– 31 out of 37 representatives attended the national board meeting. Everyone expressed full confidence in Bjørnar Moxnes. That’s what 1st deputy chair Marie Sneve Martinussen said when she met the press after the national board meeting.
Rødt’s acting deputy chair Marie Sneve Martinussen met the press on Monday evening. Photo: Javad Parsa, NTB
sea view
Some people in Rødt asked at the weekend for a national board meeting to discuss the sunglasses theft case. On Monday, they were heard. Then Rødt called in an extraordinary national board meeting. Just before the meeting, the national board was informed that Bjørnar Moxnes has been on sick leave for two weeks.
1st Deputy Speaker Marie Sneve Martinussen met the press outside the Storting after the meeting.
– 31 out of 37 representatives attended the national board meeting. Everyone expressed full confidence in Bjørnar Moxnes, she said.
– At the meeting, people heard each other express that trust, it was good for people. Constructive feedback and criticism was also given, but everyone landed on full trust, she said.
When asked how he is doing now, she replied:
– I guess he’s not doing so well. But I haven’t had much contact with him lately.
– Stupid and dusty
She also said that she had experienced that in recent days he wanted to lay all his cards on the table and clean up after himself.
Sneve Martinussen said that what he has done is stupid, dirty and poorly handled, and that many expressed this at the meeting.
– He received well-deserved criticism, she said. But she feels absolutely certain that Moxnes will be back as party leader after 18 July. Then the sick leave is over.
– Prepared to answer
In the meantime, Marie Sneve Martinussen acts as party leader.
To Aftenposten, Sneve Martinussen says that in the coming weeks she expects to have to spend “more time than she would like” on handling the glasses theft case.
– At the same time, I am prepared to answer what people need answers to. Both internally in the party, where many are restless and uncertain, but also externally, says the acting party leader.
– If for some reason Moxnes were not to return, do you see yourself as a leadership candidate?
– As deputy leader, you are always leader at the moment when the party leader cannot. It has happened before, when Bjørnar was on paternity leave. But to me it is obvious that Bjørnar will return, and that there is no chance of a leadership debate in Rødt.
Brynjar Moxnes met the press on Saturday morning. Photo: Tomm W. Christiansen
The glasses theft
On Friday, it became known that Moxnes had been caught stealing glasses at Gardermoen earlier in June. The Red leader took a pair of sunglasses from a shop without paying for them.
– It is absolutely true that I took a pair of sunglasses out of a shop in Gardermoen without paying. That was not the intention and is very embarrassing, Moxnes told Aftenposten in an email on Friday.
He has changed his explanation several times. On Friday evening, Moxnes posted a longer apology on own Facebook profile. There he writes that he “panicked and was scared”.
New information in the case became known on Sunday. Moxnes must have unzipped the jacket pocket, put the glasses in the pocket and closed the zip again. An anonymous source who knows the entire sequence of events told Aftenposten. The newspaper knows the identity of this source.
Bjørnar Moxnes commented on this in an SMS to Aftenposten:
– I took the glasses out of the store without paying. As previously stated, I must have thought at some point that it was my own glasses or not thought at all and put them in my pocket. I don’t remember details about the zipper, but it could probably be true.
As a result of Moxnes’ handling of the glasses theft, a local team leader in Rødt believed that Moxnes should resign immediately. But the national board meeting did not decide on that.
2023-07-03 20:03:45
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