Broad Support Given to Helga Pedersen as New Party Secretary of Labor Party: Sources

At a board meeting in Troms Ap, broad support was given to Helga Pedersen as the Labor Party’s new party secretary. This is what sources tell Aftenposten.

It caused a stir when Finnmark suddenly turned around who they wanted in the Ap leadership. It became known on Thursday last week, after a meeting of the county team’s board on Wednesday evening.

Then the county team opened to oust both Skjæran and party secretary Kjersti Stenseng, in order to bring in the Tana mayor and former deputy leader Helga Pedersen as the new party secretary.

It happened after she faced TV 2 sa that she makes herself available to the party.

What is not known so far is that a similar turnaround took place in the neighboring county of Troms.

Two sources familiar with the board’s work confirm to Aftenposten that the county association’s board on Thursday last week endorsed Helga Pedersen as the new party secretary.

The following day, the election committee in Ap called a press conference and presented its unanimous recommendation on Stenseng.

Wanted to save own central board seat

Aftenposten’s sources say that there was a broad majority at the board meeting in Troms in favor of this. Only one person who attended the meeting argued against it.

At this point, the board of Troms Ap must have considered it so that they could keep their woman on the central board – Cecilie Myrseth – and at the same time replace Kjersti Stenseng as party secretary.

The support for Stenseng up to this point was linked to uncertainty about how a scrapping of her would affect Troms’ central board seat, the sources say.

Aftenposten has asked Troms Aps county leader, Storting representative Nils-Ole Foshaug, about why the county team did not go public with its support for Pedersen. He replies in an SMS:

“From the Troms Labor Party, we have submitted input to the election committee on candidates for the central board. In addition, we thought that Tonje Brenna was a good candidate for the vacant deputy chair position. Discussions in the Troms Labor Party and views are forwarded to the election committee through the right channels. We have always wanted to contribute to the election committee doing the best possible job in a demanding mission”.

New management is elected at the national meeting on 4–7 May.

The fact that Troms has turned around can still be significant. Although Ap’s election committee unanimously insists that Kjersti Stenseng should continue as party secretary, Pedersen’s supporter has not given up. They are now counting mandates, to see if it is possible to get a majority behind Pedersen at the national meeting.

When asked by Aftenposten on Friday whether she would nevertheless maintain her candidacy and stand in a possible contested vote at the national meeting, she replied in an SMS:

– I have to decide on that if the situation arises.

In the proposal from the election committee, there is none of those nominated for the leadership, who are from Ap north of Dovre. Pedersen comes from Tana in Finnmark.

Aftenposten knows that parts of Nordland Ap also want Pedersen in as party secretary, but that no public decision has been made to support her.

Gloomy backdrop

The selection committee has been chaired by LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik. It has worked on putting together proposals for the Labor Party’s new leadership. Their recommendation was presented last Friday.

The party is doing badly in the polls before the autumn municipal elections. Since last autumn, Labor has been well below 20 per cent in the surveys, and in several surveys has been as low as 15-16 per cent.

Today’s leadership consists of party leader Jonas Gahr Støre, deputy leader Bjørnar Skjæran and party secretary Kjersti Stenseng. The party previously had two deputy leaders, but has only had one after Hadia Tajik resigned last spring.

Gets support from Inlandet’s largest city

It was Hamar Ap that opened the ball for the party secretary duel, where at the beginning of March they declared that they wanted Helga Pedersen as party secretary.

– The board of the Hamar Labor Party has decided that we want a new party secretary, and asks the election committee to work for renewal in the leadership. We don’t think it is sufficient just to bring in a new vice-chairman, said the local team’s leader Hilde Nyutstumoen in Hamar Ap to TV 2.

No other county association other than Finnmark Ap has publicly declared its support for Pedersen. Nevertheless, there are many indications that support for Kjersti Stenseng is wavering in several county teams. According to TV2, the vote at the last meeting of the selection committee gave one narrow victory for Stenseng.

Oslo Ap is among the county teams that have voted against Stenseng in the election committee. This has also been confirmed by Aftenposten. But the county team sees no benefit in giving any support to Pedersen publicly, beyond pointing out that Pedersen is also well liked in Oslo.

City councilor for integration and social services in Oslo, Usman Mushtaq, this week referred to Pedersen in warm terms to Aftenposten.

– Would you like to see Helga Pedersen as the new party secretary, as I understand many people in Oslo do?

– I know Helga. She is a very, very good person, and I take note of the assessments the election committee has made, and then I think there will be a good debate at the national meeting, and then I have nothing more to say about it.