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Three secretaries of state played an active role in a fateful meeting. Without his efforts, the Liberal Party could have left government due to a toll dispute. Write Trine Skei Grande in a new book.
Trine Skei Grande describes a somewhat cordial relationship between the FRP and the Liberal Party in the book “Upright.” Here he is (along with FRP leader Siv Jensen. Photo: Vidar Ruud
«We thought we had a deal with the Prime Minister. Then he let Frp have the last word anyway.. »
That, and the suspicion on the part of the Liberal Party leader that someone from his own parliamentary group would inflict a “gigantic defeat” on him, made last year’s toll dispute more dramatic than many until now had been aware. .
Revealed in Trine Skei Grande’s Biography Vertical. The book will be published at the end of the week. Aftenposten has obtained access to one of the chapters. It’s titled “Toll Hell,” and it’s about the internal government toll dispute.
FRP still demanded revenge
The toll party breathed FRP down its neck a few months before the municipal elections last year.
And in early June last year, the FRP national board presented six toll demands to the other three government parties, the Conservatives, the FRP and KrF. Siv Jensen’s party gave the impression that there could be a government crisis if the other parties did not agree with the FRP’s demands.
But, according to Grande, the Liberal Party was the “finished business” after the government negotiations on Granavolden. There, the FRP had won several toll victories.
«I suspected that the FRP was trying to use cases like this to alert us to the government ”, Grande writes about the new FRP toll claims.
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“I couldn’t trust them”
Grande writes that for a long time it was impossible to bring Siv Jensen to the negotiating table.
On stage, Siv demanded negotiations and raged against the Liberal Party, which refused. Behind the scenes, we desperately tried to get her to meet us, but she just didn’t want to. “, she writes.
Grande points out that a lot happened in Finance Minister Siv Jensen’s private life at the time. His brother-in-law died. Grande therefore believes that it would have been understandable if the FRP leader had delegated the task to FRP Minister of Transport Jon Georg Dale. But she did not.
“Now it was impossible to get a professional grade from any of them. Everything we got was obvious.
made by the FRP party people, and we couldn’t trust them for a nickel »writes the liberal leader.
Fear that the FRP “will complain about a victory”.
The toll dispute was simmering through June, July and most of August. Towards the end, according to Grande, the government could «collapse at any moment».
The former Liberal leader says that people «I was afraid that the FRP would have to complain once again about a victory that was at our expense. »
She uses the word “black game” on the behavior of the FRP. She believes that the party is an expert in «paint yourself in the corner and blame someone else that the paint hasn’t dried yet. “
She describes that the mood at one point was so bad that It was not possible to seat the four party leaders in the same room while we discussed the toll issue. Erna had to walk between me and Kjell Ingolf in one room, and Siv and Transport Minister Jon Georg Dale in the other. The willingness to negotiate was nil. ”
I think he received words of honor from Erna Solberg
Just before the case culminated in Erna Solberg’s “ultimatum” to the FRP, the Liberal Party, and the Christian Democrats, Grande describes a situation in which the Prime Minister disappointed her. According to Grande, Solberg and Grande had agreed on a sketch for a solution.
If the Liberal Party said yes, the FRP would have the option of accepting the result or leaving the government.
A secret meeting of the group in the Liberal Party ended with the acceptance of the proposal. And the party worked all night to prepare a media strategy and anchor the result with its own.
“I told Erna that this plan is with us and emphasized that it was the confidence of the Storting group in the honor and leadership skills of the Prime Minister that had been decisive. He had to handle that trust wisely. Now this didn’t have to go wrong, because then it was impossible to say what might happen.»
Grande: Independent point that the Liberal Party must lose
FRP ended up saying no.
«The FRP could not accept something that the Liberal Party had first endorsed. It had to be us, not them, who were pushed into their place. Not only did the FRP have to win, it was also an independent point for the Liberal Party to lose.»Writes the former liberal minister.
Therefore, there was no solution. Instead, the prime minister decided to listen to the advice of Kristin Clemet. In a blog post he had argued that Solberg should present an ultimatum to both the FRP and the Liberal Party. The party that did not accept a slightly modified draft had to leave the government.
Grande describes it as a «Parliamentary innovation of the very rare, public ultimatum to government partners, and the lowest point in Erna’s relationship with the Liberal Party …
Jan-Christian Kolstø (right) was Grande’s secretary of state, both in the Ministry of Culture and later in the Ministry of Education. He was one of three that, according to Grande, helped save the Liberal Party’s participation in the government. Photo: Siv Dolmen
Secretaries of State Saved the Government
It was a very difficult meeting in the Liberal Party when the party group in the Storting had to decide on the ultimatum.
«I had put my head on the block in the group the day before and said that Erna had made me a promise, that it would be as we expected. Now I was running the risk of losing all authority I had in that group … I also suspected that someone in the group would seize the opportunity to inflict a gigantic defeat on me and expel us from the government against my will.
The former Liberal leader says that’s why she came to the meeting with a seemingly open attitude. She says that the group «At that time he was seriously determined to leave the government. As the commentators analyzed and Frp celebrated in public, we were caught in a deep discussion. … »
She says that she herself “could not say anything that I really meant” and that three secretaries of state: Audun Rødningsby, Jan-Christian Kolstø and Geir Olsen took the lead in a somewhat unusual way at the meeting.
«They succeeded in taking the position that I could not take because I was afraid that someone would take the opportunity to reject me. They convinced the group, little by little, that we would look like idiots if we broke this.“, She writes.
Two hours after Erna’s ultimatum was ready, the message came from the Liberal Party that they accepted it too.
Does not reveal who
Grande does not reveal in this chapter who it was that would inflict a defeat on him.
But it comes with little kicks for both Abid Raja and Carl-Erik Grimstad. Grimstad has been one of those who has encouraged Raja to occupy leadership positions in the party.
She recounts how Raja, after the FRP toll demands, suddenly appeared on Dagbladet with a message that “we must stop skinning motorists.” The news was intercepted by a smiling Siv Jensen while she was with Grande.
“It was a message that may have resonated with parts of the population, but
hardly in the electorate of the Liberal Party, and despite the last thing I needed in the meeting in which I sat down, “he writes.
At the end of the chapter, he also describes how Grimstad in a VG interview a few days after Solberg’s last ultimatum “shared with the same pleasure all the details of the meeting that nobody knew about, and even spoke openly about the conflict between Abid and me” .
