Red needs to cooperate more enthusiastically than before

– If someone thinks of a way out of Rødt’s success, they have to wake up first and last, warns Rødt director Marie Sneve Martinussen.

Today’s parliamentary majority consisting of Ap, SV and Sp was emptied in the polls long ago. But the red-green side is not far from a majority in several dimensions when you factor in Red and perhaps the MDG.

– It shows that it is possible to lose the government door again for Erna Solberg and Sylvi Listhaug. But a majority for the left depends on a big and strong Red, says Sneve Martinussen.

Rødt has grown tired of signs from Ap that Støre’s government can continue as before, even if it depends on Rødt’s support.

– All parties required to form a majority must aim to appeal to their voters. Although some in AP may not want to count on Red when we talk about a majority, she says.

Not polling cows

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has previously said yes inappropriate with government collaboration with Rødt. The same thing Red intended. And there is no sign that any of them will change.

But if Støre has any hope of retaining government power after the election, he must by all accounts retain Rødt’s votes as well as Ap, Sp and SV.

Sneve Martinussen warns that Rødt does not accept being treated as voting cows.

– We want a new course for Norway. We want to strengthen welfare, reduce disparities, take control of power, strengthen the government of the people and make proper dental health reform.

– The policy and results are the most important. It’s not what that collaboration looks like, she says.

Karl Marx was not ready for debate

On Friday, Rødt will present a draft of a new work program for the period 2025–2029. Anyone who hopes – or fears – that it will be the beginning of a new debate about “communism”, can forget it immediately.

The controversial sentence “That’s what Karl Marx called communism” is in Rødt’s program of principles. And it should not be dealt with before the election.

Neither Rødt nor Ap is clear about exactly what kind of cooperation might be relevant today. But Rødt wants a more binding cooperation than in this period.

– We saw exactly what we warned against: a minority government that stands free, runs a slalom in the Storting and fixes important issues such as fish and pensions with the right, she says.

Rødt has previously referred to the agreement that Danish sister party Enhedslisten had with Mette Fredriksen’s first coalition government from 2019 to 2022. Today’s Danish majority government will cooperate over on the central line and now Enhedslisten is parked outside.

Blue spring, red autumn

Rødt avoids at all costs what the Danes call “blue spring and red autumn”. With the government entering into a budget agreement with the left in the fall and solving many other issues with the right in the spring.

– An agreement that does more than budget cooperation can stop us from a situation like in Denmark, she says.

– But can Rødt stop supporting the Støre government when the alternative is the blue government of Solberg?

– Red is interested in taking power and implementing our policy. We are not going to be a doormat for any government. We must seek cooperation, take responsibility and create change.

– It is not certain that the role of a junior partner in a government that negotiates behind closed doors is the best solution. Several parties have fallen into that trap in the past.

– Then I expect that the government will also sit down and settle after the election. Anything else would be arrogant to the voters, she says.

– Are you open to government compromise?

– My message now is not that Rødt should go to government talks.

The secretary of the APS Kjersti Stenseng writes in an SMS that “we cooperate well in individual matters at the Storting”.

– The political distance to Rødt is too great for government cooperation to be natural. The most important thing is that we get a governing government, led by the Labor Party.