Discussions are taking place in the election committee of the Labor Party. A new party leadership is to be elected at the national meeting in May, and several different versions or sketches are for consideration. news is aware that one possibility that the election committee is discussing is to replace sitting deputy Bjørnar Skjæran with Minister for Industry Jan Christian Vestre. That Skjæran is in a bad position is also written by several other media, including Dagbladet and TV 2. Mayoral candidate Ann-Kristin Moldjord in Bodø is not particularly happy that a battle for the post of deputy may now be brewing. – It is absolutely unnecessary that we now have to start with an upsetting personal dispute, she says to news. She sees no reason to replace Bjørnar Skjæran from Lurøy on the Helgeland coast. – We have a deputy who works perfectly well, who has extensive experience in municipal politics. We have a deputy who has been a farmer, who knows coastal culture and northern Norway. – Do you feel that there is a process underway to have Skjæran removed? – No, I don’t experience that. But what appears in the media is unnecessary. What is important for the Labor Party is to focus on all the good policies we have. Operating with personal disputes, as is presented to the media, is completely unnecessary. Dissatisfied with Finnmark Moldjord is particularly upset with the board of Finnmark Ap, which earlier today launched Helga Pedersen as a candidate for new party secretary. Initially, Finnmark Ap had expressed support for Bjørnar Skjæran as deputy leader, but when Finnmarker Helga Pedersen herself says that she is willing to rejoin the Ap leadership as party secretary, the picture changes, according to Vadsø mayor Wenche Pedersen. – It will be a completely new situation. We understand that Northern Norway cannot have two in the leadership, but if there is a chance to get Helga Pedersen as party secretary, then that is our first priority, says Pedersen to news. This is what Moldjord says about the matter: – I must say I am surprised by Finnmark, which is now launching a new candidate from northern Norway. We know that we cannot get two candidates from Northern Norway into the management. It is damn unnecessary for us to start with such personal conflicts. We need to focus on politics and winning elections. – But if they now want Helga Pedersen; isn’t it good that they make it public? – We have had a tradition of backing each other in Northern Norway, and standing shoulder to shoulder – and I had thought we would do that this time as well. But we’ll see what the election committee comes up with, nobody knows right now. The mayoral candidate in Dønna municipality on the Helgeland coast, John-Erik Skjellnes Johansen, also expects Finnmark to support Skjæran. – Helga Pedersen is an excellent politician, but she has been in management. Replacing Helga with Bjørnar is completely out of the question. Finnmark has also recorded Bjørnar as deputy leader and I expect them to stand behind it. Criticism from Nordland bounces off Criticism from Nordland bounces off Wenche Pedersen on the board of Finnmark Ap. – To that, I would like to say that when the Finnmark Labor Party discussed this the first time, Helga Pedersen was not a current candidate. Now someone has asked if she is relevant, and then she has said yes. Then it would just be missing, and it is clear that Finnmark is keen to sell in its candidates, she says to news. Vadsø mayor Wenche Pedersen denies that she and Finnmark Ap contribute to personal conflict in the party. Photo: Sidsel Vik / news – But you still support Skjæran – wouldn’t it pay off for Northern Norway to have a united front? – Let me put it this way. Northern Norway should of course stand together in those cases where we can stand together. But there are some situations where we also have different views on who are the best candidates. And I am quite sure that if the situation had been the other way around, Nordland would have done the same as us. – And if you get to choose, will you choose Helga? – Yes, that is the obvious signal that has been sent to our man in the election committee. We have not scrapped Bjørnar Skjæran, because we are fully aware that there are many problems to be solved here. – But in a prioritization between the two, we have said that we support Helga. – What if both lose? – I want to look the election committee in the eye if they intend to do it that way. But we must not make it a mysterious affair that we discuss candidates before an election. It must be much better that we discuss candidates in full transparency than that everything just happens in nooks and crannies? – So you don’t buy the criticism that you are contributing to personal disputes at a time when the Labor Party is calm about politics? – If the Labor Party talks about personal disputes when we run and elect a new central board, then it is a strange matter. Too many from Oslo? If the result is that Vestre replaces Skjæran, the party leadership will look like this: Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre: Raised on Ris on the best west side of the capital. Since 2009, he has been elected to the Storting from Oslo. Industry Minister Jan Christian Vestre: Was born in Haugesund. But lives in Oslo, and sits on the board of the Oslo Labor Party. Minister of Education Tonje Brenna: Grew up in Holmlia and Jessheim. Has been county council leader in Viken and deputy leader in Akershus Ap. A management that is unlikely to arouse enthusiasm among those concerned with geographical spread. John-Erik Skjellnes Johansen is a farmer from Dønna and former mayor of the same municipality. He also wants to include Bjørnar Skjæran in the party leadership. Photo: Rune Nordgård Andreassen One of them is John-Erik Skjellnes Johansen. He is a former mayor of Dønna municipality on the Helgeland coast – now a candidate for mayor in the same municipality – and also a delegate to the upcoming national meeting. – To replace the only man from the district with Jan Christian Vestre is completely incomprehensible to me. We cannot have three leaders in the party from the Oslo region. In addition, there are three people who have never worn dirty work clothes. They haven’t even had their fists dirty, he thunders. He admits that he thinks Vestre is an excellent candidate, but: – Now we have a man who represents ordinary people – who represents working people, the coast, industry and districts – and who can speak in a way that people understand. – We are the party for most people. Taking out Northern Norway’s candidate with another candidate from Oslo is a mystery to me. I don’t think they have thought it through, those who have proposed this, says Skjellnes Johansen. Working on Bjørnar Skjæran himself is said to have expressed that he wants to continue as deputy chairman, and now the election committee’s main job is to gather around a unanimous recommendation. This is still the clear goal, because the order from party leader Jonas Gahr Støre was clear to the election committee and leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik: – We are a party that needs us to come together now. I think the voters expect that when we all have to contribute to get through a difficult time, he told news earlier this year. The selection committee is in the midst of its work, and it is possible that a clarification will come before the weekend. But it is at least as likely that this will not happen until next week. The ambition has been to present a recommendation in good time before the national meeting, which starts on 4 May. At the same time, there is nothing formal in the way of the proposal being first presented during the national meeting either, even if this had not been the plan in advance.
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Ann-Kristin Moldjord supports Bjørnar Skjæran as deputy leader of the Labor Party – news Nordland
