My train is loaded with … alcohol? Spirits, beer and aquavit must of course be included on political excursions. Photo: news Yes, and not a little either. Early in episode three, pallets of alcohol are loaded onto a train belonging to the Labor Party. The train will carry Odvar Nordli and co. from Oslo to Trondheim as a political charmer stage before the election campaign, but the scheme completely derails long before they reach the mustachioed city. And that’s pretty much how it played out in reality as well. Party secretary Ivar Leveraas actually chartered an entire train for the Labor Party on 22 August 1979, in true American style. The party wanted to use the train journey to kick-start the opening of the election campaign, which was to take place in Trondheim on 23 August. 90 representatives were on board, including the party leadership, the Government, the parliamentary group and the leaders of the trade union movement. A bunch of journalists were also there. The journalists on the train stand in Makta nicely stewed together with the alcohol. Photo: news And then there was the alcohol. Alcohol was quite widespread in politics at the time, so when the Labor Party went on a train trip, the noble drops naturally had to go with them. Einar Førde and Reiulf Steen in a good mood with something better in the glass. Photo: news And with 90 travelers on board, there were generous amounts of alcohol loaded onto the train. It is worth noting that these details were unknown to the outside world for a long time, despite all the journalists on board. Only in later books and memoirs by politicians did all the unfortunate details of the train journey come to light. More on them later. Did Odvar Nordli demand that the train stop in his home village? Odvar Nordli was not a happy man when he heard the train could not stop in Stange. Photo: news No, it never happened. In the series, Ivar Leveraas tells Odvar Nordli that they are thinking of stopping in his hometown on the way to Trondheim. When a delayed train behind them means that they do not have time to stop in Stange after all, the temperature becomes so high that Nordli demands that the train stop in the village anyway. But in reality the train never stopped in Stange, nor was it ever planned. The only planned stops on the trip to Trondheim were Lillehammer and Otta. If Nordli wanted the train to stop in his home village it may well be, but in that case the train continued independently and did not stop until Lillehammer. Did the unfortunate interview with finance minister Kleppe happen? Per Kleppe, on the left, in conversation with Jens Solli as it is reproduced in Makta. Photo: news Yes, and it was unfortunate. As in the episode, news journalist Jens Solli entered the politicians’ carriage and found Finance Minister Per Kleppe. They knew each other from before, when Solli had previously worked as an information officer in Kleppe’s ministry. Per Kleppe on the train, next to Brundtland, just before Solli grabs him in Makta. Photo: news The train had not had time to get far before Solli got his former boss to somewhat reluctantly agree to an interview. He recorded the whole thing on audio tape. Tax policy was central during the local elections in 1979, and for Ap the core of the dispute was whether or not an interest rate cap should be introduced. When asked by Solli whether the party was considering introducing the unpopular interest rate cap, Kleppe answered in the affirmative. Finance Minister Per Kleppe as he actually looked. The picture is from 1971. Photo: Scanpix / NTB scanpix He answered without consulting the rest of the party leadership, and with that he had acquired a rather controversial stance on tax policy for the party. When the train stopped at Lillehammer, Solli ran to the local news office and was interviewed on air. On the train, the politicians were blissfully unaware of Kleppe’s statement because no one was listening to the radio. The Labor Party thus had to put out a political fire before the election campaign had even started. Did it escalate into a full party on the train? Dark, cramped and festive, there is no doubt about the party atmosphere that develops in the train carriages in Makta. Photo: news Both yes and no. The alcohol flowed freely in the compartments even before the train reached Lillehammer. But even though the atmosphere was good, it wasn’t on the train that it all developed into a drunken party, as shown in the series. It was on the trip’s second stop on the road to Trondheim, a longer stay at Otta, that the blood alcohol level really shot up. The tiny village of Otta with around 2,000 inhabitants as it looks today. Photo: Alexander Nordby After Nordli had spoken at Samfunnshuset, a party was set up for the train assembly at