– This year has been filled with both ups and downs, says Solberg laconically to NTB.
It started so well. Solberg traveled country and coast to encourage party members and collect voters. It went so smoothly. Erna was and remained the star.
Historical measurements ended with a very good election. The Conservative Party became the country’s largest party with 25.9 percent of voters behind it. Two out of three Norwegians would now live in a municipality governed by the Conservative Party.
Then came the stock case.
From Solberg calling a press conference where she presented the bare truth about her husband’s stock trading with a lump in her throat, it took 60 days before she declared that she intends to continue as party leader. Has she now put the case behind her?
– So, no. I am not finished. This is not something you leave behind, says Solberg.
– Responsibility for journal creasing
The Control and Constitution Committee is not finished either. It is possible that there may be criticism of the former prime minister when the committee makes its recommendation in February.
The committee had to take an extra round after that E24 could reveal that the record-keeping has not been quite in order at the Prime Minister’s office. Emails about her husband Sindre Finnes had not ended up in the digital, searchable mailing list system that journalists and other curious people check. Instead, they were printed out and placed in an internal paper archive.
– Formally, I was the one who was responsible for it, says Solberg, who was prime minister at the time. But adds: She didn’t know anything about this herself. The civil service admits to having made mistakes. And inquiries from Finnes to political contacts were recorded in the usual way.
Support from party members warmed
It was the feedback from her own people that was decisive for Solberg deciding to continue. She speaks warmly of the understanding and the many encouraging messages she received.
– I was definitely in the thinking box, she sums up.
It is more difficult to answer what weighed more heavily in the opposite direction. The sentences limp a little, remain unfinished. Rehearsed, she repeats the familiar message: Would she be a plus or a minus for the party? It would have been unthinkable to continue if she experienced that it was received negatively within her own ranks. But now she apparently doesn’t dwell much on the decision anymore.
– The point is that I believe that you cannot wait. True? I work with the day-to-day politics and how to challenge the government even more, she says.
The conversion underway
Next year is a by-election year, and Erna Solberg and the Conservative Party are embarking on the long-term election campaign. There are just over 600 days until the general election. The work of putting together a new party program has long been underway.
Solberg outlines the main challenges in the four-year period following 2025. We must deliver on our climate commitments. Oil activity will decrease. Restructuring and more activity in business to finance public expenditure. And we need to improve competence in this country – especially in science and maths (the Pisa survey is worrying).
And then there is the animal age and purchasing power. We all notice that, not just those with the least means. It will be an important issue in the future as well, believes Solberg.
– In reality, the transformation of Norway has started, she says. A weaker krone results in more exports, but also contributes to people having less to worry about.
– We must have a conscious attitude towards that. How do we ensure that we have enough highly profitable jobs, she continues.
Solberg sets records
It is the desire to solve the most demanding tasks – as well as being out and meeting people – that is the driving force. This is where she gets her energy.
Solberg has passed Kåre Willoch as the longest-serving prime minister and CJ Hambro as the longest-serving party leader in the Conservative Party.
Next year, she has led the Conservative Party for 20 years, and she will overtake Einar Gerhardsen (Ap) in the number of years as party leader. Then only Fremskrittspartiet’s Carl I. Hagen has led a party for longer, according to a count Aftenposten did a few years ago.
She would like to take another term as prime minister. And if she should not win the election or manage to gather the bourgeois partners, she is also prepared for a new term in opposition. Solberg makes it clear that she will stand for parliamentary elections, once again.
– I’m going to ask the nomination committee and Hordaland Høyre if they want me at the top of the list once more, she says kindly with a hint of Bergen sarcasm.
The persistent politician
An international top job is not very tempting. There have been questions as to whether she might be interested in standing as a candidate for any positions in areas she has taken an interest in (she does not go into which ones). After thinking about it, she decided it’s not for her.
– I think my work is in Norwegian politics, says Solberg.
What kind of qualities does she have in her that makes her constantly motivated by political challenges? Which means that even after this autumn she does not choose to give thanks for herself?
– I have stamina. That’s the one. And so it is that conservative politicians know that things happen in the long term.
2023-12-29 08:00:59
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