Former members of the KrF make a new party – will stand in parliament in 2021 – NRK Norway – Summary of news from different parts of the country

– Hareide’s speech seemed brilliant to many of us and of course it is something we have in the back of our minds, Geir Lippestad tells NRK.

In September 2018, then-KrF leader Knut Arild Hareide spoke to the KrF national board and asked the party to seek government cooperation with the Labor Party and the Center Party. Two years later, Hareide is Minister of State in the Erna Solberg government, while several KrF members who were inspired by his message join forces to create a new party.

– But we are not “the red KrF”, we are people with different party origins, and I think we will be a much broader party than KrF, says Lippestad.

Working towards the 21st election

Party City center it had a founding meeting late last week, but must collect 5,000 signatures to be a legally registered party that can stand in the 2021 Storting elections.

– The Storting is the target, says Lippestad. – The fight against exclusion and social barriers is our DNA, he says.

The adopted political platform highlights, among others, the following:

• The party is independent of the bloc
• The fight for vulnerable groups and inclusion is central
• Norway is responsible for receiving people on the run
• Fight against growing economic inequality
• Oil extraction on the Norwegian shelf will be phased out over 15 years.
• Supports international cooperation and the EEA agreement
• Active national property policy

The meir:

Central platform

Iron bandage

Lippestad himself was a Labor Party councilor until 2017 and was a member of the Oslo City Council until 2019. When the NRK interviewed him on Tuesday afternoon, he had not so far submitted his resignation to the Labor Party. But most of those who are now starting the new party City center he has a KrF background and was on the “red side” during the leadership election.

• Kristin Walstad was until recently Deputy Head of Viken KrF
• Irene Solli was the second deputy leader at Agder KrF until January this year
• Dag Sele was a county leader in Hordaland KrF and a member of the central board

They also bring with them Tom Sverre Tomren who has represented the ODMs in Hordaland County Council and also our KrF member. The area of ​​former Kjell Magne Bondevik (KrF) Prime Minister John Harald Bondevik has not previously been politically active, but recently made a name for himself with a statement that was strongly critical of KrF.

On November 2, 2018, the KrF national meeting voted on the leadership choice invited by party leader Knut Arild Hareide.

Hareide wanted the party to seek government power. He wanted KrF to cooperate with the Labor Party and the Center Party. But a narrow majority would look the other way. They decided that KrF should join the government of Erna Solberg.

At the extraordinary national meeting in fall 2018, KrF’s “blue side” won by a narrow 98-90 margin. And so KrF was a government party. Hareide resigned as party leader and Vice President Kjell Ingolf Ropstad took over. In Granavolden in the new year 2019, KrF negotiated in government with the Conservatives, Liberals and the Green Party.

But KrF was split in the middle. What was left was a great multitude of “red” drawers.

NRK knows that there was talk of a new party right after the elections. Several politicians and advisers who were on the Hareide line resigned after a quarter of an hour, refused to vote, or resigned. But only recently has the idea matured so much that a smaller circle of people have come together and realized the idea of ​​a new party. The new party says that the values ​​are the social democratic, Christian democratic and Christian socialist mentality.

Swap matches

– KrF has achieved something good in government, but in many cases it is neglected. We have seen it especially in the last year. From the case of undocumented rights, not least in the Moria case in particular, but also in environmental matters, says Irene Solli, who is vice president of the new party’s board. Solli is a former deputy leader in Agder KrF and was elected deputy representative in the Kristiansand city council and Agder county council from the KrF list. She resigned from the party in January of this year.

Many of those with a KrF party background emphasize that KrF has been overly concerned with Christian symbolic values ​​and that the party has become a right-wing party that contributes to empowering the Frp.

– I agree with much of the KrF program, but I feel that the party is quiet where I expected them to oppose Frp’s statements, and some of what is coming from KrF in the debate on homosexuality and homotherapy is contributing to divisive rhetoric, says Dag Sele.

Sele was the Hordaland KrF county leader when the party elected the leadership in 2018 and also sat on the central KrF board. Now she is also on the board of directors of the new party. He thinks his old party is too busy to satisfy some voters at the KrF base.

Collaboration with the left

The party describes itself as an independent bloc.

President Geir Lippestad still has no doubts about who City center meiner should be prime minister, if they wanted to get to the Storting.

– As the political situation is today, a vote for the Center will be a vote for a change of government.

– Is it an independent block then?

– If one is going to do something with exclusion and inclusion, then it does not happen in a collaboration with Frp.

– Is the Center a Christian holiday?

– We take Christian and religious values ​​seriously. But we will govern in accordance with the UN’s sustainability goals.

– But isn’t it a Christian holiday?

– No, the Center is a party for all those who are concerned about our politics, and we are concerned about the values ​​that underlie both Christianity and other religions.

KrF: – The same heart problems.

– We recorded that people from three different parties start a new party with many of the same heart problems that we fight for. Of course, we should wish that all of them would choose to get involved in the great Christian Democratic center party that we have, says Erik Lunde, who is a member of the KrF central board.

Lunde himself voted for KrF to choose the red side in 2018.

– We have to respect the fact that people probably have different ways of getting involved, but I feel that most of us, including those of us who were on the red side in the leadership elections in 2018, still have our stake in KrF. Of course, we want as many people as possible on our team.

– How do you assess the risk of KrF losing voters to the new party?

– It is difficult to speculate, we have a clear strategy to overcome the threshold in next year’s elections, and I also think that this can mobilize a bit.

Lunde is completely unaware that KrF has cared too much for Christian symbolic values ​​and that the party has become a right-wing party that contributes to empowering the FRP.

– First, I experience that KrF struggles every day to make politics central. And then I experience that we are a party concerned about the great challenges of our time.