Otta Hotell. Beer and aquavit were on the menu in hospitable quantities, and almost everyone was clearly intoxicated. Odvar Nordli and the gang got drunk and fine the day before the opening of the election campaign. Photo: news Gro Harlem Brundtland should, among other things, have been in good shape, despite the fact that she was very unenthusiastic about the news storm surrounding Per Kleppe’s interview, which had reached Otta earlier in the evening. Odvar Nordli, on the other hand, is said to have been so drunk that he did not catch the commotion surrounding the critical interest rate statement from the finance minister. It was also at Otta Hotell that poor Kleppe tried to write a denial on a napkin. In the episode, this happens in one of the carriages on the train. A slightly worried and thoughtful Per Kleppe. Photo: news When the gradually full assembly moved back to the train from Otta Hotell, Odvar Nordli almost had to be carried on board. There he and many others continued the festivities, playing poker into the night. Were Gro Harlem Brundtland and Reiulf Steen intimate? And did Steen actually make inappropriate advances? Steen and Brundtland, a little closer to each other than usual in Makta. Photo: news Well, the two main characters themselves disagree about that. During the first three episodes, a good relationship is established between Brundtland and Steen. Steen in particular seems to have a good eye for his female colleague. It all comes to a head in the third episode when Steen tells Brundtland that she is one of the names on the “bed list” he gave to his ex-wife. Afterwards, he tries to hint to Brundtland that she can admit what has happened now that they are alone, before he tries to kiss her without success. Brundtland regularly turns away from Steen in this scene. Photo: news In reality, rumors abounded about the relationship between Steen and Brundtland, and whether it actually stopped at the collegiate level. They worked closely together for much of the 70s, so rumors that they were intimate spread quickly. Steen, for example, claimed until his last breath that yes, he and Brundtland had had an intimate relationship. An elderly Reiulf Steen, at home in his own living room at Frogner. Photo: Audun Braastad / Audun Braastad 5021 Brundtland, for its part, has denied the rumors from the start, and rejects the claims from Steen as categorically untrue. However, she has said that on several occasions Steen made advances towards her which she rejected. Whether this happened on the train journey, as shown in the episode, there are no sources. Gro Harlem Brundtland at home on Bygdøy. Photo: Alem Zebic In the book My Life, Brundtland only writes that she “had received help from the conductor to be at peace with the ongoing men in the train corridors that night”. Did Nordli have to go into a hungover debate against Kåre Willoch? A reduced and skeptical Nordli, on his way to a debate from the episode in Makta. Yes, the hangover debate actually took place. The third episode ends with a tired Nordli who learns about the statement to Kleppe, before he also learns that he has to have a debate with Conservative Party leader Kåre Willoch on the topic. Nor did the real Nordli catch what Finance Minister Kleppe had said until the morning after the alcohol-heavy night on the train. Odvar Nordli (right) poses with Reiulf Steen in front of the train that took them to Trondheim. Photo: Paul Owesen / SCANPIX By then they had arrived in rainy Trondheim, and the Labor Party was to hold a press conference later in the day. However, Odvar Nordli and Reiulf Steen were in such bad shape that they had little sense to contribute. At a crisis meeting beforehand, the party had agreed not to go against Kleppe, so the prime minister and the party chairman instead tried to talk the matter out. Afterwards, Nordli went to the radio debate they refer to in the series. The debate about the interest rate cap Nordli had just learned about also did not bear fruit against a more obvious Kåre Willoch. Kåre Willoch who discusses the outcome of Kleppe and the Labor Party’s tax policy. The video is not from the radio debate with Nordli. The whole thing was a rather unsuccessful affair for the Labor Party, which had shot itself in the foot before the election campaign had even started. Sources: Hans Olav Lahlum: Reiulf Steen – the history, triumphs and tragedies Gro Harlem Brundtland: My life: 1939–1986 Steinar Hansson and Ingolf Håkon Teigene: Power and mannefall – the story of Gro Harlem Brundtland Reiulf Steen: Struggle for power: New images from a life DNA: Report: The Norwegian Labor Party 1979–1980 Watch episode 3 of Makta here!
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Makta episode 3 – news Culture and entertainment
