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But first is Christmas. A different Christmas.
– I realize that I have become extremely Christmas this fall. I have never decorated the Christmas tree as early as I have this year. There are Christmas decorations everywhere, says Siv Jensen.
NTB meets her for an interview in the Storting’s ground-floor office, where she sits overlooking Wessel Square. It rings on the walls every time the tram passes.
– And I’ve already baked it! Jensen continues.
– I don’t usually bake cakes, but now I have baked Christmas cakes top to bottom and in mind. I have brought three loads of Christmas cakes to the parliamentary group. So I’ve been doing a lot of Christmas madness. It really doesn’t look like me.
She thinks that many feel the same.
– We do not go out. We do not do anything. So it is incredibly important that it is nice and cozy at home.
State of emergency
For most people in Oslo, it is the home office that applies.
But the FRP leader has spent a lot of time in the Storting office. She took over from the then parliamentary leader of the Progress Party, Hans Andreas Limi, when the party left government in January.
– I must say that I have been very lucky to have been able to commute to work almost daily. I’ve had to do it for the Storting to work. We have to vote. We have to do our job.
And it has been a hectic year.
The Progress Party barely managed to confront the opposition before the closing of the crown. Since then, there have been intense negotiations on crisis packages and budgets. Additionally, Jensen has struggled with internal problems, and now in December, Oslo Frp was put under administration and county leader Geir Ugland Jacobsen was excluded.
– Actually, it’s completely inconceivable that a year has passed, says Jensen.
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NTB meets Siv Jensen for an interview in his office on the ground floor of the Storting. Photo: Ole Berg-rest / NTB
Hard to reach
The most demanding time, he thinks, were the first months after March.
– Then the dividing lines of the political parties stopped a bit. There was simply no place in the news image and in people’s heads, I think, for party politics.
Today, the situation is somewhat more normal. But the crown situation still makes it difficult to get enough press coverage of FRP’s policy.
– It’s been the case that even if you think you have a very good case, it appears as number seven or eight on the news, says Jensen.
– Because it’s crown, crown, crown and then a little more crown before there are other novelties.
– It’s crown, crown, crown and then a little more crown before there is other news, says FRP leader. Photo: Ole Berg-rest / NTB
Supplied
Before Christmas, the government parties and the FRP established a budget unit. But they were difficult negotiations. According to Jensen, it was only as far as the ship went.
– It is not a fact that there would be a budget unit this fall if it were not for the situation of the crown. We felt a great responsibility to help the country obtain a budget in the situation in which we found ourselves.
Subsequently, both Siv Jensen and deputy leader Sylvi Listhaug said they felt finished with KrF and Venstre.
– I think the whole group agrees on this. We have KrF and Venstre, says Jensen.
– We can cooperate with KrF and the Liberal Party in all cases. But to envision a lasting constellation of cooperation, I don’t think we’ll have any appetite for that in the foreseeable future, he says.
“Seduction of the people”
It is not so clear what the FRP’s path of influence will be if KrF and the Liberal Party fall below the threshold.
But Jensen has repeatedly called on the Center Party and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum to switch sides.
She makes it clear that this is not a realistic scenario as the situation is now. On the contrary, the leader of the SP has made his choice. Therefore, it must relate to the Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party, the MDGs and the Red Party.
– And then he has to travel all he wants and defend everything he does. But that simply doesn’t match the policy of his coalition parties. Then it won’t happen, says Jensen.
She has no faith that Vedum will deliver on what he promises.
– Actually, it is a great seduction of the people with whom he engages, says the FRP leader.
– If I had switched sides, on the other hand, it would have been possible to make it happen.
