Kept Abid Raja out of management talks – VG

In the biography “Upright”, Trine Skei Grande (51) demonstrates against her colleague Abid Raja. In an excerpt, which has been given access to VG, Grande tells of the beginning of the turbulent struggle for leadership in the Liberal Party, which ended with his resignation.

“Shortly after the elections, I gathered Guri Melby, Sveinung Rotevatn and Iselin Nybø at Guri’s house. I told them they had to start planning what future they envisioned at the party, ”Grande writes in the book, which will be released on Friday, November 6.

According to the former party leader, she told the three fellow Liberals that they had to think carefully about what kind of role they would have in the party, in case the work of the electoral committee ended with their departure.

Large: No need to bring Raja

“I also encouraged them to try to agree on who was relevant to the various positions,” Grande writes.

Both current leader Guri Melby and Vice President Sveinung Rotevatn ran as top candidates in the Liberal Party. So did the third in today’s trio of leaders, Abid Raja, but did not learn of the meeting in the fall of 2019.

“It was not necessary to have that conversation with Abid Raja; he was already well on his way to positioning himself and working strategically to get support in the party,” writes Grande.

In March 2020, Grande was nominated as leader for another term, with Rotevatn and Raja as deputy leaders, after a dramatic backstage play.

Towards a “brown propaganda” statement

Grande believes that one of the ways in which Raja positioned himself was by “posing as the only one who dared to oppose the FRP’s critical immigration statements.”

“Abid had been one of the strongest advocates of the Liberal Party coming into office with the FRP, but he was also the one who used the strongest words when he criticized the FRP in public,” Grande writes.

On September 13 last year, Raja opposed FRP leader Siv Jensen’s article on “stealth Islamization.” According to Grande, she had it “with difficulty and barely stopped” before the elections, but writes that after that “however, Abid could not stay still.”

– We must say with clarity and distinction every time Siv Jensen or Sylvi Listhaug come with brown propaganda. Then the left will no longer be silent. To be silent is to accept. And I still refuse to accept, Raja told NRK.

In the book, Grande writes that it should have been she who took the deal with her government colleague and FRP leader, Siv Jensen, and criticizes Raja’s proposal for having sparked a discussion about the departure of the Liberal Party from the government.

VG wrote in 2019 that FRP sources said Jensen gave Grande an opportunity to criticize some of the FRP’s proposals, while also being able to distance himself from Raja’s claims of “brown propaganda.”

Grande decided to support Raja, which generated strong reactions in Frp.

“The next day Abid came home from Ethiopia and met with all the Norwegian media in the arrivals hall. He spent two hours answering all the questions they had while sitting relaxed on a bench and drinking a cup of coffee. . He repeated his apology as many times as necessary, saying that he too was ready to put the matter behind him. He really has the ability to make journalists eat out of his hand, “writes Grande.

– In politics, it has become very difficult to apologize. But if you, as an FRP or a citizen, have been offended by him, then I apologize, Raja told VG on Gardermoen.

– Abid does not want to comment further on this matter, writes political adviser Emma Lind in an SMS to VG.

He misled the press before the nominations committee interview

At the Liberal Party national conference in October 2019, the nominating committee had its first interviews with the candidates. Grande recounts how she and adviser Mona Lindseth planned for the party leader to find a detour to the election committee meeting room, so he could get rid of the journalists.

Instead of getting into the elevator that everyone knew went up to the electoral committee, I went out the main entrance and sat in the government car that was ready in case one of us who were ministers had to go to the town for a walk. The journalists thought I was going to leave the hotel, but the driver just walked around the building and let me in, ”he writes.

It was at this meeting that he said he would run for reelection as a Liberal leader.

– Shortly after last fall’s elections, I said this to the electoral committee: If they could find a candidate with whom they agreed, I would withdraw at any time, Grande said in an interview with VG in March.

In the book, she writes that she was reluctant to share all of her evaluations with a joint nominating committee, and that there was one thing she only told leader Per A. Thorbjørnsen.

“However, due to all the leaks from the nominating committee, there was one thing that I didn’t say in the interview itself, but instead took a two-way hand with the committee leader afterwards. I told Per that if the nominations committee managed to gather around a different leader than mine, he was willing to resign.