Discussions are taking place in the election committee of the Labor Party. A new party leadership is to be elected at the national meeting in May, and several different versions or sketches are for consideration. news is aware that one possibility that the election committee is discussing is to replace sitting deputy Bjørnar Skjæran with Minister for Industry Jan Christian Vestre. But yesterday the county leaders in Nordland and Finnmark said that it would be “completely unthinkable” with a party leadership without representation from the coast or Norway north of Dovre. – The party organization just won’t accept that, county leader Mona Nilsen in Nordland told news. Finnmark Ap also expressed support for Bjørnar Skjæran, but after a board meeting yesterday, support seems to be hanging by a thin thread. Because according to Vadsø mayor Wenche Pedersen, the county team would now rather have former Labor deputy leader Helga Pedersen as party secretary than fight for Skjæran. PROPOSED: Tana mayor Helga Pedersen was deputy leader of Ap from 2007 to 2015. Now she wants to return to the leadership as party secretary. Here from the annual meeting of Finnmark Ap in 2018. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB The election committee’s recommendation for a new board in Trøndelag Labor Party: Photo: news Petter Strøm Leader: Trond Giske, Trondheim Political deputy leader: Amund Hellesø, Nærøysund Organizational deputy leader: Marit Bjerkås, Rennebu. The following people have been nominated for a place in the Labor Party’s national board together with leader and deputy leaders: Tone Våg, SnåsaKristian Torve, OppdalKhalil Obeed, LevangerBerit Flåmo, Frøya The election of a new county leadership will take place at the county annual meeting on 29 August. Wants Helga Former Ap deputy leader Helga Pedersen has been mentioned as a possible candidate for new party secretary, but according to several sources news has spoken to, she will be a long way from full support in the election committee. Now the fight to get her back to Oslo and national politics from her home municipality of Tana, where she is now mayor, is intensifying. – Finnmark Ap wants to express its full support for Helga Pedersen as the new party secretary in the Labor Party, says Vadsø mayor Wenche Pedersen to news. She says the matter was dealt with at a board meeting in Finnmark Ap yesterday and claims the county association’s representative in the selection committee, Sigurd Rafaelsen, has been told to take this into account in further work. Initially, Finnmark Ap had expressed support for Bjørnar Skjæran as deputy leader, but when Helga Pedersen herself says that she is willing to rejoin the Ap leadership as party secretary, the picture changes, according to the Vadsø mayor. – It will be a completely new situation. We understand that Northern Norway cannot have two in the leadership, but if there is a chance to get Helga Pedersen as party secretary, then that is our first priority, says Wenche Pedersen. County leader Kristina Hansen rejects that the signals from Finnmark imply a scrapping of Bjørnar Skjæran: – It does not imply correctness that the Finnmark Labor Party has scrapped Bjørnar Skjæran. Beyond that, I have no comments, she says to news. Kjersti Stenseng wants re-election as Ap-top Skjæran in play One of the sketches that have been pending in the election committee in recent days means that Bjørnar Skjæran must step aside as deputy leader in favor of Jan Christian Vestre. Jonas Gahr Støre is not in the running as party leader, and it also seems clear that Minister of Education Tonje Brenna will be proposed as the new deputy leader in a party leadership which, in that case, will be expanded from three to four. Party secretary Kjersti Stenseng, like Skjæran, wants re-election, and that still seems to be the most likely, according to sources with insight into the election committee’s work. But nothing has been decided, news confirms. Among the cabals that are now added, Vestre is in favor of Skjæran. But then the following question arises: Can the Labor Party choose a leadership that consists of four easterners, three of whom are from Oslo and Akershus? Some in Ap think this is out of the question, such as the county teams in Nordland and Finnmark. But it may happen that the northernmost county teams can be “greased” with other positions in the central board. For example, there will be a proposal to replace Anette Trettebergstuen from Innlandet with Cecilie Myrseth from Troms as women’s political leader. In addition, Bjørnar Skjæran should have been offered to continue on the central board as an ordinary member and that Finnmark should get a representative, which the county does not currently have. Vadsø mayor Wenche Pedersen, who is also women’s policy leader in Finnmark Ap, strongly warns against demolishing Anette Trettebergstuen. – The Labor Party cannot remove its own Minister for Equality. Anette has done a fantastic job and has broad support in APS’s women’s network, says Pedersen. Trettebergstuen took over the position, which also gives her a seat on the APS central board, in 2021. She has thus only held the position for one national assembly period. Working on Bjørnar Skjæran himself is said to have expressed that he wants to continue as deputy chairman, and now the election committee’s main job is to gather around a unanimous recommendation. This is still the clear goal, because the order from party leader Jonas Gahr Støre was clear to the election committee and leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik: – We are a party that needs us to come together now. I think the voters expect that when we all have to contribute to get through a difficult time, he told news earlier this year. The selection committee is in the midst of its work, and it is possible that a clarification will come before the weekend. But it is at least as likely that this will not happen until next week. The ambition has been to present a recommendation in good time before the national meeting, which starts on 4 May. At the same time, there is nothing formal in the way of the proposal being first presented during the national meeting either, even if this had not been the plan in advance.
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Skjæran in play – Finnmark wants Helga – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
