A unanimous recommendation from the election committee in the Labor Party should create calm ahead of the national meeting this week. But it didn’t work out that way. For a whole week, former Labor deputy leader and Tana mayor Helga Pedersen opened up to challenge Kjersti Stenseng for the powerful position of party secretary during the national meeting. But on Sunday, Pedersen announced that she would still not take the fight. The decision came after a telephone conversation with Ap leader Jonas Gahr Støre the evening before. – It was unwise of Jonas. The national assembly should have taken care of this, not the prime minister, says Valla to news. At the same time, Støre also receives support. Sarpsborg mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje, who is now nominated for the central board, is now asking the party to close ranks. – Now we have to talk politics, he says to news. NO: Former Labor deputy leader Helga Pedersen will still not try to become the new party secretary. Photo: Jan Harald Tomassen / news – Had endured an open fight The LO leader from the years 2001-2007 says she “needs to add stones to the burden for Jonas”. She emphasizes that she is not only speaking out as an ordinary member of the party, but also as a former leader of Ap’s election committee. – In the current situation, it would have been better for the party to take on an open battle. I think everyone would have tolerated that just fine. For most people, poverty and high electricity prices are the most important things anyway, she continues. Valla draws parallels to 2005, when she herself chaired the selection committee, which nominated Anniken Huitfeldt as the new deputy chair. Huitfeldt ended up not being elected at the national meeting, because there was a bench proposal that the Labor Party should only have one deputy leader. – It was sad, but it would have been very strange if the party leader had called Anniken in advance and asked her not to stand, says Valla. TELEPHONE CONVERSATION: Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre contacted Helga Pedersen when her supporters went to the media and asked her to challenge Kjersti Stenseng (pictured) for the post of party secretary in Ap. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB Veteranref Valla’s criticism comes after AP’s former foreign, defense and trade minister Bjørn Tore Godal has criticized the party leader in harsh terms. – The sum of what has been said, both from Helga Pedersen and Jonas Gahr Støre, only leads to one conclusion: She resigned after that conversation, he says to news. BAD: Former Foreign Minister Bjørn Tore Godal. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB – Although there have certainly also been other elements, it was a triggering factor, adds the party leader. – This is bad. Jonas is himself in the election and is no body between the election committee and the national assembly, writes Godal on Facebook. Godal has been supported by former Minister of Defense Grete Faremo, former President of the Storting Dag Terje Andersen and former ministers Reidar Sandal and Tove Strand on Facebook, which TV 2 has previously mentioned. Former state secretary Svein Fjellheim says it this way on Facebook: – I think that I don’t like the answers that Helga Pedersen gives to TV 2 tonight, which must mean that Jonas has asked her not to stand as a candidate for party secretary at the national meeting. Locally, several Ap politicians also react to Støre’s telephone conversation with Helga Pedersen. – As a long-standing leader of the local party Notodden Arbeiderparti, I myself would never interfere in the election committee’s work. After all, I myself was also elected as leader at ten annual meetings in a row, says Notodden mayor Gry Fuglestveit. Although the election committee has presented a unanimous recommendation, it must be allowed to discuss the candidates before the election at the national meeting, believes leader Roar Steinslien of Gausdal Ap in Innlandet. – I don’t know Støre’s motive, but it is very special that a leader intervenes in a democratic process, he says to news. – I don’t know the content of the conversation, but Helga withdrew, so outwardly it seems special. He should not influence the process. He is welcome to say who he wants, but even that would provide guidelines for cooperation after the national meeting, says the local team leader. Eva-Karin Busch, deputy mayor of Vestvågøy, was out in VG last week and announced that she wanted Helga Pedersen as party secretary. Now she says this about Støre’s handling: – I don’t think anything of it. He should not have contacted Helga Pedersen, in my view. CRITICAL: Deputy mayor Eva-Karin Busch in Vestvågøy municipality. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – Not unnaturally, Jonas Gahr Støre had to use his press conference today to answer the media’s questions about the case surrounding Helga Pedersen. The national meeting starts on Thursday with the party leader’s speech. Støre says he contacted Pedersen after repeated reports in the media that she was considering standing as a candidate for party secretary. – I have not asked her not to do anything, said Støre. – We had a discussion about what we want to get out of the national meeting, she concluded as she did the next day, and that is her decision, he added. For her part, Pedersen says that she found it right to withdraw her candidacy because she feared she would not have enough support from “central circles” in the party if she were to win in a possible contest against Stenseng. And after Støre’s press conference, she hit back on Facebook: – It is true that he did not explicitly ask me to withdraw, but the signal was very clear, and I understand how such a conversation must be interpreted, she said. SUPPORT: LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik and Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre during a trip to Finland this winter. Photo: Kristian Skårdalsmo Støre also receives support for its management. – It is not unnatural for a party leader to make a phone call to a party member who signals in the media that she is running for party secretary, says LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik to NTB. Here he led Ap’s election committee, which has proposed a new party leadership. The committee has therefore unanimously recommended that current party secretary Kjersti Stenseng continue in her job. – We have a united and unanimous election committee behind another recommendation and Pedersen was not nominated by any county. Beyond that, I will not comment on the matter further, says Følsvik. – Now we have to talk politics Sarpsborg mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje is now asking the party to focus on politics. – We are now in a position in government and must create as much policy as possible to create and share. Any focus other than that becomes wasted energy. We have a job to do, and that is the job we should concentrate on now, he says to news. Martinsen-Evje is himself nominated for a place on the central board. POLITICS: Sarpsborg mayor Sindre Martinsen-Evje. Photo: Rune Fredriksen/news – But hasn’t Ap now created these problems for themselves? – If everyone had spent time and effort creating good political debates at national meetings, I think we would have taken a step in the right direction. About the phone call from Støre to Pedersen at the weekend, the Sarpsborg mayor says this: – I don’t know what has happened in that case. Personally, I think that what is important to focus on is the national assembly and our politics. I have full confidence in Jonas as party leader. What he has done or not done, I will not speculate.
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– Unwise by Jonas – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
