“There is war, there is a crisis, there is a tight budget and people should be grateful that it is precisely us who govern the country in a time of crisis.” This is roughly how the talking points from the government sound, which are repeated every time ministers, representatives of the Storting and other party luminaries come near a microphone. Although the last part of the message would probably have hit harder if it came from someone other than the government’s own, the communication is, if nothing else, coherent and clear. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) seems to have been inspired by Erna Solberg’s (H) frequent press conferences during the pandemic to show more visible leadership. Equally, the voters do not seem to be convinced. Little impression on the voters Norstat’s latest opinion poll for news and Aftenposten goes from gloomy to completely black for a government that in a year has become well used to bad opinion polls. A support for the Labor Party of 18.2 per cent is equally the weakest measured here. Sp is moving dangerously close to the blocking limit, and at 4.3 percent this is the weakest recorded under Trygve Slagsvold Vedum’s management. In total, the government parties get a poor 22.5 percent. It is significantly below what alone would have been considered a startlingly weak Ap poll. If this had been the election result, a government consisting of the Conservative Party and the FRP would have had a clear majority. Didn’t the voters want a new course after all? Although the answer is hardly that simple, this is the first measurement that has been taken up after the government presented its first self-produced state budget. A budget that had what they themselves called a clear direction for distribution, both socially and geographically. While the business world collapsed, they were hailed by the left and the newspaper Klassekampen for the time’s tax increase. Large power surpluses were to return to the community, and social economists and newspaper commentators cheered that there was finally a ground rent tax on rich farming giants. The districts also got theirs. Free ferries, free kindergartens in Nord-Troms and Finnmark, a record-breaking agricultural settlement and the acquisition of large forest properties in Trøndelag should go home to everyone with a green four-leaf clover in their party book. Lack of enthusiasm The elected representatives in Namdalen, who last week gathered all the local politicians to the Namdalsting, a sort of little sister to the county council, should definitely have their eyes sparkling. But even in a region where Ap and Sp have all mayors, and a clear majority in most municipalities, you didn’t even have to scratch the surface to notice that there is a lack of enthusiasm here. In addition to concern for the municipal economy and dissatisfaction with high taxation of power income, it is the salmon tax in particular that has set tempers ablaze. Far away from the Ministry of Finance and the urban salmon tax elite… In what is reminiscent of a kind of parallel reality, last weekend several hundred marched in a torchlight procession against the salmon tax in the small coastal town of Rørvik in the far north of Trøndelag. Wearing t-shirts with the inscription #laksebaron, shop stewards, employees, politicians and others in the local community marked their opposition to the government’s ground rent tax. The initiators were local LO union representatives who fear for their jobs. The union representatives Mette Bråten and Camilla Holand took the initiative last Sunday for a torchlight procession against the salmon tax in the coastal town of Rørvik. T-shirts with #laksebaron are hardly a common sight in Norwegian torchlight processions. Photo: Espen Sandmo / news Also in Lovund, Fisheries Minister Bjørnar Skjæran was met with protesters against the salmon tax when he visited the municipality on Monday to mark the start of aquaculture at sea. We are ordinary people, said the posters. Are they just naive pawns for money power? Shouldn’t they rather be cheering that salmon farmers who have both salt in their porridge and a sports car in their garage have to pay more to the community? Or have they understood something that people in capital circles have not? Because even though almost everyone (including the campaigners) believes that rich farmers should pay more tax, the salmon tax is met with opposition in Rørvik and many other coastal communities. They believe that the proposed model hits the industry disproportionately hard. Unpredictable and without perspective Behind the arguments put forward are two objections in particular. Much of this is about how this was done. One is about process. The second is about perspective. After many parties led by Sp have protested loudly against ground rent on farming, this fell like a bomb locally. Just hours before the decision became known, local Ap and Sp leaders stated that this is something “the capital press in Akersgata has created”. The center party was crystal clear: No to the ground rent tax – now they are introducing it themselves – news Nordland They had received no signals at all from their own government about the salmon tax, and called it “a robbery of the coast”. The editors in Akersgata must face the realities, warned deputy chairman of Trøndelag Ap, Amund Hellesø. The capital’s press is rarely given good intentions in the districts, but proved to be innocent this time. But at least they were invited to the press conference. Half a day later, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum and Jonas Gahr Støre presented the salmon tax at the Blaafarveværket, far away from angry and surprised coastal mayors. There is little doubt that the proposal has been in the Ministry of Finance’s wish list for a long time. Local party people stand back and wonder what happened to predictability. They have no problem understanding that the business community refuses to invest when they have no idea what framework conditions tomorrow will bring. Støre and Vedum continue to lose voters in large numbers. But has Vedum also lost its distinctive political sense of smell? Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB The eyes that see The other is about perspective. Where in the big cities and in the Ministry of Finance you see super profits, the salmon lobby and fat sports cars that should be taxed, people along the coast see vibrant and attractive local communities. In the district municipalities, it is known that there is absolutely nothing that goes without saying. Along the coast, the seafood industry is the difference between growth and stagnation. When it rains on the breeder, it drips on the electrician, the accountant, the grocer, the taxi driver and the pub owner. It does something to a society that the Widerøe planes and hotels are not only filled by people whose travel is paid for by the county council. Free ferries and other support from the state cannot compensate for the feeling that things are going well here. The fact that young people choose to move to and invest in the rural areas is perceived as particularly valuable. The fact that the neighbor has become stone rich does not seem to bother people significantly. Then you are far more afraid of becoming a kind of client. The setting is that seafood and power have enabled us to manage well on our own. Should society at large take this away from us too, they fear. It is no coincidence that the post that received the most applause at the Namdalstinget was an Ap mayor who compared power revenues with property tax. Imagine if they had taken from Oslo and Bærum all the income from properties that happen to be close to the capital, and distributed them around the country, it was said. Then the enthusiasm finally woke up. A delicate balancing act Although the country has got a left-leaning government, it is not necessarily an easy win to tax or in other ways place burdens on the private business world. The balance between public and private is carefully constructed in this country. The observant listener received an important reminder of how fine-tuned that balance is at the Center Party’s national board meeting last week. While representatives from the government and Storting talked in familiar style about their own achievements and how grateful they were that it was SP, and not Erna, Sylvi and co, who ruled the country, the county leaders were far more concerned about the private companies. Representatives from Northern Norway and Møre og Romsdal were clearly critical of ground rent tax. In Western Norway and Eastern Norway, they were particularly concerned about high electricity costs, red figures and a struggling business community. One would think that old Vedum was the foremost to strike this nerve. Talking points from the government may work at internal seminars, but they obviously fall short on ordinary people.
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Now it is the SP leader who is being put in a booth with the “Oslo elite” – Statement
