– It is fantastic, there are an incredible number of voices, says Pia-Karoline Øfeldt Rygh.
She runs the local Mix kiosk in Kjøllefjord, which is an important part of business life in the municipality.
Those who had hoped that the wind turbine opponents Senterpartiet and SV would put an end to the planned 300 wind turbines in Lebesby municipality in Finnmark will have to face the disappointment.
The Labor Party and the Conservative Party have respectively received 55.4 and 18.9 per cent of the votes in the small municipality with 999 eligible voters.
All the votes have been counted. 63.1 percent of those entitled to vote voted during this year’s election in Lebesby.
– We are very satisfied with the votes we have received, says Lise Theodora Rasmussen, leader of Lebesby Ap.
She believes the wind power debate has influenced this year’s election.
– It is quite clear that the debate has influenced the voters.
The Center Party gets 13.9 percent of the vote, a drop of 12.5 from the last election, while SV gets 11.8 percent of the vote.
Thus, it blows the government’s way, literally.
The municipal board in Lebesby
Lebesby has undefined seats in the municipal council. The places are distributed as follows:
– An extremely good job for the municipality
As the first votes were cast, Pia-Karoline Øfeldt Rygh entered the Lebesby Labor Party’s election vigil.
She does not hide why she voted the way she did.
– Of course I voted for Sigurd Rafelsen!
Rafaelsen (Ap) has been mayor for the last period in Lebesby.
– He does an extremely good job for the municipality, and he is passionate about things I appreciate. He works a lot for the business world, and I am a big part of it.
As general manager at Mix, Øfeldt Rygh sees the business world as many pieces that have to fit together.
– I think Sigurd sees it and understands these things, and wants people to stay and enjoy themselves here.
Sigurd Rafaelsen (Ap), mayor of Lebesby municipality, receives an applauding welcome when he entered Kjøllefjord.
Rafaelsen himself is overwhelmed by the trust they now have again.
– We must manage it well. The work we have done over the last four years has been noticed. We will continue with that, he says.
Now the priority will be to create growth and activity for Rafaelsen and co.
– Now we are going to use our wind resources. Then we must have good processes, then we will see what we can achieve. But we have faith in it.
– Can Jonas Gahr Støre count on the Melkøya package being fully opened?
– We will facilitate wind power in our municipality, says Rafaelsen.
After the preliminary votes have been counted, Ap makes a snap election in Lebesby municipality.
Photo: Gunnar Sætra / NRK
Wind power for electrification
It is the first time in history that the election results in the small Finnmark municipality have been the subject of as much attention as this year.
Two large wind power projects are planned here:
Davvi and Laksefjorden wind power plants.
The two alone will be able to provide almost 4 TWh of new power production and account for 45 percent of all new wind power capacity NVE has for processing in Finnmark.
If they are not built, it will be difficult for Finnmark to reach the government’s power target in 2030.
Among other things, it is about electrifying the gas plant on Melkøya. The leader of the Finnmark Labor Party, Kristina Hansen, believes that the debate around electrification has influenced the election in many ways.
– It is an issue that has taken up a lot of space in the election campaign, so there is hardly any doubt that it has an impact on the election results in some places.
Thus, the election in Lebesby has great national significance.
Lebesby municipality already has a wind farm, but now it looks like further development will become a reality.
Photo: Gunnar Sætgra / NRK
Obvious resistance
Several local teams in the Center Party in Finnmark boycotted this year’s election campaign. It was precisely because of the Melkøya case. In Karasjok, people were encouraged to vote for the Sami lists.
Kirsten Inger Anti, the Center Party’s mayoral candidate in Karasjok, has a bad feeling after seeing the result in Lebesby.
– We know that then the wind turbines will come to the Lebesby areas. There was no good news. We must start mobilizing with other municipalities to prevent it from succeeding.
A bad feeling is what the Center Party’s mayoral candidate in Karasjok, Kirsten Inger Anti, is left with after the election results became clear in Lebesby.
Photo: Tor Egil Rasmussen / NRK
The reindeer herders are also very disappointed with the result in Lebesby. Maret Laila Anti is deputy head of reindeer herding district 13.
– We are disappointed that the population supports the parties in Lebesby that want to ravage nature, wipe out reindeer herders’ jobs and violate Sami rights.
She is clear that the case is not over, even if Lebesby decides to approve the plans.
– The Sámi Parliament delivers enough objections to the planning plan to the municipality and also a possible licensing decision.
– For our reindeer herding district, the election result in Lebesby is a loss, says Maret Laila Anti, deputy leader of the reindeer herding district 13.
Photo: Maien Gaup Sandberg / NRK
To parti for, to parti mot
The four parties that have stood for election in the municipality are divided on the matter. The Conservative Party and the Labor Party welcome wind power, while the Center Party and SV say flatly no.
The supporters believe that wind power will create jobs, provide enough electricity for industrial establishments and, not least, income in the millions for the small municipality.
Those who are against believe that 200-300 wind turbines will destroy nature and seize large reindeer herding areas.
Like many other small municipalities in Finnmark, Lebesby is struggling with emigration and negative population growth.
The municipality has 1226 inhabitants, of which 999 are entitled to vote. 390 submitted advance votes. That makes up 40 percent of those entitled to vote.
2023-09-11 21:20:17
#windmill #parties #majority #Lebesby
