Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg ruled Norway for eight years, seven of them with the Progressive Party (Frp).
Now her party is surging ahead in the polls. With a turnout in the 30s, a new period of power could be within reach for Solberg.
Her brand new book “The way forward” hits the bookshelves on March 9. There she writes about her political views, but also about the collaboration with the Frp.
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– Intensely
“Statements from politicians in the Progress Party have received a lot of attention. In one case, it ended with Sylvi Listhaug having to apologize from the floor of the Storting and later resign as a minister,” writes Conservative leader Erna Solberg (H).
FRP leader Sylvi started as Minister of Agriculture and Food in the Solberg government in 2013. She quickly rose through the ranks, to both Minister of Immigration and Integration and then Minister of Justice, Emergency Preparedness and Immigration.
However, a controversial Facebook post, dated 9 March 2018, led to an outcry and distrust of Listhaug in the Storting.
For images of the Somali al-Shabaab militia. wrote Listhaug that “Ap believes the terrorists’ rights are more important than the nation’s security. Like and share”.
– Several became better at weighing their words
11 days later, Listhaug resigned from the government, where she made a comeback again a year later.
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– A number of times, as prime minister, I had to answer for statements from Progress Party politicians. The then opposition was on all the time, as were the media, she recalls.
Solberg admits that it was intense while it was on:
“But the opposition was absolutely right to challenge us. It also contributed to several people in the government becoming better at weighing their words before speaking out, so as not to cause problems for me or their own party.”
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The learning curve was steep for the FRP, which made its debut in government:
“For some, it was quite a change to go from opposition to position and experience that the media suddenly asked many more critical questions than before.”
– Never!
During her years as prime minister, Erna Solberg was careful not to comment on the inner lives of her government comrades Frp, KrF and Venstre.
As a writer, she is freer:
“I sat several times with the experience that people in the Progress Party also thought that some of the statements went too far. But to apologize and move on? Never!”
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According to Solberg, this shakes the core of the party:
“It’s a bit in the Progress Party’s DNA that it’s okay to be controversial and get laughed at. Some people see regretting an unfortunate statement as a sign of weakness. I disagree with that.”
For Erna Solberg, it is important to give colleagues some leeway:
“We politicians must and must talk all the time. Then it should only be missing if things don’t happen to come out wrong. If it wasn’t meant the way it was said, then it’s perfectly fine to express it.”
– Should consider state ownership
In “The way forward”, Erna Solberg describes why she believes it is important to constantly challenge old political positions, including her own. In the book, she airs thoughts such as:
– We should be open to increasing child benefit and taxing it.
– We must be more positive about assessing state ownership due to the increased level of conflict with China and Russia.
– Wage subsidies should be used more so that disabled people can be in full-time work, even if they are unable to work as fast as their colleagues.
