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LOOK: At home, at the kitchen table in the childhood home on the western edge of Oslo, Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre looks at the neighborhood he grew up in. Photo: Tore Kristiansen, VG
RIS, OSLO (VG) Jonas Gahr Støre believes that the crisis in the Labor Party has bottomed out and says he is the right man to lead the party to government.
At home, at Ris’s kitchen table in Oslo, Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre serves Baker Hansen cinnamon buns and fresh coffee.
The 60-year-old has left behind a miserable autumn with polls of crisis and political turmoil in Trøndelag.
Now the leader of the Labor Party is believed to be changing things. Have to.
– We have had difficult times. It is the leader’s responsibility to move on. I think we are on the right track, says Støre.
– Have you ever regretted becoming leader of the Labor Party?
– No, I do not have. I have followed enough countries and enough leaders to know that you must endure wave-like spikes, if you are the leader of a party with the ambition to lead a government.
DO NOT REPENT: Jonas Gahr Støre. Photo: Tore Kristiansen, VG
Will put the noise behind him
The Labor Party loses on most fronts after six years with Støre.
On the VG party barometer for October, the Labor Party received 22.7 percent support, which would have been the party’s worst election in 99 years. To VG on Thursday, LO veteran Sture Arntzen said the party has been too invisible and proposed Raymond Johansen as party leader after Støre.
The seas: This is how Støre has lost voters
– It has been a difficult time for two reasons. We have had cases that have not been about politics and the patience for it is less than before. People are not born in a party from cradle to grave. They look around and they don’t like what they see when it’s that kind of fight, says Støre.
– We’ve put that behind us. It required a lot. It had to be done, it fell on me and I have.
LEADERSHIP TRUCK: Trond Giske, Hadia Tajik and Jonas Gahr Støre sat together at one point in the Aps party leadership. Photo: Trond Solberg
Former Deputy Director Trond Giske announced this fall that he will resign from senior political office.
– The second is that the Labor Party, like most social democratic parties, must find a way to communicate and be in a more fragmented time. I feel like we have succeeded and the election campaign will focus on that.
– Are you the right man for the Labor Party now?
– It has been the opinion of the Labor Party for several years in a row and I agree with them.
See summaries of how the Labor Party has lost in rural and urban areas page 2014:
Dare to say no
The Storting election next fall will be a fateful election, for both the Labor Party and Støre.
She lost her first parliamentary election as Labor leader in 2017 and Erna Solberg is already the longest-serving Conservative prime minister of all time.
– The Labor Party will be higher than today. I can say it clearly. I think we can become the biggest party, says Støre.
RIVAL: Erna Solberg is the longest-serving Conservative prime minister of all time and will run for re-election next fall. Here from the 2019 election campaign. Photo: Hallgeir Vågenes
– How bad can it go in the Labor Party before entering the years?
– Knowing from the experiences that predecessors have had with setting numbers, deadlines and dates, I have never done it. The Labor Party must perform at its best. But what is good enough? It is making a difference.
Jonas Gahr Støre has led the Labor Party for more than six years, since he replaced Jens Stoltenberg in June 2014.
– Do you have people around you who say no – and who is your corrective within the Labor Party?
– I have a party address of very specific people. Hadia Tajik, Bjørnar Skjæran, Kjersti Stenseng. We have had difficult times together. There are clear comments and clear messages. And of the people who help me make everyday life come together, I’ve always looked for the ones who say things directly, says Støre.
– So the answer to that yes: I get rake pucks, with yes or no.
BE AWARE: Støre says that people around him, like Deputy Leader Hadia Tajik, give him clear messages and act as a corrective in the Labor Party. Photo: Frode Hansen
Political workshop
The Labor leader points to the party’s new program as a way out of the crisis.
He led the work of the program as a whole, with particular responsibility for the chapters on climate, environment and labor, and believes that they succeed in creating policies that unite oil workers and climate youth.
also read
The Labor Party crisis: this is how Støre has lost voters
– The 2017 elections did not turn out as expected by the Labor Party. So one must assume that politics must also change before the next election. Has the Labor Party been a political workshop so far and how has politics changed?
– We have presented a party program now that I think draws a very clear plan for the 2020s, where we are a force to combat the growing differences in Norway that is married to the change we are entering. We say very clearly that work for everyone, safety for work and safety at work is our main concern.
– Requires a more active state. That is a change. We say we should have a stronger state of well-being, not just take care of the one we have, he says.
The price of milk
– This fall, there has been a lot of adversity for both you and the Labor Party. Why do you bother?
– I grew up in a family with great economic security. Politics has had less to say for my own safety and that of my children. But when I think of politics, I think very closely when saying what kind of society I want my children and my now two grandchildren to grow up in. I think about the qualities that society should have, says Støre.
ENGAGED: Støre speaks out forcefully about why he still bothers to work all day as a Labor leader. Photo: Tore Kristiansen, VG
At his home in Ris in western Oslo, Støre looks beyond a well-kept neighborhood. Joining the Labor Party was an active choice, which he has no regrets.
– Everyone is trained according to their origin. I am me. I think that the party colleagues and the Norwegians know me quite well now, what I stand for, what I am passionate about, what I spend my time on, says Støre.
– Do you know what a liter of milk costs?
– Twenty more crowns, twenty-one, says Støre and adds:
– I usually say to foreigners that I know that I am proud to come from a country where politicians live life close to everyday life. I can also lose the application in the subway, because that is how I move like you. It is a quality of our society that we should be happy about.
PRIME MINISTER? Trygve Slagsvold Vedum will not give a clear answer on whether he wants to become prime minister. Photo: Terje Bringedal
Prime Minister Vedum?
The Center Party has sprung up all over Norway, at the same time that the Labor Party has fallen.
The SP leader himself, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, will neither confirm nor deny whether he wants to become prime minister. It doesn’t matter how many times you ask VG.
– Could you or the Labor Party have been in a government in which Trygve Slagsvold Vedum was prime minister?
– I am a candidate for Prime Minister of the Labor Party.
– And will you be prime minister in 2021?
– That’s what we’ll work for. The Labor Party must be the leading force. We should be stronger to be able to establish that direction correctly.
– When will it be the turn of the Labor Party?
– I choose to think he’s changed.
