The wind that shakes the grain is the one FRP now turns its cloak after. Now there are Norwegian farmers for all the money.
CHARM OFFENSIVE. Sylvi Listhaug (FrP) and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) are fighting for the farmers’ favor. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB view more
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Internal comments: This is a comment. The commentary expresses the writer’s attitude.
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The war in Ukraine also creates problems for the Norwegian farmer. It is not free to produce food, and when the price of fuel and fertilizer increases as a result of the Russian invasion, it becomes more expensive.
From corona to spring. When there is a problem that can be solved with money, then Frp is not exactly difficult to pray at the moment. Through the corona crisis, the FRP would happily line up with the community’s funds for the private business sector. When spring comes, the joy of giving is just as great.
When Sylvi Listhaug participated in Politisk kvarter on NRK earlier this week, it was to challenge Minister of Agriculture Sandra Borch (Sp) why the government did not spend even more money on the farmers.
Borch, for his part, was keen to point out the lack of credibility in the FRP leader’s challenge, since they have, after all, fought for smaller transfers to agriculture for years. There she has a very good point.
If you do not remember how Sylvi Listhaug sounded like Minister of Agriculture, so you should get a little flashback.
When she was to carry out her first negotiations as Minister of Agriculture in 2014, she wanted to give the farmers an extra 150 million kroner. This triggered large demonstrations against the government, and Listhaug in particular. When the Liberal Party and KrF negotiated the final sum up to NOK 500 million, she said that the farmers had received more than a lot.
I TOG: The current Minister of Agriculture Sandra Borch (Sp) believed that the then Minister of Agriculture Sylvi Listhaug destroyed Norwegian agriculture. Video: Change Vellene / Dagbladet view more
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In last year’s agricultural settlement, the farmers received a supplement of almost NOK 1 billion before additional negotiations. Now that is not enough for Listhaugs Frp.
Then it will be interesting to follow on this year’s negotiations. The agricultural settlement kicks off on 27 April. Then agriculture delivers its demands to the state. One week later, the state comes with its offer.
Even in the election campaign, before Trygve Slagsvold Vedum became Minister of Finance, he was reluctant to support the so-called Peasant Uprising. They demanded that the state put many billions on the table to ensure farmers better wages. Maybe he thought that a breach of promise from the Center Party to Norwegian farmers would create a crisis for the party, and then it was better to stay away from the scary election promises.
It is in this vacuum that Frp now enters. We should not ignore the fact that the FRP will try to outbid the government’s offer and give the Center Party a proper kick in the hay bales.
There are probably no other parties who can compete with the FRP when it comes to wanting to spend money over the state budget. The shift in the FRP’s attitude to agricultural subsidies also says something about where the party has moved.
From being a party that sometimes appeared liberal under Siv Jensen, to becoming a welfare populist party. Such a turn requires that you turn groups of voters into “clients” – people who expect a concrete good in exchange for their vote.
Such a strategy is risky. Just ask the Center Party, which is now struggling to fulfill everything they have promised in the election campaign. Clients leave parties as soon as they are unable to deliver.
That agriculture this year is supported with almost NOK 30 billion through direct and indirect subsidies, the FRP and the Center Party do not seem to care much about. More money is the answer. It will be difficult at a time when the room for maneuver in the budget is significantly reduced.
The FRP does not have to worry about that. After all, they are no longer responsible for the troublesome budget balance. Perhaps they are thinking more about the fact that tens of thousands of voters left the FRP in favor of the Center Party in the election last year. Now they want them back.
The question is how long agricultural policy will interest Sylvi Listhaug, and whether the party manages to speak with one voice about its policy. It all begins to resemble the grain of Babel.
Sondre Hansmark has been elected as the third deputy to the Storting for the Liberal Party. He is now employed as a commentator in Dagbladet, resigned from the party and will in that case meet as an independent representative.
