Sylvi Listhaug loves Norwegian oil workers and is upset about all the opinions given to her and the Progress Party.
ARENDAL (Nettavisen Økonomi): – No! it comes immediately.
We are sitting in the sun outside a café in Arendal after one of the many debates during Arendal week and have had a few minutes with Frp’s leader. The question from the journalist is so far leading, that many perceive Sylvi Listhaug as controversial, but whether she herself thinks she is.
– I perceive that I stand for what I believe is right and what the Progress Party stands for. Then I’m clear, I always have been. I think there are plenty of politicians who walk around the porridge and where you think afterwards: “What was that person actually saying now”?
– Which party leaders do you perceive as controversial?
– It will depend on what political position you have, but for me left-wing socialists are controversial. They want the state to take over most things, deprive people of their freedom of choice, flea them for as many taxes and fees as possible, and want to steer us from cradle to grave.
Nettavisen has also invited all party leaders to be guest editors of Nettavisen in the run-up to the election. First out is Listhaug on Monday 23 August.
Read also: Listhaug warns of refugee flows: – I want an insurance from Erna Solberg
Shame
– They will apply oil comb, meat comb, car comb… Lan Marie Berg will remove the car completely. I think that is very controversial.
– Do you think it is controversial that the MDGs rely on UN climate reports?
– I think it is controversial that MDG wants to close down the Norwegian oil industry. I think it is controversial to believe that Norway will save the whole world. We are a very small country with 5 million inhabitants and account for approx. 0.5 per mille of world emissions.
– Then it sounds as if only we shut down the oil industry, send jobs out of the country and put welfare in the rubble, then we spare the world climate. The truth is that India and China each year increase their emissions with the tiger Norway’s total emissions. They build coal-fired power plants with “both hands”, Listhaug answers.
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More gas
One of the things that can help reduce CO2 emissions in the world is Norwegian gas, according to the FRP leader.
– Norwegian oil workers are doing more for the climate than the MDGs will ever do by producing gas for Europe and thus displacing dirty coal, is the clear message to the environmental party.
We want to talk to her about values, a big topic and an important political topic. Listhaug says what has always been important to her is the family. When she was growing up, she spent a lot of time with her grandparents. The mother was heartbroken and had many challenges in her older days, and Listhaug tried to help her.
– Did growing up shape your political views?
– Absolutely. It was elderly care that was the most important thing for me and the reason why I went into politics. We sat together and watched debates, and Jon Alvheim was the star for me. He was an important reason why I joined the Progress Party, and then I agreed with much of what the other party stood for.
Barnetro
– What do you define yourself as, liberal, Christian conservative?
– I have my childhood faith with me, but I do not wear down the doorsteps in the churches. And then I am an economic liberal, I think the market is very important to solve a lot.
– But I want the state to be responsible for financing the most important services in Norway, such as schools, kindergartens and elderly care, that you have a basic good pension system. We have done a lot now to improve the system.
She says she has not thought about which party leader is closest to her in terms of value. Not far away is the Green and Red Environmental Party.
Paradox
– To hear Bjørnar Moxnes talk about the private business world… He wants to put it down, that everything should be state. It is a paradox in itself that he wants to increase the tax burden for companies so the state can take over everything, Listhaug claims. Confronted with that, Moxnes answers.
– FRP used to take a little pride in talking more about their own politics than attacking others, but this year’s election campaign is probably mostly about telling lies about Rødt’s politics. It is true that Rødt wants to increase taxes for the richest to finance a dental health reform.
– Specifically, we will increase the corporation tax by one percentage point annually, it is enough to phase in free dental health over four years. Then it still ends at a level below what it was the first year with Siv Jensen as Minister of Finance. That it is a tax policy that takes the life of the business community falls on its own unreasonableness.
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Brunskvetting
Criticism has hailed towards the right and perhaps especially towards the FRP after the July 22 markings this summer and a lack of settlement against the far right. The Liberal Party claims that the FRP and the Conservatives are afraid of being touched, but among other things Nettavisen’s editor Gunnar Stavrum has opposed it. he means brown bruising.
– How do you experience this criticism and accusations?
– I think it is absolutely terrible, and I do not recognize myself in the opinions that are attributed to us. They put opinions into concepts that we have never put into it. But it is an attempt to avoid the debate about immigration, the FRP leader claims.
