The disappointment of SV says no to go into government is naturally greatest on the left and especially among climate voters who in social media on Wednesday night predicted the end of the world with a Labor / Socialist government. Literally. It could seem that some voters had put their trust in the small SV to perform miracles, abolish the political force of gravity and smash the oil lobby in a red-green government.
Now we can only forget the climate for the next four years, we must believe. And social equalization. And drug reform. And Oslo. Poor, Oslo, which is to be thinned by the most city-hostile government ever, according to local politicians. Many simply felt that the election had been stolen while still celebrating the victory and dreaming sweetly about the CO2 tax. The most left-wing radical parliament since the war, instead ends up with an oil-lubricated center-right government.
Plugs: Audun Lysbakken came up with a sting against the billionaires Hagen, Sissener and Witzø during SV’s national meeting. Video: NTB. view more
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But yeah there were many politicians on the bourgeois side who also shed a tear over SV’s exit. Left-wing leader Guri Melby was very disappointed and worried, not just for his hometown Oslo: “Now we can have a government that negotiates with the Conservatives and the FRP,” she warned after the news from Hurdal became known. The left knows all about how dangerous it is.
Young Conservative leader Ola Svenneby fears that the new government will be too right-wing: “Feeling with progressive voters on the left who have voted for changes in drug policy, climate policy and other reforms – the country also ends up with the most conservative government.” It is not a daily diet that Conservatives use conservative as an insult. Svenneby’s party colleague, Lene Westgaard-Halle, was “really disappointed” and believes a Labor / Socialist government is the worst thing imaginable for the climate. She posted a broken green heart on twitter and wrote that she lit a candle for Støre – and for the climate.
The grief of the bourgeois side that a socialist left party does not join the government, undeniably has a comic tinge to it, although an obvious side effect was to portray the coming government as backward and gray. The disappointment seems sincere and illustrates that the new dividing lines cross the political landscape. But the belief that SV should be the difference between heaven and hell for progressive voters was a bit naive.
Admittedly, both Audun Lysbakken and not least Jonas Gahr Støre raised their expectations in the election campaign. Støre insisted that a red-green majority government was both realistic and desirable. He repeatedly said that climate and environment should be the framework for all red-green policies. Perhaps voters should have stuck more to his reliable mantra; we agree on the goal, just not the means. In climate policy, the funds are almost congruent with the goal.
When Sp lured to initial explorations, against the wishes of the Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party, and put the biggest conflict in the pot before the negotiations had even begun, Støre suddenly had nothing to give. For at least two years, Støre has been prepared for that meeting in Hurdal without coming up with a solution that could have given him the dream government and a majority. The frustration is great far into their own ranks.
It can work as some have had too much faith in SV, while Støre underestimated the party.
SV may still have good opportunities to influence the new government from the outside. Both Støre and Vedum have said that they will negotiate with SV first. They are pretty much forced to do so with this autumn’s state budget. They can not go downhill skiing when they have to change Erna Solberg’s latest budget, and it may be Lysbakken’s first chance to get concessions he was denied in Hurdal and mark himself as the government’s preferred partner. SV knows that it is a great advantage to be in government, how much is decided from day to day without going to the Storting. But the new minority government needs nine votes to get a majority, and it can quickly become expensive when the course is set. Krf got its biggest victories, teacher norms and increased child benefits, among other things, outside the government, not in.
State Secretary Mathias Fischer (V) was also disappointed that SV did not join. He predicts that there will be four wasted years for climate: “By the end of this parliamentary term, I think stopping oil exploration will appear like a nobrainer to most people.”
There were many who hoped before this election and. Instead, it is the man who had as a matter of struggle that people should still be allowed to drive a diesel car in the center of Oslo, who is in the driver’s seat.
