Kjerkol won the battle for leadership in Trøndelag Ap – held with Giske – VG

The newly elected leader celebrated the victory at a restaurant with, among others, former Labor Vice President Trond Giske. He was initially unanimously nominated as leader, but was rejected after a dramatic week in the Trøndelag Labor Party.

– There is a serious background to the fact that I am here. The last time has been disturbing and divisive, Ingvild Kjerkol said at the annual meeting in Steinkjer after the elections.

Several women from Trøndelag have told stories about culture.

– For those of you who have given notice, for those of you who are still having bad experiences, for those of you who doubt: it should be safe to give notice in the Trøndelag Labor Party, Kjerkol said.

Will become Minister of State

On Friday, the nominating committee unanimously re-nominated one candidate: Marit Bjerkås, Rennebu’s deputy mayor. On Saturday, Verdalen Ap presented a bench proposal, in which they propose Kjerkol as the new leader.

Kjerkol is the party’s health policy spokesperson and comes from Stjørdal in Nord-Trøndelag.

He won the election with 156 to 75 votes and was in a good mood when VG spoke to him after the victory.

– You are the Labor Party health leader, you are a parliamentary representative and now county leader in the Trøndelag Labor Party, making you a high-ranking member of the Labor Party. Do you want to be a minister?

– Anyone who engages in politics wants to become a minister. But I am not the one who decides. My task now is to make sure that we make the best possible choice at Trøndelag.

– Will you be on the phone on election night and wait for Jonas Gahr Støre to call?

– You know, I’m always on the phone. As long as he has enough power, Kjerkol says and laughs.

Kjerkol emphasizes to VG that it was not the big party on Saturday night, as she had to drive home to Stjørdal that same night.

– Trond sat there for ten minutes, we sat there a bit longer and then we headed home, Kjerkol writes in an SMS at 10.30pm.

Warned of warning against Kjerkol

The Storting representative appeared as a hot candidate on Friday, when the nominating committee met again to make a new recommendation on Friday morning.

Many on the county team reacted to the fact that election committee leader Arild Grande at this meeting warned that warnings against Kjerkol could come. He defended his message to the nominating committee from the rostrum on Saturday afternoon.

– I can be completely open and honest when I said in the electoral committee that I cannot support a proposal with Ingvild Kjerkol as the leader. I have personal reasons for that, Grande said during the election debate at the annual meeting.

– And I offered to the nominating committee, since there were actually several who wanted to promote proposals for Ingvild Kjerkol, that if the committee insisted on promoting proposals for Kjerkol as leader, I could resign as leader. Then the committee could present a unanimous recommendation, without me being a part of it.

When asked if there is any truth to the statements of the committee chairman, Grande, Kjerkol says:

– You should always be attentive to how others perceive you, and if there is a basis for notifications, then it is important that it is treated appropriately. I don’t go and feel it daily, but all people in powerful leadership positions should be aware of it. I experienced that Arild Grande defended his position today quite fairly, I do not experience that yesterday’s procedure was fair play.

– Amazing experience

From the rostrum, he reprimanded Grande, who believes he has broken the routines both for electoral processes and for notification.

– What I have experienced in the last 24 hours, I simply cannot accept. We have clear bylaws and routines on how we elect shop stewards, how we make nominations and how we handle notification cases, Kjerkol said just before the proposal to elect her as leader was presented.

– It was a very surprising experience for me yesterday, that the president of the nominating committee called me, where he explained that he had received an SMS about the notification of the members, he continued.

– When the chairman of the nominating committee handles things the way Arild Grande has, it is completely different than the organization should be, concluded Kjerkol to applause from Steinkjer’s room.

In both Steinkjer and Trondheim, several delegates criticized the nominating committee from the rostrum.

Large: people have been ostracized

During the electoral debate, the leader of the electoral committee Arild Grande spoke about what he believes to be a culture in the party:

– I have seen people expelled, almost dead in our party. That it is not about an individual, but about a culture. I’ve experienced it myself in my body, and I’ve seen situations where I should have spoken out myself, says Grande.

He reacted to the media leaks:

– In all nominating committees, strong and weak candidates of candidates are evaluated. It has always happened: no one will dare to participate in such processes if it is for an open microphone, Grande said and continued:

– When people think that it was wrong for me to say it in the electoral committee, in an internal meeting, I ask: Should I ignore the message I received? Should I refrain from saying my opinion?

After the meeting, Grande tells NTB that the conflict will escalate in the organization.

– Now we will have a thorough review of this with the party centrally. There we will both have the opportunity to describe how we have looked at the different stories that have been.