– The increased cost of living must be a topic in connection with the state budget this autumn. The costs have increased in so many areas, whether it is food, fuel, electricity prices, rent or interest, says Marit Arnstad to news. Together with his twin sister Eli, the newly minted 60-year-old receives news at his home farm Arnstad Vestre at Skatval in Trøndelag. There they live together, Eli in the main house and Marit in the student housing. The dog Ludde plays around the feet in the courtyard. – There are close ties in our family. We are close and quite different, but then we are also each other’s best friends, says Eli. She met in the Storting already in 1985 and is now back in politics after a long break, as Stjørdal’s first female mayor. She got the job earlier this spring, when Ivar Vigdenes asked for a replacement. – I’m a local politician. Because I have only been active in municipal politics since 2019. But when you are asked to be mayor, you say yes. It’s very fun, says Eli. The dog Ludde spreads joy on Arnstad Vestre. In the background is the main house where Eli lives. Photo: Mats Rønning / news “Little sister” Marit, born a few minutes after Eli, has also had long stays outside politics. But now she is among the most important supporters of party leader and finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum. For eight years she has led the Center Party’s parliamentary group. And from there, the signal is clear to the government ahead of this autumn’s budget rounds: People who are struggling with increased costs must get help. – I have received a clear message to bring this into the discussions with the government, says Marit Arnstad. No more crisis packages In this interview, the Center Party’s parliamentary leader answers questions about the dramatic fall in opinion polls since the election, whether the party’s reversal stamp has been given and tells about the passion for football and the family league in the Elite Series Fantasy called “Ånstom karsk og waffle”. But first there is something Marit Arnstad will have said: Public spending must return to normal after two years of state of emergency. Marit Arnstad on the porch of the student housing at home on the farm. From here she comes with new promises to those who are struggling with higher prices and higher interest rates. Photo: Mats Rønning / news – The pandemic has brought with it a thinking that we can constantly present new economic crisis packages to people. We have to reverse that course. It is not normal, she says and continues: – It is common to have budget treatment twice a year. We have to go back there. She rejects that the message is a settlement with the dissatisfaction of rising expectations among Norwegian voters. – No, because I understand people’s frustration. But we have been through a rather exceptional period in the last two years, with a number of additional packages and a completely different financial management. This is not normal in Norwegian government. Facts about Marit Arnstad Born 4 May 1962 at Skatval in Nord-Trøndelag. Leader of Senterungdommen from 1986 to 1988. Elected to the Storting from Nord-Trøndelag since 2013 and in the periods 1993–1997 and 2001–2005. Minister of Petroleum and Energy in Kjell Magne Bondevik’s (KrF) government in 1997–2000 and Minister of Transport in Jens Stoltenberg’s (Labor) government in 2012–2013. Is today Sp’s parliamentary leader and participates in the polls for a new government together with party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum. – Must hold back – We are lucky and have an oil fund and large oil revenues, but we can not use all these revenues into the Norwegian economy. You can not just inject money into the public sector. You have to hold back, says the Sp-top. But how does this message relate to the promise to help people who are struggling in a time of rising prices and higher interest rates? Marit Arnstad answers that it is about priorities – in the ordinary budget rounds in the Storting. Thus, it is only in connection with the state budget for next year that new measures can have an effect. – When you have a shortage of labor that Norway has today, and at the same time increased costs for a large number of intermediate goods, it leads to greater competition for scarce resources. Then the public sector must hold back on spending, otherwise interest rates will rise more than we expect it to. Laws help The Center Party went to the polls with promises to keep taxes low on fuel, but prices have risen to the same level. A pump price that is closer to 30 than 20 kroner is far from what Sp’s core voters envisioned on election night. – Cutting the taxes on petrol and diesel, would have been a helping hand to people who voted for you in the belief that you would make it cheaper to use a car in the village? – We said in connection with the audit that it was not relevant to do anything with the fees. But it is clear that the cost of living will be an important issue in the budget work for next year, Arnstad repeats. A number of measures are relevant to help the most disadvantaged in a demanding situation with increased prices and higher interest rates, according to Sps Marit Arnstad. Photo: Mats Rønning / news She is clear that something must be done, but not very specific when news asks what kind of move she envisions. – I can not say anything about what will be in the state budget this autumn, she says. – Lower VAT or cuts in taxes and fees are some examples, right? What kind of opportunities do you envision? – There are many different moves that you mention. The goal must be that we get to shield the most vulnerable