Veljarane says “enough is enough” for the toll party – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio

– We have a huge job to do. Frode Myrhol has taken us to the new party office of the People’s Party in Stavanger. Here are the boxes stacked with t-shirts, jackets and shopping nets with the party logo on them. – It is very uncertain whether I will come in at all. So now we have to get the storeroom out, says Myrhol, who today sits on both the municipal council and the county council. The starting point for this year’s election campaign could hardly be worse. The latest poll from Stavanger showed that the People’s Party has a support of 0.4 per cent. It is a far cry from 9.2 per cent, which was the election result in 2019. – I would be lying if I said I thought it would go well. I do not know. I am very unsure, says Myrhol. Frode Myrhol unpacks t-shirts and other equipment they will use in the election campaign. Photo: Tom Edvindsen / news Toll election in 2019 It was Frode Myrhol who founded the party back in 2014. But then it was called People’s Action no to more tolls (FNB). The party was started in protest against the introduction of a new toll in Nord-Jæren. By the time of the 2019 election, the toll riot had spread to several places in the country. It had become a popular movement. Several thousand marched in demonstration trains in Norwegian cities, with the slogan “enough is enough”. Several thousand demonstrated against tolls in Stavanger. Here from a demonstration in August 2018. Photo: Carina Johansen / NTB Scanpix When the election results came in on election night four years ago, many were surprised. In Bergen, FNB received a support of a whopping 16.7 per cent, in Alver 22 per cent, in Sola 10 per cent and in Oslo 5.8 per cent, to name a few. Hardly a blood alcohol level left – They really were a power factor. At the moment, there is no indication that they will remain so after the election, says Johan Giertsen from Poll of polls. They have an overview of opinion polls that are carried out around the country. And it is not just in Stavanger that the party is in a bad position. Johan Giertsen from Poll of polls sees that the People’s Party is doing poorly in the polls at the moment. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB – Apart from Tromsø, where the road toll case is still relevant, it is mainly a question of alcohol levels for the People’s Party. And not all places get it once. news’s ​​latest poll in Bergen showed a support of 0.0 percent for the People’s Party. – 2019 was an exception. For such a one-party party to win so many voters two local elections in a row, Norway has no tradition for that, says Giertsen in Poll of polls. – The toll case is up – It is the story of the fate of a single party. Get rid of the case, get rid of the party, says political scientist at the University of Stavanger, Svein Tuastad. Svein Tuastad calls the People’s Party the very definition of a one-issue party. Photo: Josef Benoni Ness Tveit / news The time when people took to the streets over rush hour fees and where the tolls were placed is temporarily over. Since 2019, I have had a pandemic. War has broken out in Europe. Electricity prices have increased sharply, as have interest rates. – The case that the People’s Party had was the toll case. Now that case is completely out of the question, and they have not made a mark at all by taking on other cases, he believes. They think they are more than a one-issue party In the last four years, the People’s Party has been part of the ruling majority in Stavanger and Myrhol himself believes that they have gained influence in more areas than tolls. Among other things, he has been a campaigner for free buses. And he thinks it is wrong to call them a single-party party. – In Stavanger I had a program of 28 pages. But it could be that people perceive us only as a protest election and that people have overestimated what the party can achieve on its own. – Do you think that tolls are still the most important issue? – Tolls are an unsocial way of collecting tax, so it is very high on the list. Frode Myrhol sits on the chairmanship in Stavanger today and is part of the ruling majority. Photo: Øystein Otterdal / news A new party With poor opinion polls at the back and around 100 days left until the election, the People’s Party held its national meeting in Stavanger at the weekend. About 50 delegates with the right to vote gathered to decide what they should mean going forward. – What is it like to start the election campaign with such measurements? Cecilie Lyngby at the national meeting of the People’s Party. Photo: Thomas Ystrøm / news – I’m going to hit the gas and then we’ll just have to see. It is the people who decide in the end, says Cecilie Lyngby. She has been the only leader of the party since last year, when Frode Myrhol resigned. It was also last year that the party decided to change its name and Lyngby believes that this may have caused confusion. In addition, she emphasizes that they are fresh. – We are a new party. It’s only been four years since we got all the county teams up and running. And it takes a long time to build up a party. But during these four years there has also been a lot of noise internally. In Sandnes, only one of the five representatives who were elected to the municipal council is still a member of the party. In Alver, the entire local team signed up, as did the high-profile leader in Bergen, Trym Aafløy. – All parties have internal disputes. We have had our childhood illnesses at the start and they have been fixed now. And then more may come, but then we have better ways to handle them, says Lyngby. – But what do you think about the future of the party if the polls are successful? – Then I stand up, roll up my sleeves and work our way up to the general election. Debate during the national meeting of the People’s Party. Leader Cecilie Lyngby is on the podium. Photo: Thomas Ystrøm / news Wants to look for other alternatives Myrhol has a darker view of the future of the party he once founded, if they are not represented in municipal councils around the country after the election. – You see, for example, parties that run for election after election and never get elected. But if you put in all that work without being able to contribute, I think a lot of people will count on the buttons. Then I think the future is pretty bleak. The aim is still to reverse the trend and bring in representatives. But if it doesn’t work, he will probably change parties. – I am so interested in politics that if I am not elected in Stavanger, I will probably look around for other alternatives. He will not say which party he will go to. First there is the election campaign for the People’s Party. After the election, the People’s Party will probably not be part of the chairmanship in Stavanger. Photo: Øystein Otterdal / news



ttn-69