The light poles are around a meter high and illuminate the stage behind her. Between them stand round, green spotlights and create a few small dots at floor height. Kirsti Bergstø takes it to her heart to say thank you. She climbs onto the chair and clenches her fist to show that she will fight on behalf of the party. Standing ovation. Kirsti Bergstø is SV’s seventh leader since its creation in 1975. Photo: Lars Nehru Sand / news SV has got a new party leader after 11 years with Audun Lysbakken and 15 years with Kristin Halvorsen. Halvorsen brought SV into government and normalized seeking power. Lysbakken was the radical who polished the distribution profile and climate policy and spearheaded a political project. On Saturday, he topped off with a farewell to the NATO declaration position hours before handing over the leadership baton. Bergstø was voted in unanimously at the national meeting, but everyone knows that the dust from the short-lived leadership battle against Kari Elisabeth Kaski has not settled. With the responsibility, Bergstø also gets the burden of proof. Beneath the surface, something is simmering in SV. Bergstø must grow quickly into the leadership role to avoid it becoming a problem for her. A significant part of the party is excited about how red and radical SV will become with its newly elected national government. – I am excited to see if there is a place for me in Kirstis SV, say the many who are now waiting. The red and the green Before, the S was red and the V was green in SV’s logo. Now it’s green before red. This has been the case since the year after Lysbakken became SV leader. It was certainly more graphics than politics, it was emphasized at the time. SV has always been this balancing and coalition between the red and the green. Lysbakken’s success as party leader is that he has both sharpened and built a recognizable profile. Audun Lysbakken took over the leadership of SV after Kristin Halvorsen in 2012. He resigned on Saturday. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB How will the balance be with Bergstø? The child protection educator from Nesseby who heads the working committee at the Storting after having worked at a crisis center and NAV. The questions many people ask themselves is whether there will be too much red and too little green. Too much district and too little urban politics. Too many values and principles and too little realism. Too much nature and too little climate. Bergstø has the burden of proof when it comes to collecting, being unifying, building bridges, setting out a course, securing the ceiling height. Those who have cheered for Bergstø also expect a lot from her. They expect an SV leader who, to a greater extent, sees society from below and lifts the traditional movements from which SV springs. Not just the climate movement, but also the trade union movement, the women’s movement, the peace movement and the anti-racist movement. The entire SV requires a breakthrough. Bergstø must deliver in negotiations with the Støre government. More for welfare, more redistribution, more for climate and nature. In Ap and Sp, one wonders if there is a less compromising SV leader than Lysbakken they are now dealing with. Bergstø has the burden of proof when it comes to the tone towards the government and the results she gets. She will ensure SV a distinctive visibility and profile, but also build a majority and give and take with other parties. While Lysbakken took over a party in crisis which he had to painstakingly rebuild after eight years in government, with time and space to redefine himself, Bergstø takes over a fairly well-organised, harmonious SV which expects concrete political results quickly. It gives her both a good starting point and height of fall. Among other things, Bergstø must find the answer to why SV does not increase support more when Labor is experiencing persistent crisis numbers. The power of speech For many delegates, the deputy chair election was thus a kind of exercise to calibrate the leadership. Environmental champion Lars Haltbrekken against health politician and NATO opponent Marian Hussein was more of a profile fight than a fight based on political disagreement. I am yours, if you want me, said deputy Marian Hussein who was elected with 114 to 101 votes on Saturday. Photo: Lars Nehru Sand / news Hussein’s election speech was probably the masterpiece that tipped the hall in her direction. An honest account and promise of who she is, but not least what she is and is not. To a much greater extent than Haltbrekken, she spoke to the delegates’ hearts and stomachs in addition to political appeal. The delegates who would have preferred to see an SV under the leadership of Kaski can be happy about this weekend’s NATO decision, but still fear that the overall composition of the national board reflects too little of the breadth of the party. The wing talk started right after the deputy leader election and before the subsequent celebratory dinner. The speculation about how long it is until Bergstø is challenged if the leadership position is underway in parts of the party. Bergstø’s opponents deliberately avoided demanding a written election in order to highlight blank votes. They believe they are giving their newly elected manager peace of mind, but also a burden of proof. Perhaps she will not have as long a leadership period as her two predecessors. Will destroy the working line In her first speech as SV leader, an energetic Kirsti Bergstø asked the Labor Party to “demolish the failed working line” and increase benefits for people outside the working world. The speech was largely ideologically rooted in SV’s redistribution policy, but it was also clear that it is urgent to solve the nature and climate crises. Bergstø lifts the party’s redistribution policy. Like Lysbakken, she is concerned that SV must unite the left and seek power. Of course, she continues much of Lysbakken’s politics. She has been part of his management for the past five years and involved in all strategic and political trade-offs. Lysbakken’s achievement As outgoing leader, Audun Lysbakken argued that SV should no longer demand Norwegian withdrawal from NATO. Photo: Alf Simensen / NTB It has gone fast, but slowly. He has shown direction, but bought himself time. Audun Lysbakken was able to crown his leadership achievement in SV by getting the party’s almost 50-year-old demand to withdraw Norway from NATO changed. A line change in the party’s history after a process that could have been more destructive. Ask KrF or Rødt how line changes can hurt. The party leadership prevailed in all votes in the NATO debate at the national meeting, all attempts to water down the power of the decision showed solid majorities in the hall. In SV’s NATO process, the commitment, the ceiling height, the reality orientation and the argumentation have been a study in anchoring, trust and leadership. This is what Bergstø must prove that it can build on. * The national meeting season is underway! Hear our commentators on which national meetings are the most fun, and which are the most boring, in our new podcast here:
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She has a lot to prove – Speech
