Trygve and the townspeople of Oslo – VG

Norway is made up of settlements. Also in big cities. There can be as great a distance between Stovner and Holmenkollen as between Kirkenes and Oslo. Slagsvold Vedum has understood that distance can be a sensation that is not always measured in kilometers.

The Center Party has multiplied its support in a very short time. Apparently without spending money on their own surveys, or so-called focus groups. In such groups, professional actors gather “ordinary people” and talk to them about various topics. For example, if the word “community” gives you a better feeling than the word “solidarity”. Or what they think about private healthcare.

Talk to people

Many parties use these polls to find out how their own politicians are perceived, what voters are interested in, and which groups they can meet with with different messages. Work is one of those who spend money in this way.

Slagsvold Vedum himself explains the success of talking to people. On the train to and from work, at the airport while waiting for the next flight, at the mall and on the street. He’s a guy that people obviously find easy to get in touch with.

But the success of the Center Party is more than a popular and like-minded leader. It’s so much about putting people in the mood. Unlike many other countries, where protest votes often go to the extreme right, it is Norway Sp where it seems to capture most of the discontent. Which puts into words, and often reinforces, the contradictions between the majority of the people and the so-called elite.

Coffee vs. coffee

When Slagsvold Vedum was interviewed in Dagsrevyen about this week’s record measurement, he repeated twice “The Norway we are so happy in”. It was hardly accidental. Sp will emerge as the defender of traditional Norwegian values. Some would say that behind this is chauvinism and narrow nationalism. But at a time when many people think that development in various areas is going too fast and that the world is becoming more insecure, this is something that hits.

Previously, the Center Party lived on the opposition between city and country. Caricatured as a contrast between those who drink latte in a cafe and those who drink black coffee at the kitchen table next door. Sp has now managed to expand its area of ​​influence to reach completely new constituencies, both in rural and urban areas.

According to today’s polls, the Center Party can get two (!) Representatives in Oslo, from scratch. In Nord-Trøndelag, the party is set to double the number of representatives, from one to two. While the Labor Party, which in earlier times had up to three representatives here, runs the risk of getting a single politician from the Storting of this traditional Labor county. In northern Norway we see the same. Sp is rushing up in the polls, Labor is down.

Nuclear weapons and labor prohibition

Norway is a country where district politics have traditionally been strong. Anyone who places the Swedish and Norwegian maps next to each other will be surprised how much more developed Norway is outside of the big cities, especially in the northern half of the country. This is the result of deliberate policy, over many decades.

The great achievement of the Labor Party during the postwar period was that the party succeeded in uniting cities and districts. “City and country, hand in hand” were not empty words. The Labor Party was the broad People’s Party, bringing together workers and academics, small farmers and industrial workers, citizens and villagers.

This is not the case. All deep lines of conflict in Norwegian politics run through the Labor Party. For example, when it comes to weather, oil, asylum and immigration. We even see it in security politics, where strong forces in the party challenge unity in NATO, arguing that Norway should join an international ban on nuclear weapons.

Little class people in hard times

Power struggles and infighting are nothing new in the Labor Party. But previously, the party leadership has managed to rally the entire party behind a common profile, which has left voters confident in what they get from the Labor Party. Now the party seems more indistinct to many voters. A large part of those who voted for the Labor Party in the last parliamentary elections have stayed on the fence. Many others have gone to the Center Party.

The contradictions between the Labor Party and the People’s Socialist Party have traditionally been deep in many places. In difficult times, people of the small class experienced standing with hats in their hands around the large farms. The senior guard has not forgotten this. Precisely for this reason, it is fascinating to see how Slagsvold Vedum manages to appear as a representative of the common people, much more than Støre can.

Sp may have reached the top of the form too soon. But if the balance of power between the Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party continues through the elections next fall, and a new majority leads to the fall of the Erna Solberg government, the situation will be completely different from when the Red government- Green took office in 2005. At that time there was never any doubt that Labor leader Jens Stoltenberg was the Red Greens’ prime minister candidate. As seen now, it is not so obvious that the Labor leader will become prime minister of a multi-party government.

Who’s coming after Erna?

The SP leadership has not singled out Støre as its candidate for prime minister, and at the same time avoids all questions about whether Slagsvold Vedum is its candidate. They know that such a position places completely different demands on accountability and holistic politics. However, some SP politicians have launched Vedum, perhaps as an attempt to get the majority of Norwegians used to the idea.

SV leader Audun Lysbakken, on the other hand, has singled out Støre. Støre would like to govern together with SV and Sp. But Sp will not be in government with SV. And SV wants to be in government, but not at any cost.

The outcome of the elections decides everything. We won’t see a final deal, or a government alternative nailed down until we go to the polls in September of next year.

Despite the fact that the Socialist People’s Party now breathes a sigh of relief as the largest opposition party, it is hard to imagine that Trygve Slagsvold Vedum and his people will actually be larger than the Labor Party. Difficult, but not entirely impossible. In that case, the stakes are high. Also the question of who can become Prime Minister of Norway if Erna Solberg loses the election.