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APPROACH: Less than a year until the parliamentary elections, but party leaders Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) and Audun Lysbakken (SV) have not met. Photo: Vidar Ruud / NTB
SV leader Audun Lysbakken ruled out supporting Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp) as prime minister in a speech to the party’s national board today, as long as Vedum does not want SV in government.
The Center Party has long made it clear that it wants a government collaboration with the Labor Party. The relationship with SV is cooler. Now they are getting answers from Lysbakken, who in his speech calls a Labor / Socialist government “a center-right government.”
– A government with only the Social Democrats and the Labor Party will not be the red-green change project that Norway needs now. There will only be a city center government that can solicit the support of the right when appropriate, says Lysbakken.
Therefore, Lysbakken will not designate the SP leader as a candidate for prime minister before next year’s parliamentary elections.
– I agree with Trygve Slagsvold Vedum on many things, but: As long as Trygve aims for a center-right government and SV wants a red-green government, SV cannot point to Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, says SV leader Audun Lysbakken to the national board.
Drive red-green clearly
In the latest VG poll in October, the red-green bloc leads very clearly:
The Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party and the Socialist People’s Party won the smallest possible majority with 85 seats in total. In addition, the poll gave nine parliamentary seats to the MDGs and seven to the Red.
The government parties and the FRP won a total of 68 seats in the Storting. It is far from the vast majority they received from voters in 2017.
Therefore, there is great tension over which left-wing parties will meet before the elections and possibly attempt to form a government.
In the last month, the Socialist People’s Party and the Labor Party have been equal in various polls. Slagsvold Vedum has also become a popular alternative as prime minister among red-green voters.
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– We will simply point out who in September 2021 is ready to lead a red-green government, and who will elect him over a center-right government. We will reduce differences and emissions, a really new course for the people of Norway. We will have a government firmly anchored on the left, a government with at least one strong environmental party, says Lysbakken.
Lysbakken also took up the party’s proposal for an alternative state budget with major climate cuts and the initiative to boost minimum pensioners, which was launched together with the FRP and the Pensioners Party.
Free to Sp again
– SV believes that no party of the center-left should be excluded. The policy should determine who can cooperate with whom. If the results for our voters are good enough, then SV can enter into cooperation with the Labor Party, the Socialist People’s Party, the MDGs and the Red Party, as already decided by our national board a year ago, says Lysbakken.
In front of the national board, Lysbakken came up with a new proposal to Sp:
– It’s because we have a lot in common. A desire to stop centralization, stop the impoverishment of coastal fishermen and small farmers, stop the privatization of our common resources, stop unrestricted free trade and adaptation of the EU.
I can still choose Sp
Lysbakken’s rejection of Sp is not necessarily eternal. If the party opens up to government cooperation with SV and the party meets politically, things may change.
– With that wording, do you also allow the Center Party to obtain the post of prime minister, if it changes course?
– We want a red-green government. Now it’s Støre who wants it. If the situation changes, we will have to do that assessment again.
– It is about the political project, not the people, Lysbakken emphasizes, noting that only Støre speaks fondly about broad government cooperation including SV.
– If the Center Party goes to the polls for a broad red-green government of which SV is a part, or opens after the elections, is it okay for Slagsvold Vedum to become prime minister?
– I do not want to speculate on what we do if they say otherwise. And I don’t know how relevant it will be. I think the Labor Party will be the largest party in the next election. But I am not going to conclude now about what may happen in the future. If the Center Party changes course, then we will have to take that discussion, says Lysbakken.
New center
The term center-right government has previously been used for the Bondevik I government consisting of KrF, the Center Party, and the Liberal Party. Lysbakken now uses the same name for an alternative government that includes the Labor Party.
– Is it easy for voters to identify with so many alternative names?
– I am not so concerned that parties on our side go to the polls in search of various governmental solutions. I think the most important thing is to answer honestly and clearly, and then we cannot hide under the rug that there will be a big difference between a Socialist / Labor Party government and a red-green government.