Listhaug nevertheless believes that the other parties have approached the Progress Party, for example when it comes to the view of Norwegian language training.
– In the 80s and 90s, it was controversial to say that people who come to Norway must learn Norwegian. Today, no one in their right mind would say that it is wrong.
Nothing in common
– But does the Progress Party have an extra responsibility to settle with the far right, as Jonas Gahr Støre claims?
– We have been very clear in dealing with extremism. We have nothing in common with right-wing extremists who want to use violence against innocent people to defend their views. We have nothing in common with them, nothing more than others, answers a certain party leader.
– Do you not get out well enough what you stand for?
– They try to give us opinions we do not have. Take the debate about sneaky Islamization and that it is a conspiracy theory. No, what we are critical of is that step by step our society should adapt to those who come to Norway, instead of those who come to Norway to adapt to us.
– Then I have lived with for many years that everything I do is wrong, and that everything is twisted and turned to the completely unrecognizable. I do not know where to start, I have so much to take off, says a resigned Listhaug.
Read also: Listhaug towards immigration and development assistance
Boat refugee
She still highlights the episode from 2016 down in the Mediterranean where she was to see how the rescue crew works. The rescue company put on her wetsuit and full equipment and said that it meant a lot to the employees to be able to show how they rescued refugees.
But the sarcastic comments hailed on social media when you saw the pictures from the session. Listhaug was accused of playing boat refugee wearing a full protective suit. “How about opening the window to really feel what it’s like to be out of town” ?, SV’s Karin Andersen raved.
– Everyone was happy, and then I get the question if I do this to feel this what it is like to be an immigrant. Then I said, “No, of course, you can never get into that, but now I’ve seen how they work.”
Why?
– But will you still use the word sneaky Islamization when you know how the critics use it against you?
– Why should others define which words and expressions the Progress Party should use? answers a rhetorical party leader. – That’s not how the world works.
Among other things, she points out the demand for gender-segregated swimming lessons and that Burger King has been criticized for not having its own grills for halal meat.
– But I think it is worse with the Norwegian passports, where the police were clear that it is important to show their ears. Then you are allowed to cover and hide ears and hair, while it is not allowed to wear caps.
Red green
The parliamentary election is approaching, and it is time for a change of government, although it looks a little better for the bourgeoisie in the latest polls. The Center Party’s support has apparently plummeted, and KrF and the Liberal Party are on several polls above the threshold.
Listhaug paints a gloomy picture of the next four years if there is a red-green government.
– Now there are over three weeks left until the election, and it is a long time in politics. But the worst thing is that taxes and fees will go up, and that freedom of choice will go down. There are parties that want to shut down our most important industry and put sticks in the wheel for them.
– It is about 200,000 jobs and that we will save the whole world. Our mantra is that now we must stop wasting and build Norway, says Listhaug.
Read also: MDG politicians about Listhaug: – Is it possible to have the witch-burning plant rebuilt?
Hopeless
She points out that we send out almost 40 billion a year in aid, spend many billions on immigration and integration and on what she believes are hopeless climate measures.
– Then it is not a question of us not being able to afford it, but when it comes to medicine for sick people in our own country, we cannot afford it. These are priorities that I think many do not understand, says a resigned party leader.
– Is it worse for you to get a stronger SV into the government than the Center Party?
– I think it’s bad no matter how you turn it around. The Labor Party will be dependent on left-wing radical socialists. Whether it is SV in addition to Rødt or MDG, in any case it will be a soup that gives higher taxes and fees.
On games
– There will be less freedom of choice and which will incur large expenses for the Norwegian state, as well as parties that work hard to cut revenues from oil. Bjørnar Moxnes is able to put the entire oil fund at risk, warns Listhaug.
– What do you put in it?
– The pensions of people will be gambled with in the form of unprofitable jobs, and then he hopes that they will suddenly become profitable. I think it is a shame in Norway that you have a minimum pension that is below the poverty line. FRP will generally promise pensioners that they will have a good pension when they have worked a long life.
Moxnes says that red will use a smaller part of the Petroleum Fund to invest in infrastructure and green technology domestically in Norway.
Short-term speculation
That it should be more risky than the management of the oil fund FRP wants, where we speculate in the short term on the world stock exchanges, makes no sense.
Moxnes also reminds that the Norwegian people would not have had any oil fund at all if it was up to Frp.
– In their time, they wanted to sell everything abroad rather than have state ownership of the oil resources.
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