Raymond can take over Labor after Jonas – VG

From his quiet retirement life at his home in Lier, Arntzen feels a kind of sadness when he talks about the old giant among the Norwegian political parties.

This week alone, the party has had multiple polls below 21 percent. An opposition party that should have been in an attack position and like a rocket both at the polls and at the back of the government.

– I think it’s very sad. Simply sad. I remember Thorbjørn Jagland’s time and his goal of 36.9. We achieved 35 percent. If Jonas had had that many numbers, he would have been king of the mound, Arntzen compares.

Take a sip of your coffee at the popular mall cafe. A couple of other restaurants are draped in huge curtains gossiping about bankruptcy and the closing of the crown. It is not so sad to be in the Labor Party. But Arntzen doesn’t hesitate to call it a crisis.

– Yes, of course it is a crisis, he grumbles in Trøndelag. When he held the presidency and council of the city of Trondheim in the 1970s, the party had 40 percent support and ruled the city almost alone.

Figures from Respons Analysis measurements show that Labor Party support has declined dramatically during Støre’s party leadership, especially in earlier strongholds such as Trøndelag, Northern Norway and inland (Hedmark / Oppland).

He believes that the main cause of the crisis is twofold:

– One thing is that there has been a lot of internal noise that has received incredible attention in the media. It is no secret that the Giske case has been recorded. We also see other conditions and infighting that cause people to withdraw from politics, says Arntzen before describing a kind of political hide-and-seek game.

– The main reason, however, is that the party has been too invisible, we have not been visible enough about our own policies. The Labor Party has been more concerned with addressing government policy than coming up with its own solutions, observes the veteran.

– So, is it not important that a large opposition party messes with the government?

– Yes, but it is a balancing act that the Labor Party has not achieved, between overthrowing the government parties and presenting its own policy. There I think it has been missing a lot.

Arntzen is not insomniac, but he doesn’t like this 20 percent situation. Let Jonas Gahr Støre get the ten months until the choice of destination to go up ten percentage points. Tiny.

– The support right now?

– The level at which we are at this moment is not sustainable. In other words, the Labor Party, if we want to be satisfied, then the party must exceed 30 percent. Now we must show that this is a party for the workers, a party for the majority of the people and a party for government, claims Arntzen.

– But regarding the injury, maybe Støre shouldn’t give an ultimatum?

– No, I don’t think I should do that.

– Is Støre the leader of the right-wing party in the current crisis situation?

– Yes, of course it is a crisis. But I probably still think that now Jonas should be allowed to run the election campaign and run as the first man of the party and as the first candidate for prime minister. Then he has to assess whether he is the right man to lead the game even further, Arntzen replies.

He believes that Støre did a formidable job as foreign minister.

– Then he filled the shoes to hold. I don’t think he has been so lucky since he resigned as chancellor. Jonas Gahr Støre is such a wise and intelligent man that he will probably consider the election result we get. He will also draw the conclusions that others have made before him, if there is a particularly bad result.

– And Raymond Johansen, can he be a future party leader?

– Yes I say it seriously. I myself was a member of the Labor Party electoral committee when I was elected party secretary. He did a very good job there. He has also done a very good job as the leader of the city council in Oslo. In my opinion, Raymond is a very capable and current leadership candidate for future leadership in the Labor Party.

Sture Arntzen worries that party leaders will resemble Labor leader and former Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen, and examine what is most important in people’s lives before politics is created. He thinks the current Thorbjørn Jagland was talking about something when he built the formwork for Det norske hus.

– He tried some of what the national father Einar Gerhardsen accomplished, namely, to analyze the needs of the people and then to shape politics. This is how we met the working class. Jagland tried something similar, but was ridiculed. It was a shame, because a lot of what he represented had a lot to do with it, thinks Arntzen.

You no longer see many in Norwegian politics looking at the needs of ordinary people as well. Except maybe for a boy in Hedmark.

– Vedum. I do not consider him a candidate for prime minister. But I respect the guy and the fight he’s leading against centralization. Take Andøya and the closing of the defense base. Sp was the only party that really promised to keep it. So we go back to what Gerhardsen did. He consulted with people and created politics out of it.

Støre: Experiences of confidence and encouragement

Jonas Gahr Støre has been presented with Arntzen’s claim that the Labor leader himself will understand that he should seek a replacement with a miserable election result in 2021.

– I think it’s okay. That is an opinion you should be able to have. So he is an organizational person enough to know that organizations have their leaders, they trust the leaders and if not, there are ways to express it. I hear that, Støre tells VG. He adds that he feels “encouragement and confidence that it will last for a long time from the leaders of the union movement” throughout the country.

The Labor Party leader also says he has nothing against Arntzen talking about Raymond Johansen as the future party leader:

– If you want to hear positive things about Raymond Johansen, come to me. I elected him Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2005, we are close political friends. He was a good party secretary and is an excellent city council leader. This makes him a very important leader in the labor movement, Støre boasts.

– So people who talk about it don’t threaten you?

– In.