– The hardest thing I’ve ever been through

On Friday, she was the favorite to replace Trond Giske as leader of Trøndelag Ap. Now Ingvild Kjerkol is furious about the process which meant she was not suspended. Sources tell NRK that it may go against the party’s vote.

The parliamentary representative took a firm stand when she commented on the nominating committee process. She tells NRK that the leader of the election committee, Arild Grande, has broken all election processes and notification routines.

– An agreement must be reached. It won’t be to start a new culture to continue the race that Arild Grande has run last week, he tells NRK during the Trøndelag Labor Party annual meeting in the county.

For Adresseavisen, Kjerkol says she is shocked by what the media is reporting on the nominations committee’s work.

NRK reports that there may be a coincident vote for the leadership position in Trøndelap Ap. They refer to several anonymous sources who will confirm that Kjerkol is proposing against the recommendation of the nominating committee, Marit Bjerkås. Dagbladet also writes this.

Favorite Friday, shaken Saturday

Several outlets, including Adresseavisen, named Ingvild Kjerkol as a leader favorite on Friday. After a meeting on Friday, the nominating committee named Marit Bjerkås as its top candidate. According to Adresseavisen, Kjerkol also wanted to run as a leadership candidate, if she could get a unanimous electoral committee to back her.

But when the nominating committee met to make a new recommendation, the nominating committee chair Arild Grande must have received a warning to nominate Kjerkol as leader. Write various media, including VG.

Adresseavisen plays the SMS that Grande must have received. According to the newspaper, it says:

Ingvild ??? You can’t kick Trond out and then replace him with someone who’s been harassing Stooort for years!

Aftenposten has not seen this SMS itself. Aftenposten does not know whether considerations other than this SMS contributed to weakening Kjerkol’s candidacy.

– I was also shocked when the leader of the Trøndelag Labor Party electoral committee called me yesterday and explained what he had done and showed me a text message that is not in any way sensational or a warning, Kjerkol tells Adresseavisen.

She tells the newspaper that the aforementioned text message was the only thing Grande told her on Friday in regards to the nominating committee process.

Large: – Unfortunately, everything has been leaked to the media

– The debate around the rumors about what happened in the nominations committee, we will take it internally. I look forward to that, Arild Grande tells Aftenposten.

He says that he himself does not know how the aforementioned SMS reached the media.

– We face situations that lead to a debate with a personal approach. Unfortunately, everything has been leaked to the media, things that were said in confidence and with deep seriousness, adds Grande.

Arild Grande confirms to NTB that she called Kjerkol after the meeting on Friday.

– The first person I called after the nomination committee meeting was Ingvild Kjerkol. To tell both the message I received and what I did on the nominating committee, he says.

Kjerkol supported Giske’s claims during the complaint cases.

Ingvild Kjerkol has a long and solid match resume. She is from North Trøndelag and chosen as the party’s first candidate for the Storting. Trond Giske has his strongest power base in Sør-Trøndelag, but he also has a following in the north.

Kjerkol is also a member of the Labor Party central board, and here he has been involved in the prosecution of whistleblower cases against Giske in 2018.

Giske was then very critical of the process and believed that his response to the warnings had not been given, as he believed had been promised in advance.

At the time, Kjerkol was one of two central board members who supported Giske in the sense that he should have given him a better chance to respond.

– It is my clear expectation for those who are ready to handle the case that it is done as described: that the person who is notified can present their response before concluding. I don’t expect anything else. I think that expectation is shared by the entire party organization, he told Dagens Næringsliv at the time.

Giske: – I’ll say mine from the podium

On Saturday morning, the Trøndelag Labor Party will elect its new board after a very dramatic week.

On Monday, Trond Giske was nominated as the new lead candidate by a unanimous election committee. After strong reactions and new stories about the former vice president, the attitude was rejected Thursday night.

The Trøndelag Labor Party is made up of two former county parties: Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndelag. Trond Giske himself chose to attend the county’s annual party meeting on Saturday. It surprised many.

– I’ll say mine from the rostrum, he said on the way to the meeting.

The outgoing leader, Per Olav Skurdal Hopsø, addressed Giske during his speech at the annual meeting and thanked him for his efforts. Then the room erupted in applause.

– A lifetime since the Trondheim AUF years in the 1980s. He has been the region’s top politician for decades. For their efforts as AUF leader, parliamentary representative and minister, they deserve a big thank you, Hopsø said.

Mayor of Trondheim: – Ambush

Both Kjerkol and Giske are supported by Trondheim Mayor Rita Ottervik, according to Dagbladet. She understands Trond Giske’s decision to retire. She calls the process an ambush and believes it is impossible to defend herself.

– I also see it now with Ingvild Kjerkhold, who also receives ambush attacks from nowhere, without a chance to defend herself. It is not a culture that we can have. There are also others in Trøndelag who have experienced the same, that notification is used to disrupt democratic processes, Ottervik tells Dagbladet.