Police have been deployed to keep the press away from the secret polls about a new government for Jonas Gahr Støre.
Net on case
Police and security guards have been deployed to keep journalists away from government surveys at Hurdalsjøen Hotell og Spa.
Behind closed doors, Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre, SV leader Audun Lysbakken and Center Party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum will prepare policies that will affect the lives of millions of Norwegians.
It is understandable that the red-green peaks prefer to probe in peace, but it is completely unacceptable for democracy, and old-fashioned in a time of openness and transparency.
Some people may think that politics is best when it is designed in closed rooms, but that is simply wrong.
Our elected representatives are completely dependent on input from ordinary people, and it is strange that the red-green tops do not understand that a certain openness about problem issues and considerations can give impulses from everyday life to people outside the hotel area. Recent cases such as toll rebels and district dissatisfaction came as a surprise to politicians who did not have grassroots contact.
The red-greens won the election, but they have not been given the power to share and own. It is simply arrogant to rush in and out of the hotel and lick off messages without real content as if they are the chosen people.
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The only thing you achieve by hermetically closing Hurdalsjøen Spa and Hotel is speculation, mystification and reporting about a politician who plays billiards with himself (Bjørnar Skjæran) and sneak photography into the dining room where Jonas Gahr Støre and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum had dinner.
Journalists are kept at arm’s length, and voters receive no reports on what issues are being discussed and where the wind is blowing.
This is especially bad in a situation where the Labor Party, the Center Party and the Socialist People’s Party did not go to the polls on any known, predictable political platform, but separately. And SP leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum said many times a day that he wanted a government of the Center Party and the Labor Party.
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It does not have to be this way.
When politicians make laws for bureaucracy, is more public a known principle. The point is, you should not just publish what you want must, but also what one can.
The decision not to show openness is a political choice, and it stands in stark contrast to how the four bourgeois parties behaved when they probed a possible government in Nydalen.
Most political reporters in Norway are organized in the Storting’s press lodge, and the organization already on Friday sent a recommendation to the three parties to create conditions for the press in the coming days and weeks. The modest wish was access to the hotel’s common areas and the opportunity to book accommodation – ie completely normal in other political contexts.
This does not prevent politicians from probing in peace and quiet, but it opens up some interfaces where it is possible to get background information.
The answer is a resounding no in a joint answer from the Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party and the Center Party:
«Thank you for the e-mail on Friday about working conditions in Hurdal.
We share their opinion here. It is important that the press has access to such an event, and we of course accept the invitation for continued good cooperation.
For our part, there are two more considerations that come into play, one is security and the other is to give politicians the opportunity to do the job.
The police have recommended that the hotel’s common areas be kept closed to other guests, in order to ensure safety.
This restriction also applies to the press, ie the common areas, but from tomorrow Monday journalists and photographers will have access to a workroom connected to the hotel. There will be food and drink, electricity and wifi, but unfortunately it will not be possible to offer accommodation.
We will also ask the press to contact us in the communication departments if they want to get hold of our people, and not directly. This especially applies to employees in the party groups».
The short version is as follows: Stay away from the hotel, otherwise you will be expelled by police and guards. And do not bother the politicians, talk to the communication people.
The future Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre should cut through the fog from the communications advisers, and open up for the press people to do their job on behalf of readers and voters. We have a right to be informed about what can have great significance for our workplaces and lives over the next four years.
The big question is what they are afraid of. Can the discussions not stand the light of day?
The German Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck is said to have once said that anyone who learns how politics and sausages are made will never get a restful night’s sleep.
He has a good point, but politicians who stake out the country’s course in conversations in secret rooms do not inspire confidence either.
PS! What do you mean? Is it possible to inform more about what is being discussed during the polls in Hurdal, or is it understandable that the politicians want to close all doors? Write a debate post!
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