VESTLAND (Dagsavisen): “Here in the county, things are going so well for us that even TV2 cannot ruin the atmosphere with bad measurements,” said Lars Vangen somewhere between Kaupanger and Sogndal. I guess so.
The head of communications in the Center Party only partially attended the presentation of the science center ViteMeir, for which the head, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, had to show far greater interest. All load-bearing element of wood? Good! Local building blocks as far as possible? Geez! They will hang a deer carcass on the hook in the ceiling so that the youth will learn to part? Ok!
What the media wants, the media is allowed to do. Such is the logic of the election campaign
One may ask why the leader of the Center Party visits a science center on an election campaign tour in Western Norway, no, sorry: Sogn og Fjordane? It may have something to do with the fact that the center was started by the old county municipality, from what existed before the government’s regional reform. Before Sogn og Fjordane was swallowed up by Hordaland and now little brother in the new county is Vestland.
Then Vedum could use that point, then, beyond the September day on a visit to Sogn og Fjordane. The science center at Kaupanger would probably not have become a reality in the large county, he could say, such initiatives require “proximity” and “smaller units”.
The theme for this sunny Wednesday twelve days before the election was precisely this: That Sogn og Fjordane will re-emerge – if the people want. The Center Party will ensure that all the inhabitants of the old county get a vote on the matter. Decide for yourself. “There is enough overriding of the will of the people now”, according to Vedum. “Enough centralization”, for “centralization breeds centralization”.
[ Meningsmålingene spriker, spesielt mye i de lokale tallene ]
On the road from Kaupanger to Sogndal center, it became clear that county dissolution, police staffing and emergency preparedness, the science center and the fight against fees, would have competition for the current order. Nor at home, in a county where Sp is the largest party, should the party get a triumphant march. For TV2 had a new survey, and wanted to interview Vedum about the numbers a quarter past five. What the media wants, the media is allowed to do. Such is the logic of the election campaign.
Not long ago, an interview about measurements would be good news for Vedum. But the wind has turned. Before the rod Sp in the ceiling. Now they hope that the floor has been reached. Where the Center Party previously hovered high on the fact that journalists in the “Oslo bubble” were critical of the party’s project and growth, the regular reports of “collapse” and “crisis” have done something to the relationship with the media. The Center Party feels besieged and treated unfairly. What would this new survey show? Still falling and even more negative posts?
But before that time: Many coffee cups, conversations and many interviews with local newspapers and NRK both locally and nationally. There was a stand in Sogndal, a stand in Florø strongly characterized by the smell of the local delicacy dried herring, and there was a stand in Førde. Mile after mile by car. One or two voters who were convinced. And constant interviews about declining support.
Vedum does not complain about the media, he is too driven to do so. Communications manager Vangen talks about a violent push and a lot of resistance, but always adds that you just have to reckon with that. The Center Party knows the game and knows which matches are worth taking.
There was no shortage of local center-right parties who had to speak a little ugly about us in the national media who only want to talk polls and not matter
But there was despair in the air. It does more and more often around the Center Party during the day. There was a sentence during the lunch that it is a bit strange that Erna Solberg gets away so cheaply while we in the media have put our teeth into the Center Party – the only one of the big parties that is likely to advance from the previous election?
There was no shortage of local center-right parties who had to speak a little ugly about us in the national media who only want to talk opinion polls and not issue.
There was occasional frustration that the “project of Prime Minister Vedum” was being taken too seriously. Is not the Labor Party heading towards a historically bad election?
Before they recovered. The media is what we are, there is no point in arguing.
At a quarter past five, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum was ready to answer TV2’s questions about another poll. 11 percent, this time. Stable. Hope that the floor is reached just above the result from the last time, and a chance to bounce back in the last 12 days.
[ Ikke hør på hva Bollestad sier. Se heller på hva hun gjør ]
Or as TV2 presented the figure: Everything that had been won since 2017 is now lost. The Center Party is back to square one, the channel’s commentator said before Vedum got the floor. The Center Party has “a huge potential”, Vedum told TV2’s reporter. Who really just wanted how worried he was.
A small Widerøe plane back to Oslo. Another day in the election campaign over. On the ground at Gardermoen, Vedum and his entourage could read an ointment of force from a party colleague who had grown tired. “You do not engage in public education, you only engage in games and games. I think it is bad for the voters », roared former party leader Liv Signe Navarsete on VG.no. “What you are doing is building up other parties and tearing us down.”
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The next day, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum was in Trondheim to participate in NRK’s «People’s meeting with the prime ministerial candidates». The first hour he had to sit in the back room and watch Jonas Gahr Støre and Erna Solberg discuss. The third place, Vedums, was empty.
Vedum escaped in the last section of the program. But not before he was pressured hard by host Fredrik Solvang that Vedum had sabotaged his own election campaign by being crowned prime ministerial candidate. Solvang asked three times, before ending the session with a sigh. Prime Minister Solberg and the Labor Party’s candidate Støre had 53 minutes earlier been welcomed with the tough question of who chooses the clothes they are wearing.
It is thus possible to understand where it comes from, the frustration that characterizes many center-right parties in the run-up to the election campaign.
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