from the cost spiral that we now see. – Are we talking about increased social benefits, such as child benefit, which the government’s budget partner SV will increase? – We are talking about the whole picture when it comes to cost of living and the opportunities to shield those who have the most difficulty. Political family Marit and Eli Arnstad trace the family back to the 18th century on the family farm Arnstad Vestre. And it’s a political family we’m talking about. Eli’s daughter Ada is a political adviser in the Ministry of Finance, while Marit’s son August is a municipal council representative. Mother Aasta was also a local politician, while the great-uncle was mayor and county mayor and the uncle state secretary and general secretary – all for the Center Party of course. Marit and Eli Arnstad have grown up in a family where two themes have overshadowed most: Sports and politics. Photo: Mats Rønning / news – Did you have to become a politician? – He he, no, I was in no way forced into politics. But I come from a very socially interested family. In our family companies, it is not cars or houses that are discussed, but politics. And that’s been the case ever since I was a child. – We always discussed at home. And some of my old uncles took the opposite position just to provoke a discussion, says Marit Arnstad. She herself has described herself as less outgoing than her sister. She jokingly calls herself “she angry in the Center Party”, in contrast to the exuberant party leader. – I’m probably a little reserved and shy of myself. Then I might be perceived as not so open, says Arnstad. Steep fall One of the questions Marit Arnstad has most often had to answer is why she herself has chosen to remain in the Storting rather than enter government. – It is because the Center Party needs me in the Storting. And because I thrive in the Storting and want to be there. We are a minority government that is dependent on negotiating to get through, and then I think it is in the Storting that I do the best good for myself. The second question that is often repeated at the moment is about the Center Party’s sharp fall in opinion polls. In June last year, the party had an average of 17.6 percent in the polls. At the beginning of this year’s summer, support is 10 percentage points lower. – What went wrong? – I think part of the wear and tear this fall has to do with frustration among people. Frustrations related to increased costs, and that there are no simple solutions to change the power market. – But was it not precisely by prescribing simple solutions, for example when it comes to the power market, that made the Center Party grow so strongly? – No, we have said that we want structural changes, but not that this is a “quick fix” that has been done in a month or two. When we went against Acer and the EU’s third energy market package, it was an expression that we want a different course in power policy. It was in the early summer of last year that Vedum was appointed as the prime ministerial candidate by the party. Was it a tactical blunder? – No, I do not see it that way. I do not think it was so strange. Before, it was quite common in Norwegian politics for several parties to have their own prime ministerial candidates. – Was the press too kind to the Center Party in the run-up to the parliamentary elections? Did you get it too easy? – At least not during the election campaign itself, then we got a critical spotlight and had to be responsible for the cases. That we are followed up on issues, we must find ourselves in, in line with other parties. Big sister Eli believes Sp’s fall is something that is first and foremost highlighted in comments on Facebook and Twitter. – People understand that it has been special months, she says. Karsk and waffle Sports and politics. That is mostly what it has been about, when the extended family at Arnstad Vestre is gathered. His father Arne, who died in 1980 and did not even turn 50, was active in the sports team in the village for numerous years. And Marit and Eli are both self-described participants when the family creates fantasy teams in the Premier League and the Elite Series. At the beginning of the summer, Marit was in third place in the league «Ånstom karsk og waffle». The name reveals not only a certain fascination for Trøndelag drinking culture, but also local grammar, where the dative form of Arnstad becomes “Ånstom”. – Berisha has been good for me this year, Haugen in Ålesund as well. And then I have used a good number of Lillestrøm players, says Marit, to an appreciative nod from sister Eli. Both are ihuga RBK supporters by the way, so the fantasy teams are chosen on the basis of cool analysis, free of sentimentality. But history and traditions are something both sisters emphasize, also politically. After all, their party is fighting to split merged municipalities and counties and reverse several reforms that the Solberg government implemented. – Is the Center Party a retro party? – We said in the election campaign that we would work to dissolve counties that had been merged by force and that forcibly merged municipalities would have an opportunity for dissolution. Reversal is also a label applied by our political opponents, says Marit Arnstad. She believes it is not a question of reversal, but changes for the better for people and says that in general there is far too much attention on opinion polls in political journalism. – I meant that when we were much higher on the measurements as well, she says.
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Warns of measures against price shock – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
