For the second time in a short time, city council leader Raymond Johansen (Labor Party) is moving strongly against Rødt, a party he depends on in Oslo to secure his red-green city council.
Less than 10 minutes ago
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After 200 years, Sweden will change its defense policy position in a few months and apply for membership in NATO, and Finland will also make a historic change. Then it is shocking to see that Rødt will vote against Swedish and Finnish incorporation into NATO, he says to VG.
He thus supports the criticism that Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre made on Thursday, when he called the proposal from Rødt “deeply disloyal to our closest neighbors”.
The criticism comes after Rødt leader Bjørnar Moxnes, after a central board meeting on Wednesday, wrote on Facebook that “dependence on great powers does not benefit peace and security. Red will vote against ratification of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden ».
– National autonomy is clearly not something Red under Sweden and Finland, says Johansen:
– Politics are now changing in all parties throughout Europe. Sweden is changing its 200-year-old line of neutrality. That Rødt then stands completely still says most things. They must think about who they will be in company with, if they vote against this when the matter is to be voted on in the Storting, says Johansen.
Also takes up SV
He says that the criticism to a certain extent also affects SV.
– They have said that they vote for Sweden and Finland to join NATO, but SV’s foreign policy spokesperson, Ingrid Fiskaa, tries in a post in Swedish Aftonbladetto influence the Swedish NATO debate, where she is particularly critical of Sweden’s change of line.
Johansen left in April bang hard out in VG against Rødt and demanded that Pål Steigan supporters be thrown out, after it was documented that Steigan.no is the Norwegian medium that spreads the most Russian propaganda in Norway.
The national board of Rødt wrote in a press release on Friday that Steigan.no’s political project “is in conflict with Rødt’s adopted policy”.
–Significant player
Johansen distinguishes between collaboration on individual issues locally and Rødt’s broader political line.
– I work well with Rødt related to individual cases and budget in Oslo; they are a significant player with measurements in Oslo over ten percent. But their overall policy does not hold.
– Is there a reason why you go out against them twice in a short time: To dampen the support for them in your city?
– The main purpose is that politics must be holistic. People need to make visible what they are voting for when they vote for Red. They vote for Red because of many good things. But then they must know that they are also voting for a party that will prevent Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.
– Is it one of their supporters in Oslo that you repeatedly strangle?
– I am so tired of populist parties who think they can drive individual cases to win voters and hide the issues they do not want to talk about.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan has announced that they will block Sweden and Finland from becoming members of NATO: If one of the 30 NATO countries votes no, as Turkey has threatened, Sweden and Finland will not become members.
Land with bigger muscles
Johansen does not fully believe in that threat.
– Everything indicates that Erdogan is negotiating, as he did even after Germany put its foot down for Turkish EU membership. He puts Turkish interests first. I reckon that countries with bigger muscles than Norway will know their visiting time towards Erdogan.
Get updated: This could cause Erdogan to turn around
–He says Red “fortunately does not have a big enough influence”.
– If Rødt had had a decisive influence in Norwegian politics, they would have blocked Finnish and Swedish NATO membership, says the city council leader in Oslo.
– Fortunately, they do not have that, but it is important to see what parties mean holistically. A vote for Rødt is a vote to call Norway out of NATO. It is happening at a time when there is war in Europe and millions are fleeing Ukraine, he says.
In Rødts principle program it states that the party «is in principle against NATO and will withdraw the country from the alliance. NATO membership connects us to the aggressive imperialist power USA ».
Responds to criticism
Red leader Bjørnar Moxnes says that the key issue is Putin and Russia’s war against Ukraine, “which Red strongly condemns”.
– Red stands in solidarity with Sweden and Finland, independent of NATO membership.
–He says that it follows from the NATO treaty and the Norwegian constitution that enlargement must be considered in the existing member states and in the national assemblies.
– One third of the Swedish population and two parties in the Riksdag, in addition to a minority in Finland, are against NATO membership. Of course, these are also concerned with peace and security in Sweden, Finland, the Nordic countries and Europe. They only have a different conclusion than Raymond Johansen about what secures us, he says.
Moxnes says that NATO’s border with Russia will be doubled with this enlargement.
– This means a twice as large area where there can be confrontations and misunderstandings, increased tension and in the worst case war. Of course, we must have an open and democratic debate with room for different views on whether this benefits peace and security in Norway and the Nordic countries.
He adds:
– When it comes to who you end up in company with, it is not Red who wants to be in the same military alliance as Turkey and the country’s authoritarian president, it is the Labor Party. If Erdogan finally gets some concessions and says yes to Swedish and Finnish membership, then it is Johansen who ends up in his company.
Fiskaa responds in this way to the criticism from Johansen.
– Sweden draws its own conclusions, and it is right that SV supports them in what they choose. My post in Aftonbladet was about sharing Norwegian experiences with Norwegian NATO membership, as a contribution to nuance the picture from the Norwegian side.
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