– Damn traitor – VG

Steinar Saghaug, a former transport councilor in the Labor Party, says he is very disappointed and that it hurts inside.

– I’m just not in shape after experiencing this. He is the biggest traitor I have ever experienced in my long life in politics, Saghaug tells VG.

– I would not buy a used bicycle from this man, he says, something he has also written in a post on Facebook.

He says he was in contact with Bøhler until last night and has worked for a long time to get him to run again for the Labor Party.

– You haven’t been open about what you’ve been doing. And then the Fiesta del Centro! From my experience in Odalen, the Center Party, or Peasant Party, as it was called then, was our main opponent. I can still feel the fumes from the forest fires that the people of the Peasant Party lit on May 1.

– Disappointed and shocked

The popular politician announced on Facebook on Wednesday morning that he will run for the Center Party elections in 2021, having been a high-profile Labor politician in Oslo for many years.

Several Labor Party politicians have already reacted to the news. One of the most powerful is Andreas Halse, who is the municipal representative of the Labor Party in Oslo.

– For a damn self-absorbed traitor, write on Twitter.

For VG, Halse explains that it’s a frustration that has built up over time.

– That Jan came up with his own project does not surprise me much. It has mainly been about him for quite a few years. But I am disappointed and shocked.

– Did you come up with a pretty harsh description?

– Yes it is. This is a man who has held paid positions and the highest positions of trust that can be held for the Oslo Labor Party for 33 years. In recent years, he has chosen to boycott everything to do with the Oslo Labor Party, he does not answer the phone when we call, he does not appear when we have to raise issues at the Storting, he does not attend meetings, says Halse.

– So I don’t think the description that he has failed us is unreasonable. And when she leaves us and also chooses to blame the Oslo Labor Party instead of taking responsibility for the fact that she has actually refrained from dealing with the party for several years and from doing her job, then it is very complicated. .

However, after a while, Halse regretted the wording. In a new Twitter message, write:

– I’m sorry I used such harsh words earlier today about Jan’s choice. I am deeply disappointed, but I should have chosen better words. Delete the original record, write on Twitter.

– It was just about Jan.

Siri Gåsemyr is a parliamentary representative from Oslo Ap. She writes to VG that she is “very disappointed in Jan”.

– After six years as party secretary in the Oslo Labor Party, and now colleagues in the Storting, we have worked closely for many years. No one has had as many opportunities in the Oslo Labor Party as he has. He has been a party employee since 1987, he writes.

– There are many of us who have been waiting for Jan Bøhler to shed light on these strange accusations that he made against fellow party members earlier this year. Now we don’t have to wait any longer, it turns out that for Jan it was all about Jan Bøhler all the time.

She writes that Social Democracy has always tried to put community first.

Frode Jacobsen, leader of the Oslo Labor Party, says he is very disappointed.

– He held most of the possible positions in the Labor Party and represented us in the Storting for 16 years. Being a shop steward and being elected by the Labor Party is working for something bigger than yourself. Oslo is a growing city and a lot is happening well in our city, and the Oslo Labor Party is taking responsibility and showing the way through clear social democratic policies. We will reduce unemployment, reduce city gaps, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is the Labor Party that has the solutions for the Oslo of the future, not the Center Party, he writes in an SMS.

Støre: Too bad.

We have known for a while that he will not run for re-election for the Oslo Labor Party, but it is a shame that he resigns from the party with one year left in the legislature, writes Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre in a SMS to VG.

He writes that it is difficult to see that the Center Party has better solutions for the city of Oslo.

– For safer jobs, a stronger welfare state that stands up for future-oriented people and industries that reduce emissions, it is the Labor Party that has the best solutions, and we will fight for that on behalf of the people, he further writes .

– Like a kind of ego trip

Labor veteran and Oslo Labor Party board member Marit Nybakk (73) believes there is a frightening trend in what Jan Bøhler is doing now.

– Some people perceive party politics as an individual exercise, as a kind of ego trip for themselves rather than serving the party and the country for the good of the people, Nybakk tells VG.

He does not hide the fact that he is referring to both Jan Bøhler and former Labor councilor Geir Lippestad, who is now in full swing to found the new Sentrum party.

– Jan Bøhler is a man who knows the Labor Party very well after many years there. But he is also a man who has received a lot in return for the party. He has been a parliamentary representative, leader of the Oslo Labor Party and Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He now joins a party that hasn’t had an Oslo mandate in the Storting for a long time, says Nybakk, who has represented Oslo and the Oslo Labor Party in the Storting for 31 years.

He joined the Oslo Labor Party more than 40 years ago. In addition to being a board member of the Oslo Labor Party, she remains active as the international leader of the local party.

Former Oslo Labor councilor Geir Lippestad writes in an SMS to VG that there are “a lot of great people in the Labor Party” and that they don’t “need” to comment on anything but what the Sentrum party wants to do in the future.

Lundteigen: It will hurt worse for work

SP veteran Per Olaf Lundteigen believes that Jan Bøhler wants to strengthen the Center Party, but believes it is unwise for Labor to call him a traitor.

– Jan Bøhler’s transition will make the Center Party consolidate the grassroots role for the whole country, Lundteigen tells VG.

– But does Bøhler get pepper from his former Labor comrades?

– It will hurt worse for the Labor Party. It is not wise to give such goodbye greetings. Jan Bøhler is a politician who has to talk to people to find out what is moving. He is also able to understand what is moving in the grassroots, says Lundteigen.

– I will not say anything negative

At a press conference at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Jan Bøhler aligned himself with, among others, the Center Party leader, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, and with Oslo Sp.

– I was hoping that we would part as good friends. I don’t need to say anything negative about my own party, he replied when the statements were presented to him at the press conference.

– I have nothing to complain about, I’m not bitter.

Read more about it here.

He further said that only the SP showed positive interest when it decided not to run for re-election for the Labor Party in July.

– They were the only party that expressed positive interest when I said what I said in July that I think the parties should emphasize contact with people from outside, how we live with the people we are going to represent, how we should be part of that community between the people, he says.

Jan Bøhler has been with the Storting since 2005. In July, he wrote on Facebook that he did not want to be re-elected to the Storting. Among other things, he justified it by saying that he did not want to be “the object of infighting and anonymous operations.”

He also wrote that he was dissatisfied with the policies pursued by the Labor Party in Oslo in recent years, including juvenile delinquency and criminal gangs, the exclusion of children and young people, demands for integration and the closure of the Ullevål hospital.