The Labor Party made its worst election in 99 years and many believe the party is in a crisis. Ap’s powerful party secretary for eight years does not do that when she receives news in her office at Youngstorget. – No, I do not use the term crisis. The most important thing for me is that we recognize that we have made a very bad choice, a far too bad election result, says Stenseng. – Now the work starts towards both 2025 and 2027. Then we will first of all go into this election, evaluate it thoroughly and do what we can to strengthen ourselves and work to get a better election result next time, she explains. The Labor Party’s support over time 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 0% 20% 40% The graph shows the Labor Party’s support in the last municipal elections, all over the country combined. But in the hours and days that have passed since the election defeat, there has been no shortage of voices that have used both crisis and stronger words about the situation. Among them is Porsgrunn mayor Robin Kåss (Ap) and his colleague in Skien, Hedda Foss Five (Ap). – This is a crisis, we must not talk about it, Five told news yesterday. – It was a disastrous election for the governing parties in Grenland, if you look at Bamble, Porsgrunn and Skien as one, said Kåss. Now the two are calling for an open and honest evaluation and investigation of what went wrong for Ap this autumn. FALL: Ap leader Jonas Gahr Støre had to endure critical questions about the election result and his own position in the party leadership debate on election night. Photo: Cicilie Sigrid Andersen / news Evaluation And it will be a “proper and thorough” evaluation, promises Stenseng. The details will be laid out at a national board meeting on 25 September. – First of all, we must get honest feedback on why Ap did not make a good enough choice, from the party organisation, from voters and citizens. And not least from people who did not vote this time, and who may have voted Ap before, she says. – The overall responsibility rests with the central board led by Jonas Gahr Støre, and the practical responsibility rests with you as head of the party office. Won’t this be the goat and the sack of oats? – Even if we are to lead and carry out this evaluation process from the party office and the party, it in no way means that we should sit and evaluate ourselves, says Stenseng, and continues: EXPLANATIONS: Ap and party secretary Kjersti Stenseng will evaluate the election. Photo: William Jobling / news – We will collect that knowledge and information in feedback as widely as possible, get the facts on the table. If anyone is interested in getting the honest feedback to learn, it’s us. – What do you say to those in the party who believe that the evaluations from the last two elections in 2021 and 2019 were not thorough enough? – To that I say that we will now have a thorough, long evaluation process. We want to include all voices and critical voices, those who want to give feedback. I am concerned that the feedback we receive should be translated into active work to strengthen us. – Have you embellished the situation you actually found yourself in? – We have also acknowledged that we have made bad choices over a long period of time. We have tried to use experiences and lessons learned from those elections, not least in 2017, we built the strategy for the general election in 2021 on experiences and lessons learned from 2017. We succeeded in winning that election, even if it was not a good enough one election result. – When will the evaluation be finished? – We have not set a date yet. We are keen to get started quickly, and we are keen to start work towards 2025 quickly, so we will use the autumn. – Will the voters see the conclusion, or will you keep it to yourselves? – We are concerned that it should be an open process. We are concerned with providing answers to how Ap will meet voters, residents and political challenges in the run-up to a new general election. So we certainly don’t intend to keep it a secret. – Work more thoroughly Grenland is an industry-dominated area where the Labor Party is normally strong. But this autumn the party lost around 10 percentage points in both Bamble, Skien and Porsgrunn. Government partner the Center Party also fell back sharply. But Ap’s problems are not new, according to the two experienced mayors. – It has been a trend after the last general election that we have made bad choices nationally as a whole. After Jens’ first government, things went really, really badly. Labor Party made a wretched choice and a crisis commission was set up and they really tackled it, says Labor Party mayor Hedda Foss Five, who is now handing over the mayoral chain to the Conservative Party. MAYOR REQUIREMENTS: Robin Kåss and Hedda Foss Five. Photo: Lorentz Berg / news She believes that one must go deeper into the problems. – Now many people are concerned with patting each other on the back for good efforts, and that is important, but you have somehow not wanted to go into it. An evaluation form has been sent out, but what is it? It quickly becomes shallow, she says to news. The statements from Five came before the Labor leadership presented its evaluation plan on Tuesday. – Sometimes a committee is set up which is called the Accident Investigation Board. Is that something you envision? – Yes, that’s what I mean, even though I don’t like words like that. But it is not enough. Because such an accident commission will soon have a focus on why Ap was not on TikTok in the election campaign, whether we should have started the election campaign earlier and things like that. The government must realize that after two years it has received a strong message from the voters – people who live in the industrial region of Grenland are dissatisfied. Reasons for the collapse Already on election night, it was clear that the blue wind over the country was exceptionally strong. In addition to the Conservative Party becoming the largest party, the right-wing party is taking over power in Oslo and several large cities and in the populous municipalities around the Oslofjord. Stenseng does not believe that a single cause can explain Ap’s fall. The party secretary believes that the government has delivered a lot of good policy since the change of government, but that people are both frustrated, dissatisfied and impatient in the face of high price growth and expensive times. – But that is no excuse. It is our responsibility to sit and govern the country, and we must give people answers that give them security, answers they believe in. We have not done that to a sufficient extent when the result is as bad as it was. Stenseng says Labor will now seek answers that people believe in, and hunt for measures that can make everyday life better in challenging times. She also believes that Ap brought back many core voters in the fall, from trade unions and people who work in industry and the public sector, but not to a large enough extent. Ap struggles to reach young voters and voters with a minority background and get voters to jump down the fence, she states. – We have not been able to mobilize enough people. Weakened trust In response to the criticism from the two mayors from Grenland, she has this to say: – I think both the government and our entire party should go into this evaluation thoroughly now and see what is the main reason why we are now unable to meet people, mobilize , give them the answers they believe in, enough for them to go and put our ballot in the ballot box. – But both Ap and Sp are going back sharply. Do you see this election as a judgment on the government’s first two years? – It is the first time that we are now in government and have run an election campaign from the government for many years. The government has also delivered many good things, such as free daycare, cheap after-school care and investment in care for the elderly, which I know has been well received among our local candidates. But I think we have lost a lot in managing in difficult times. AP LEADERSHIP: Party secretary Kjersti Stenseng, party leader Jonas Gahr Støre and deputy leaders Tonje Brenna and Jan Christian Vestre at AP’s national meeting this spring. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB – How has the summer of scandals with all the competency cases affected? – I think it is one of the things that has had a negative impact. This type of case attracts media attention, it takes the focus away from politics, and it weakens trust in politicians. – What responsibility do you have for the situation that has arisen? – As party secretary, I have a responsibility together with the party leadership, the central board and others. Of course, I take my share of that responsibility. She now announces an “open and honest discussion” about how the party will manage to strengthen itself. As recently as our Aps national meeting elected new party leadership. Party leaders Jonas Gahr Støre and Stenseng were re-elected, while Tonje Brenna and Jan Christian Vestre came in as deputy leaders. Stenseng says it is up to others to say something about her position in management. – You will now remain in office until the next national assembly and until the election in 2025? – Yes, it is the national assembly that decides it, and the national assembly has elected us, so that is our starting point.
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Stenseng promises thorough washing up – will not use the k-word – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
