Siv Jensen about Erna Solberg: Lost the trick – VG

Former FRP leader Siv Jensen eases the veil from the government Solberg’s inner life in his new autobiography.

She says that she noticed a marked change in the Prime Minister’s attitude towards the government partners in the FRP after the toll agreement in 2019.

Venstre and KrF stood on one side – and Frp steeply on the other.

Siv Jensen thought that the government could break, but the crisis was averted.

– Instead of the agreement between the four governing parties leading to a new boost, the exact opposite happened. It was as if many of the members of the government had lost their temper. Maybe especially Erna. It surprised me, writes Siv Jensen in the book.

She says that Prime Minister Erna Solberg no longer had the will to deliver the big issues after she fulfilled the dream of a bourgeois majority government.

– She was just going to steer the ship. It was as if the four-party government itself became more important to her than concrete political breakthroughs, she adds.

Saved by pearl necklace

In 2015, the Liberal Party and the Green Party once again crashed together in the increasingly classic conflict: car taxes versus environmental measures.

After lengthy negotiations, the Liberal Party still refused to support the budget.

In the book, Siv Jensen describes the danger of a government crisis as imminent, but the FRP would not allow itself to be pressured anymore.

“I had had enough and took the Prime Minister for granted:
– Erna, now I do not have a shit more to give! », Jensen writes.

Jensen describes a top-heavy meeting at the Prime Minister’s office with ministers crying, deputies who had to take time-out due to anger and a very frustrated prime minister.

From the sidelines came an unexpectedly helping hand in the form of a pearl necklace:

– Erna was at the breaking point. For an hour she had kept her fingers busy turning the pearls on a necklace she was wearing. She often does it when
she is bored or stressed, Jensen writes.

In the middle of an engaged post from Jensen, the tampering took over and the pearl necklace smoked.

As the pearls rolled around on the floor, a wild and liberating laugh broke out in the room – and the mood changed, so that they came to an agreement.

Roughly speaking, we can say that both the car package and the government this Christmas were saved by Erna Solberg’s broken pearl necklace, Jensen writes.

Jensen about Venstre and KrF: – Arguing toddlers

Jensen writes that government wear and tear increased significantly when there was a majority government with the Liberal Party and KrF.

– The problem for Erna’s new government was that all the compromises left a gray, unrecognizable and dull boring policy that did not really benefit any of the four parties. The voters were also bored, Jensen writes.

She writes that the FRP had to pay too much attention to the Liberal Party and the Christian Democrats.

– I was often annoyed by this, because there is something about the quarrelsome toddlers who never get enough ice, she writes.

She believes that the Liberal Party and KrF were not as generous back.

– Erna always understood to try to balance these things, until she was pushed hard enough. I honestly do not know what happened, but at some point in the fall of 2019, I felt that Erna just stopped paying attention to us. I warned her time and time again, Jensen writes.

Did not reach

Siv Jensen took Frp into government for the first time, but on 20 January 2020 it was over after more than six years at the helm.

The triggering case was that Norway brought home an IS woman and her two children, one of whom was presumed seriously ill.

Jensen writes that the case of the IS woman was extremely difficult for Frp, but that they agreed to bring children home.

Bringing the woman home was something completely different.

Because the rescue operation was secret, Jensen could not anchor the decision in the party organization.

When it became known, the FRP said that they would come up with a list of demands, which had to be met if they were to remain in government.

Jensen writes that the list was never completed, and that it was then clear to her that they could not continue in government.

Jensen writes that she thinks Solberg underestimated how painful the case was for Frp.

– Or maybe she had just decided that it was KrF and Venstre she wanted to move on with. I do not know. We will probably know that on a beautiful day, Jensen writes and adds:

– In any case, I thought it was strange, because we were a pretty crucial piece for the cooperation on the bourgeois side. I had also been a steady partner for Erna for quite a few years. When she did not listen to me, I just had to take note.

– Good teamwork

Conservative leader Erna Solberg has been presented with the quotes from Siv Jensen.

– Siv and I have had a close and good collaboration over many years. Together, our parties have reduced taxes for most people, built roads all over the country and the Norwegian economy now has more legs to stand on, Solberg writes in an e-mail to VG:

– I think it’s nice that retired politicians tell their version and I look forward to reading the book. Trine has also written her version, and I may come up with my version in many many years. It is probably the sum of the different versions that represents reality, she adds.

–