– I have not voted for the Labor Party myself. I think maybe because I haven’t been able to see the obvious fan cases in a way, says Miriam Sivertsen.
She is in her mother’s perm and has taken her daughter Othilie to Frognerparken in Oslo.
MAMMAPERM: Miriam Sivertsen lives in Årvoll in Oslo.
Photo: Inger Kristine Lee / NRK
The meeting with Tonje Brenna is spontaneous, but the Ap deputy leader has invited NRK along to meet some of those she herself wants to be inspired by in the run-up to the election in two years’ time.
– The Labor Party is a party that alternates between being the government. So I feel that I have to vote for someone else who has to poke a little, in a way, in Ap. For Ap, I feel I’m there, no matter what, says Sivertsen – who right now is mostly concerned with kindergarten admissions.
At APS’s central board meeting today, Minister of Education Brenna formally receives the role of head of the party’s program committee until 2025.
Thus, the 35-year-old from Jessheim will chisel out the policy that will resurrect the party and give Ap the election victory in two years.
Ap deputy leader Tonje Brenna meets Miriam Sivertsen and her daughter Othilie in search of new inspiration for the program work.
Miriam Sivertsen believes that a lack of clear profile cases may be one of the reasons for Ap’s problems.
– I have not voted for the Labor Party myself, says Miriam Sivertsen from Årvoll in Oslo.
Tonje Brenna will now set the course for Ap until 2025.
Services and work
Tonje Brenna was elected the new deputy leader of Ap at the national meeting this spring. When she now starts work on the new party programme, she has a clear message:
– Parts of the left have become very stuck in a debate about the level of benefits, and too little about how we get people of benefits and into work, says Brenna.
– Some have to be on benefits because they cannot work, but quite a few can work either a little or – with some help – quite a lot more.
The Minister of Education wants to speak up for those who go to work every day and pay tax, and warns against the pauperization of those who are outside.
And Brenna believes that the left is too little concerned with finding out how “the big systems” can be used to ensure that those who can work a little can do it.
– Ultimately, that means that we give up on people, and it is a form of impoverishment, says Brenna.
– Then we tell people who might be able to work a little that “no, we don’t need you to work, you just have to have a performance”, instead of saying “we need you to work, we will do what we can to provide so that you can contribute what you have the opportunity to contribute to society”.
Principal Kjell Ove Hauge at Kuben upper secondary school in Oslo knows how important it is that education, health and work work together to prevent young people ending up outside.
– You get sick from not being useful, he says.
– We have those who need to get started with something practical. Earn a few kroner. We must have that system up and running. We get it done, but on a much smaller scale than we should, says Hauge.
Brenna is also concerned that all those who pay tax must be confident that the money is used sensibly – and that the welfare state is sustainable.
Ap is struggling to get enough people on board – and this autumn was dethroned as the country’s largest party for the first time in 99 years.
– You get sick from not being useful, says principal Kjell Ove Hauge at Kuben upper secondary school.
Brenna believes the left must talk more about how more people can get into work.
Crisis upon crisis
Although the senior management of the Labor Party refuses to use the word, many others in and around Ap now believe that the party is in crisis.
With 21.6 per cent, Ap made a historically poor election this autumn and for the first time in 99 years was not the country’s largest party.
The map of Norway is colored blue, and Ap has lost bastions such as Ringsaker, Sarpsborg, Fredrikstad, Moss, Porsgrunn, Skien, Lillestrøm and Trondheim – in addition to major cities such as Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Drammen.
Mayors throughout the country
Map display
The mayor’s party in each municipality
Map of Norway where each municipality is marked with the party color of the party that has the mayor
Not decided yet
Select area All of NorwayAgderInlandetMøre and RomsdalNordlandRogalandTroms and FinnmarkTrøndelagVestfold and TelemarkVestlandViken Party Mayors Change Labor Party 101 −49 Conservative Party 89 +56 Center Party 83 −47 Progressive Party 15 +12 Christian People’s Party 11 +1 Socialist Left Party 4 −2 Liberal Party 1 −1 Green Party 0 −1 Others 15 −7
The overview shows in how many municipalities each party has won the mayor. In 38 municipalities, it has not yet been decided who will be mayor. The change shows how many more or fewer mayors the parties have so far, compared to 2019. Last updated 6 October 2023.
Ap nestor Martin Kolberg is among those who have put words to the situation.
– That the party leadership does not want to call this a crisis intensifies the crisis, he recently wrote in a statement on NRK.no.
Long-standing but recently resigned mayor of Porsgrunn, Robin Kåss, says the election was a disaster for the governing parties in the industrial region of Grenland.
– This is a crisis, we must not talk about it, said his Ap colleague in Skien Hedda Foss Five to NRK in the same interview. She also lost the post of mayor in the autumn election.
Amazing explanations
Despite a gloomy backdrop for the Labor Party, there was a good atmosphere when Brenna took NRK with her to meet some of those she wants to be inspired by until 2025.
At a cafe at Stovner center in the north-east of Oslo, Britt Lindhart, Anne Karima Nordengen, Brit Axelsen and Grete Andberg are bubbling over with input for the program general.
INPUT ROUND: Ap deputy leader Tonje Brenna gets advice from Stovner Ap.
Photo: Kristian Skårdalsmo / NRK
They are concerned about the food queues in the animal age and see a local need for more full-time positions in care and more housing for young people.
Axelsen has a written message for Brenna with him: “Ap: Put your ear to the ground, what is engaging?”
– We are at the grassroots, we, say the four ladies from Stovner Ap.
And here is Brenna’s own preliminary evaluation of why the election went the way it did:
– I think we are not close enough to people’s everyday lives. We don’t describe it well enough. We don’t have solutions that people trust to actually make their lives better.
– And that is the core of a political party’s mission: To be able to both describe the everyday life people live in, and the everyday life we want them to have, says AP’s deputy leader.
VETERANS: Ap deputy leader Tonje Brenna meets Grete Andberg (in the middle) and Britt Lindhart from Stovner Ap at Stovner centre.
Photo: Kristian Skårdalsmo / NRK
Now Ap will evaluate the election. The process was set in motion at the party’s national board meeting a week and a half ago. In his speech, Støre asked party members to also evaluate his own efforts.
AP’s internal evaluation will result in a larger conference at the turn of November/December and be finalized before the New Year.
– How dramatic is it that Ap is no longer the largest?
– The dramatic thing about it is that there will be less of the political solutions that we believe are good for our society and for people. I want a large and strong Ap, because it is a stronger and more powerful tool for changing society. Not because Ap’s size is a goal in itself, says Tonje Brenna.
VETERANS: Brit Axelsen and other pensioners from Stovner Ap met Ap deputy leader Tonje Brenna to give their input on the program process.
Photo: Kristian Skårdalsmo / NRK
2023-10-09 05:57:52
#resurrect #Warns #pauperization
