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In a new book, the PST bodyguards open up about the work they do to protect Norwegian politicians, and politicians tell how it is lived from the other side.
24 hours a day, the prime minister and other politicians are followed by armed PST employees.
– We know that there are forces in Norway who hate our politicians, who want to commit acts of violence, Sven Arne tells NTB.
He is one of the bodyguards who is closely followed in the book “Bodyguard – inside PST”, written by NRK journalist Simon Frammarsvik Solheim.
– There is something about PST that is a bit mysterious to people. I think people find it exciting. It’s probably a bit of an entertaining book too, because you get some personal stories about famous people that everyone knows who they are, like Erna Solberg and Siv Jensen, says the author.
Close
Many have seen bodyguards in the background when ministers are at press conferences and traveling. But they must also be vigilant in everyday situations.
The day before Christmas, they follow NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Skeidar to collect a mattress. At the same time, they learn about the activity in Bergen through the connection, where Prime Minister Erna Solberg is shopping for Christmas at the Lagunen shopping center.
“On the way to the car … with a lot of heavy bags,” bodyguards say of the prime minister.
They are very close, something that Labor leader Hadia Tajik says in the book:
– It was absolutely horrible, she says, when she suddenly surrounded herself with bodyguards when she became Minister of Culture in 2012 at age 29. Something she really wasn’t prepared for.
“She experienced it as a form of home zoning. If she had forgotten to buy milk, she had to call and call the bodyguards, preferably an hour in advance, even though the store was in the same building as she lived, ”Solheim writes in the book.
Christmas dinner
But the book also talks about warm moments, good conversations, and bonds that develop over the years between bodyguards and those who care.
– We have politicians whom we have followed for 15 years. We try to maintain a professional distance, but it is clear that those of us who have followed for a long time get used to us. And people are different. Some tend to seek more than others when it comes to contact, bodyguard Roald tells NTB.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) says she always tries to organize space and food for the bodyguards at Christmas or during other family holidays. FRP leader Siv Jensen says she served them fish soup in a thermos when they were waiting outside their mother’s house.
– Neither I nor my family can let them sit for hours in the car outside and wait for us to eat our Christmas dinner and wrap the presents, it says in the book.
Ski star
When Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre received permanent protection, he suddenly got new training partners. At first, the bodyguards often lost sight of him because he was going too fast for them on the skis. Therefore, faster skiers had to be put on guard.
– For me, it has been a rebound in terms of training, although they have not always been able to keep up, says Støre.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, Støre experienced the deadly attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul in 2008, an episode that is extensively described from the bodyguards’ perspective in the book.
Sven Arne says that they always have to think that the worst can happen. But they must not let it run out.
– We have to think about the worst case all the time. And we have that with us in the spine. That’s why we train a lot. But it shouldn’t be a burden, so that you walk like a taut steel spring, he says.
Difficult selfies
The work of the bodyguards is important so that politicians are close to the people. But these situations also present problems.
– Selfies are a great challenge for us. Before, people would go to the “object” and wave, maybe they got an autograph. Now people carry them around and you don’t know who they are, says Roald.
He says they constantly have to consider whether someone might pose a threat.
– Karl Johans’ door on a Saturday morning with an object is obviously not a place to be boring, he says.
