong. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but something is jarring. Then it is clear that it is the manager who is assessed in the first instance, says Litsheim. OPINIONS: Torfinn Roar Fimreite (from left) and Jonny Litsheim fear Ap’s collaboration with Sp could cost support. Photo: NIKOLAI AKSE HELGÅS / news Crisis understanding The sources news has contacted indicate that the election results were too bad in both 2017 and 2021, but that the entire party leadership remained in place. That Ap deputy leaders Trond Giske and Hadia Tajik both ended up resigning is due to factors other than self-examination as a result of poor results, the sources maintain. Confronted with this, the Labor Party’s party secretary Kjersti Stenseng responds as follows: – We had a very thorough self-examination after the 2017 election – initiated a lot of policy development, built our team. And we held an election in 2019 where we got many mayors, we have a goal to do the same in a year. Then we also managed to mobilize for a good election result last year, which gave us a change of government. And then I’m not saying that 26.3 is a good enough election result, but we managed to mobilize through the long election campaign year: regain trust, make our political project visible, and that’s the job we have to do now too. NOT GOOD ENOUGH: The opinion polls are not good enough, notes Labor secretary Kjersti Stenseng. Here in conversation with party leader Jonas Gahr Støre. Photo: Tore Kristiansen / VG Støre: No crisis The sources say the staff at the Prime Minister’s office lack political experience and authority – both within the party and externally. There is also disappointment in Ap’s own ranks about the crew that represents the party in government. Several cite the proposal for the state budget as an example, where proposals for cuts in unemployment benefits or to the Food Center were among matters that were strongly attacked. Such cases should have been weeded out or at least better prepared, it is pointed out. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) participated this week in a seminar with journalists organized by the Storting’s press lodge. In the interview with DN journalist Marie Melgård, he did not rule out that there could be changes in the crew in the future: – It’s like the ground rent tax. That news will come when it comes. It will not be announced if I want to make changes along that path, he said. Støre also stated to direct questions that he would not use the word crisis about the situation that the Labor Party is in. – I think we should save those words for situations that justify it, said Støre, who instead described the situation as “serious”. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) met members of the press for questioning in the parliamentary chamber at the Storting this week. DN journalist Marie Melgård on the right. Photo: Peter Mydske/Stortinget / Peter Mydske/Stortinget Worried mayors news has contacted a number of Labor mayors and county leaders to hear how they view the situation. Virtually everyone who has responded points to the same thing: More expensive electricity, higher interest rates and higher prices for food and fuel. – Ordinary people get less back per month, which in turn affects the election polls, says Ap mayor Arne Fossmo in Ringebu. Nannestad mayor Anders Østensen says it is more “demanding than ever” to be a governing party. – The measurements show that. The Conservative Party has no other answers to the major challenges than Ap. Nevertheless, they profit from the opinion polls, he says. Nannestad mayor Anders Østensen says these are demanding times to sit with government responsibility. Photo: Live Wold / news National board member Tone Marie Myklevoll from Troms believes the cause of Ap’s problems is more complex. – Of course it is about the war and the economic situation. But we also have to look at whether we are good enough ourselves to convey and communicate about the choices we make. We also have to make some political moves ourselves, she says. – Doesn’t work Fyresdal mayor Erik Skjervagen also says skyrocketing price growth and expensive electricity is what worries most people. He has the following message for the party leadership: – They must deal with those things and deliver more desired policies in the areas people are concerned about. Maybe they think “we can’t do that”, but then things go badly. Not delivering in those areas has a high cost. People feel they are not being heard, he says to news. Skjervagen meets in the Labor Party’s national board from Vestfold and Telemark. It does not help to talk about all the election promises that have been carried out, he believes. – We try to set a different agenda than what people are concerned with, but it doesn’t work. We should have learned that, he says, with a view to the election defeat in 2017. The Fyresdal mayor says the party leadership is not good enough at fronting issues or communicating with voters. – We try to help as best we can. But what matters is how the government apparatus and the party leadership manage to handle and communicate this. It means almost everything, he says. Mayor Erik Skjervagen in Fyresdal believes that communication with voters should be improved. Photo: Kurt Inge Dale / news Missing a “Giske voice” Back in Høyanger, union representative Lars Kjetil Skeie at Hydro Aluminum is an important listening post for the party organization in the Labor Party. When asked why things are going so badly, he replies: – One of the biggest reasons is probably a lack of communication, or poor communication. As an example, he highlights the handling of the electricity crisis. – The electricity price crisis was resolved, but they came very late. A lot of people think we’re chasing after them. I don’t think we did, but there were many who had that impression, says Skeie. – What does it take? – The party has been through a harrowing conflict around Trond Giske and things like that. Not that I want him to come back, but the voice and the political message he had were perhaps easier to understand. – Although he says the same as others in Ap, he was perhaps easier to understand. That is why he stood so strongly in the trade union movement. That voice is missing, in a way, says Skeie. “Locally, you are always measured by what you do. There are health, welfare and kindergartens. The bedrock is there. But you must deliver””The electricity price crisis was resolved, but they came very late. A lot of people think we’re chasing after them. I don’t think we did, but there were many who had that impression” “Communication, communication, communication. All the way. Giske’s message, the way of communicating, has been neglected,” Party secretary Kjersti Stenseng says she thinks personal debates are completely uninteresting to voters. – Now we all have a big responsibility to bring the party together and focus on politics, she says. – But is Giske part of the solution or part of the problem? – I am not interested in entering into personal discussions and personal characteristics and contributing to that debate. What we will spend all our time on now is which policy will get people through difficult times, replies Stenseng.
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Five explanations for the Labor crisis – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
