SUSER FROM AWAY: Erna Solberg is jubilant that the Conservative Party has taken power in Finnmark for the first time. Here she is pictured as she rushes from a PST bodyguard on Finnmarksvidda, from the election campaign in 2021. Photo: Helge Mikalsen / VG
Ap has for the first time in history lost power in Finnmark. – This is a political earthquake. It is as if the Conservative Party lost power in Bærum, says election expert Jonas Stein.
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It has been a rich week for Northern Norway.
We summarize:
Nord-Norgebanen is laid dead – again. The Kuk conflict in Harstad politics has seriously hardened. The iconic Scotsman pub has died – and resurrected on the third day. Political editor Skjalg Fjellheim ends in Nordlys. He will now commute from Tromsø to Bodø – a fate from which it is unclear whether it is even possible to recover.
And last, but not least: On Friday it became clear that the Labor Party is heading for a historic defeat in Finnmark.
For the first time since elections to the county council were introduced, they have lost power in Finnmark, while the Conservative Party has now secured the county mayor chain.
– This is every reason to celebrate, says Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg to VG.
IN ACTION: The Conservative Party has taken power in Finnmark for the first time. That gives Erna Solberg a reason to celebrate, in an otherwise demanding political autumn for the party leader. Photo: Helge Mikalsen / VG
First time it happens
The new majority in Finnmark consists of the Nordkalottfolket, the Conservative Party, the Progress Party, the Center Party, the Liberal Party, the Christian People’s Party and the Industry and Business Party.
– This is a rare political earthquake. It is as startling as if the Conservative Party had lost power in Bærum, says election researcher Jonas Stein, at the University of Tromsø.
– Ap has dominated Finnmark ever since we started with county council elections in the 70s, says Stein.
POINT OF VIEW ON POLITICS: Jonas Stein has a doctorate in political science at the University of Tromsø. He believes that the significance of Ap’s defeat in Finnmark can hardly be exaggerated. Photo: Private
He points out that the Labor Party received 45.9 per cent support in the county elections as recently as 2015. In this autumn’s elections, they have been reduced to 22.8 per cent.
Stein says Melkøya has had a certain influence on the election result – but says that Ap’s decline started before that.
– There have been many conflicts in Finnmark. Between reindeer herding and other large industries, such as industrial projects, mine development and wind power. In addition, there has been a conflict between east and west, with Vadsø in the east and Alta in the west, explains Stein.
Tough defeat for Ap
Stein points to indigenous politics as an important line of conflict in the county In the county election, one in four voters voted for Sami lists, rather than the traditional political parties.
The first for a snap election for Nordkalottfolket – who became the second largest party with 19 percent support.
– In Sami politics, the Nordkalott people are something we can categorize as a radical party. They are skeptical about the Sámi Parliament and the reindeer herding, and more rights for the Sámi. Their progress has been decisive for Ap now losing power, he explains.
Ap has won the mayor in every single election in Finnmark. Only when Helga Pedersen resigned as county mayor to become fisheries minister in 2005 did Finnmark have a county mayor from another party. Then the deputy county mayor took the deputy county mayor Gasp! Try saying it quickly three times in succession. from SV, Kirsti Saxi, over the county mayor chain.
– This is yet another symbolic blow for Ap and Støre, which hits hard in the crisis they are already in.
THE FIGHT FOR THE CHAIN: Hans-Jacob Bønå is the name of Finnmark’s next county mayor. Here he is pictured together with the Labor Party’s top candidate Linda Beate Randal. In recent years, she has worked as director of Innovation Norway. Photo: Innovation Norway
Right: – Very funny
Hans-Jacob Bønå is the name of Finnmark’s next county mayor.
– For the first time, we have managed to knock Ap off the hook. It’s very funny, I have to admit it, says Bønå to VG.
He is not just anyone when it comes to breaking records for the Labor Party. In 2015, he won the election in Vadsø and snatched the mayoral chain from Ap – after they had held it continuously since 1933.
– And now we have managed it again, he says with satisfaction.
Bønå points to reversing the population decline, control of a very demanding economy and “development of Finnmark” as his most important issues in the next four years.
Party leader Erna Solberg is very satisfied with the result.
– For the first time in 99 years, we are the country’s largest party in an election, and I am very happy about each and every mayor and county mayor we now get throughout the country, including the far north. It is clear that it is extra fun to take some scalps, such as Finnmark, and Trondheim, which today it became clear that we will govern, she says.
The Labor Party: Incredibly sad
– No, what should I say? We did not do well in the election. But we still became the largest party, and I didn’t think we would end up on the outside, says Ap’s first candidate in Finnmark, Linda Beate Randal.
She says that Labor had probes with both the Nordkalottfolket and the Conservative Party, but that the talks broke down when it became clear that the Nordkalottfolket was pointing to the Conservative Party to get the county mayor – despite the fact that the Labor Party is twice as big as the Conservative Party.
– We could not agree to that as the governing party. Then it happened.
FRIERFERD: Jonas Gahr Støre has visited Finnmark several times – from when he visited reindeer herders this winter just after the Fosen demonstrations in Oslo. Nevertheless, the voters have turned their backs on him in the traditional Ap county. Photo: Mattis Sandblad / VG
Thus Ap ends up in opposition for the first time in Finnmark.
– I think it is incredibly sad. We have just been through a forced merger that Ap has resolved after the Finnmarkingen have fought a hard battle. Nevertheless, it is the Conservative Party, which is responsible for the merger, that gets the most important position. I think that is broken, says Randal.
Negotiated away positions
The second largest party in the election – and largest party in the new coalition – is the Nordkalottfolket.
They have negotiated away all of the most central positions – including the county mayor position.
– We have done that to gain political influence. We are not too concerned with positions, says first candidate Magne Ek.
Ek, who himself has been a deputy on the county council for a period, says none of their representatives have experience in leading meetings, and that it was therefore easy to give up the position of county mayor – and deputy mayor.
ELECTION WINNER: Magne Ek in Nordkalottfolket says they have negotiated away positions for political impact. Photo: Nordkalottfolket
One position that has nevertheless been important to them is one of the board seats in Fefo – Finnmarkseiendommen. A company that manages large parts of the public properties in Finnmark.
Ek says that they are a counter-vote to NSRNSNRorske Samers Riksforbund in the Sami Parliament, and that the Nordkalott people’s most important issue is “equality”.
– That is the word we are most concerned with. Equality between people and between industries.
– What does that mean?
– In Finnmark there is one industry that controls a lot, namely the reindeer herding industry. it stops much of the development in the county, because they say no anyway. We are critical of that, because we need other industries to develop, he says.
Published:
Published: 29/09/23 at 22:57
Updated: 29/09/23 at 23:36
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2023-09-29 20:57:27
#Historic #defeat #Finnmark #Conservative #Party #takes #power
