The margins are tiny in Bergen. 232,000 people have the right to vote, and the election results show that 3-4 votes are decisive for whether there will be a majority for a blue or red city council on the city’s major dispute: whether the Bybanen should be built in front of Bryggen or not. On Thursday, the Liberal Party left the city council. The Labor Party (Ap) is thus left alone, and it is uncertain whether city council leader Rune Bakervik will resign voluntarily. Høgre is negotiating to form a minority council together with Venstre and the Christian People’s Party (KrF), after the Progressive Party (Frp) and the Center Party (Sp) refused. Now the Bergen politicians have taken the weekend. They leave behind a week without parallel in the city’s political history. Ap-tap At 07.18, Tuesday 12 September. It was a blue Tuesday after the election night for the leader of the city council in Bergen, Rune Bakervik from the Labor Party. After a long election campaign against the wind, he sat on news’s radio broadcast and was asked if he realized the defeat: – Now all the votes have been counted, and I see that there is no governing basis for my city council, so I will inform the mayor today about that my city council is resigning. Bergensaran has spoken. City council leader Rune Bakervik and the Labor Party are now alone in the city council in Bergen, after the Liberals left on Thursday and are now negotiating with Høgre and KrF for power in the city. Photo: Linnea skare Oskarsen / news Høgre turns: “An open mind” On election night four or five hours earlier, the vote count showed that Høgre got five more seats in the city council than they have had in the last four years. The Progressive Party (Frp) got four more, while today’s city council party Labor and Venstre stood still. At least as important: Two brand new “protest parties” made a snap election. The Industrial and Business Party (INP) got three city council representatives and Bergenslist got four. The right’s top candidate, Christine Meyer, saw that she was dependent on both parties to achieve a majority cooperation and to oust city council leader Bakervik. On election night, she wanted to “have an open mind and listen to” these two parties. But if she seeks support there, she will have to break her perhaps most important promise in the election campaign: Yes to building the Bybanen over Bryggen. The party has promised not to rematch in the city’s major dispute over the past twelve years, but both Frp, INP and Bergenslisten demand a rematch and demand the Bybanen in a tunnel behind Bryggen. – They established their party now and wonder what hit them, cheered the “rebel general” behind Bergenslist, Trond Tystad on election night. “Eg belitar meg ikkje”, the slogan on the t-shirt on the left, is Bergen for not accepting defeat. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news The pattern unravels But in the days after the election, many unusual things happened. On Tuesday evening, the counting of personal votes and castaways and the last 2,000 preliminary votes yielded a shocking surprise: Venstre captured one mandate from Bergenslisten, while MDG captured one from Høgre. It changes the balance between the right and left sides. Then Høgre could hope for a majority cooperation with the center party, without the two recent protest parties. At the same time, Ap now got back a theoretical chance to get a majority together with everything from Raudt to KrF and the Center Party (Sp). Maybe Bakervik didn’t want to step down as city council leader, after all? Christine Meyer (H) smiled on election night, but now has the difficult task of finding a way to take over city council power in Bergen. Photo: Simon Skjelvik Brandseth / news A rebellious Høgremann For Martin Smith-Sivertsen had come in from the sidelines. This is the man who became the leader of the city council for Høgre in 2014, after an internal coup in Høgre which concerned precisely the Bybanen along Bryggen. The following year he left, also because of the Bybanen along Bryggen. And in this year’s election campaign, he created far-right waves in many ways: Although he went to the polls for the party, this summer he became a kind of fifth columnist who warned voters against voting Høgre in Bergen. For Smith-Sivertsen is very upset that Høgre “repented” and dropped the tunnel option. Paradoxically, he nevertheless increased the chances for the left and the light rail supporters. Because he got 629 votes – including 377 from Bergensliste voters – and he moved up to a safe place in the city council. But this led to Bergenslisten losing one of its four newly acquired seats in the city council. Their voters had collectively seen too many of their votes “thrown away”, and one city council seat therefore went to the tunnel opponent Venstre. According to electoral researchers, it has never before happened in Norway that slangars have changed the distribution of mandates between parties. And even the balance between the right and left sides. The moving blunder On Wednesday at 10 o’clock the electoral board in Bergen approved the election results. Then it was “simply” for the political parties to find out who they want to work with, and who will get city council power for the next four years. But no. At 12.45 on the same day, Bergens Tidende published a “bombshell” that once again changed the possibilities for the majority: Martin Smith-Sivertsen did not get a seat in the city council after all. He is disqualified. The reason is that he announced a temporary move to Bærum in July, before he and his wife will move to London. His plan was to be a Bergen politician and fight against the Bybanen langs Bryggen from his new home in England. But the law is resoundingly clear: On election day, local politicians must be registered in the municipality where they stand for election. – A mistake, admits Smith-Sivertsen. He had neither informed Høgre nor the electoral board about the move. – I became aware of this legal requirement yesterday, he says Slukøyra to news on Thursday. According to electoral officer Ida Rambech, politicians and municipal employees in Bergen are used to a lot and take most of it in stride. Photo: Øyvor Bakke New trouble for Høgre Tabben hans overturns the political image in the city again. Some election experts advocated a recount. But after 24 hours, the electoral board in Bergen approved the election for the second time. Bergenslisten got back the 377 extra personal votes they gave him. This is how Bergenslisten got its fourth mandate in return from Venstre. Things became more difficult for Høgre again. Now Høgre is no longer able to muster a majority against the Ap city council without at least one protest party. While Ap still has a theoretical hope for a broad majority cooperation. The rest is an unfinished story. But now the Bergen politicians have taken the weekend. Say they.
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Such was the historic election week in Bergen – news Vestland
