news meets Erna Solberg just before she sets course for Bergen and Christmas celebrations with her family. – It has been a bad year, or bad months, in recent months. But if I’m going to look back at 2023, I can’t help but see that for the first time in 99 years we were the biggest party in Norway. It is important to look at the bright spots as well, says Solberg. Takes self-criticism Solberg believes she could have done something about the share scandal earlier. – If I had known, I would have done something about it right away. That he had shares and some changes in the portfolio, yes, we knew about that. It was open, and both news and Dagbladet have written about it. But it was so small that I thought we had good control over it, she continues. Trim: Erna Solberg posted this picture of herself and her husband Sindre Finnes at paddle tennis on Boxing Day. Considered resigning She says she internally aired the possibility of resigning. – At one point I was completely open to the fact that I might have to resign. Both if there was an Økocrim investigation, or at the times when I also felt that I had lost a little strength, because it was very taxing. – How close were you to throwing the cards in that period? – Had Økokrim come to a different decision, it could probably have turned out like this. All such investigations take so long. You can see that in Borten Moe’s case, which has not yet been concluded. I don’t make long-term decisions when it’s raining the most. Because then you can make the wrong decisions, she says. Will sell shares Several commentators have doubted whether Solberg could continue. They have also doubted whether Sindre Finnes can join the prime minister’s residence again. Solberg says it is possible since she believes the share issue has been resolved: – He has said himself that he wants to stop it now. He will sell some of the shares he has, he will do so gradually, when there are market opportunities. But before we get into the Prime Minister’s residence, he will be over in other types of mutual funds and that type of thing, which are not individual shares, or financial instruments. Sindre Finnes during the Nobel award ceremony. He promises to sell shares during 2024. Photo: news – So to summarize: you hope to win the election, become prime minister in 2025 – and then he will be in the prime minister’s residence? – As long as I am married to Sindre, it is only natural that we live together as well. It’s not about living in the prime minister’s residence, it’s about whether he will trade shares or not, and he won’t do that, says Solberg. – The Conservative Party elects its leader Solberg says she respects the treatment in the Storting’s control committee. It will be finished in February and will probably contain criticism of Solberg. But she emphasizes that it is the Conservative party that chooses its leader. – But what if your bourgeois friends agree to a wording that in practice means distrust? – I do not intend to enter into all these speculations. And then you also have to think through what precedent you set so that you no longer only evaluate people who sit in the government before the Storting. – But in practice, there is nothing that can come up in the control committee that will change your stay? Erna Solberg and Sindre Finnes together during the Nobel award ceremony on 10 December 2023. Photo: news – The starting point is that the leader of the Conservative Party is chosen by the Conservative Party as a party organisation. It is a democracy in Norway and it is the voters who vote for political parties. They are the ones who exercise the biggest control function we have, the trust function, which we have in Norwegian society. It’s democracy and elections, says Solberg. Civic cooperation Solberg says there are no formal meetings between the Conservative Party, FRP, KrF and Liberal Party. But she wants the bourgeois parties to try to “find common ground” on important issues in the Storting in the lead up to the election in 2025. At the same time, several polls show that the Industrial and Business Party (INP) can come to the fore in the Storting. – You do not now want to reject that Inp can be part of that basis? – My basis is four parties that have collaborated before. Therefore, I see that there is a very long distance between us and INP. And it seems unnatural. But nobody knows what INP will develop into, says Erna Solberg.
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– As long as I am married to Sindre, it is only natural that we live together – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
