– Have they heard of the Industry and Business Party? Jan Inge Selvik is on a political bachelor party at a café in Stavanger. He is the leader of INP in Rogaland, and is among an increasing number of people who are working for the new party to win parts of the kingdom after the election this autumn. – I’ve never heard of it, says one of the four friends sitting around the cafe table. – We are a completely new party. We stand in the center and have our own identity. And I am very much against this with wind turbines, says Selvik. – Yes, I’m against that too, answer the well-grown ladies. The Industrial and Business Party is not particularly known for the four girlfriends sitting in the cafe in Stavanger. Photo: Kjersti Hetland / news Membership increases The Industrial and Business Party was founded in Rjukan on 29 February 2020. The 2021 parliamentary election was the first time the party stood for election and then they got a turnout of 0.3 percent. But since then the number of members has increased sharply. – I have never been politically active before, but when the Industry and Business Party came up with its programme, something clicked right away. Svein Ove Gjersdal joined the party last year. He is part of a membership that is now approaching 8,000. Almost 900 people have signed up this year. By comparison, the Left party had around 7,200 members at the end of 2022. – That is a high number in a Norwegian context. For many, joining a party is a very big threshold, compared to liking it on Facebook or saying you vote for it, says political commentator at news, Lars Nehru Sand. Svein Ove Gjersdal wants to have a say in the team at the county annual meeting of the Industrial Party in Rogaland. Photo: Kjersti Hetland / news Believes INP can get into the municipal council The members of INP have also founded local teams, over 100 so far. And the party believes they have enough committed members to be able to field lists in as many municipalities at the election this autumn. – I thought it was a flop, but now I may have to bite those words, says political scientist at the University of Stavanger, Svein Tuastad. Svein Tuastad believes the Industrial Party can do well in the autumn election. Photo: Josef Benoni Ness Tveit / news He thinks the Industrial Party can manage what many other small parties struggle with, namely getting more than 1-2 per cent support. – They have an appeal with greater potential. And they will probably join many municipal councils and county councils, says Tuastad. – Can the Industrial Party become a power factor? – They can clearly become a power factor. Because they can negotiate with both the left and the right in the municipal council. And therefore they can get positions. Standing for election for the first time Svein Ove Gjersdal is one of those who will stand to get INP into the municipal council. He works as an engineer in oil, but now he also wants to become a local politician in Eigersund. – I am on the list for the municipal elections. This party has no roots in old sins and can start all over again. He meets me at the county annual meeting of INP in Rogaland. There he sits together with several others who are getting involved politically for the first time and discusses what should be the INP’s policy locally. Jo Øyungen takes part in the debate at the county annual meeting of the INP in Rogaland. He is also running for election in Sola municipality. Photo: Kjersti Hetland / news – Why the Industry and Industry Party? – Because the party has members who have not followed the traditional political career, says Jo Øyungen. He joined the party last year, is a list candidate in Sola municipality and usually works with IT. Øyungen became part of INP because he saw that several of the members had experience from business, not politics. – Why don’t you like these politicians who have a lot of political experience? – It is because they have political experience. They have little industrial experience, little experience from standing in a classroom, little experience from working in a hospital or a nursing home. And I feel that this means that the policy being pursued has little to do with what is going on in the organisations. Jan Inge Selvik speaks at the county annual meeting in Rogaland. Photo: Kjersti Hetland / news The elite rebellion’s new clothes In Rogaland, the INP has almost 1,200 members and if you look at the population, the party is doing a little extra well in the oil county. – They’re the ones with the overalls on, sort of. And then we have clear goals that we will develop and not liquidate Norway, says the county leader. Jan Inge Selvik will put on the overalls when he will stand in the election campaign. Photo: Øystein Otterdal / news – Who is signing up? – Completely ordinary people from all genres. And that is perhaps because the governing party has elitistized itself a little too much. So the contact with the grassroots is perhaps a little off, says Selvik. – It is a constant feature of politics that one is against the elites. Two years ago, it was the Center Party that could play that role. And now it is the Industrial Party that can take on the elite rebellion’s new guise, says Tuastad. – The appeal is that they can say with some confidence that they represent the good old Norwegian industrial values. And that they did not allow themselves to be controlled by foreign inventions. From tolls to INP Back at the cafe in Stavanger, the county leader says that the main reason he joined the party was the position on leaving the EEA. But he has also previously been involved in the road toll case. Sigurd Sjursen helped start a popular uprising against tolls, now he has become involved in INP. Photo: Kjersti Hetland / news At the cafe, Selvik has now been joined by Sigurd Sjursen, who is standing at the top of the list for INP in Sandnes. It was Sjursen who five years ago started the Facebook group “Bomfritt Jæren – Nok er nok”. A protest group against tolls that engaged tens of thousands of people and which led to both large demonstrations and to many voters voting for the toll party FNB in 2019. Demonstration against tolls in Stavanger back in 2018. Photo: Carina Johansen / NTB Scanpix Sigurd Sjursen joined the municipal council in Sandnes as a representative of the FRP at the previous municipal election. But now he feels at home in INP. – Four years ago it was about tolls, what are you protesting against in 2023? – What people react to is the price level, that everything is rising. You have tolls, electricity, interest. There is a limit for most people. And that is why we in INP are growing as we are now, says Sjursen. The people’s party FNB (formerly the People’s Action against tolls) has now lost most voters, according to opinion polls. But Tuastad does not think it will happen as quickly for the Industrial Party. – This is a party which is slowly building up and which has a broader political platform. It does not depend on a matter that is in the wind. But can constantly pick up on issues that symbolize this anti-elite rebellion. And in two years there will be a general election. – It is not completely unrealistic that they can start snooping around parliamentary seats, but there is a long way to go before they get there, says the political scientist.
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– Can become a power factor – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
