– Enormous response – NRK Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio

– I can’t think of anything more meaningful than working with animals and producing food, says sheep farmer Ellen Sørumgård Syse

At the mountain farm in Lesja, the former deputy mayor for the Center Party has over a hundred sheep for winter feed.

The first lamb arrived this week.

Last week he became an independent municipal council representative. For now, she has resigned from the party.

– I must honestly admit that the day I had made up my mind, when I walked here and the tears were rolling all the time. I have received an enormous response, many messages and phone calls.

– Mostly from others in the Center Party who have all signed up or intend to do the same, she says.

Trust in the party leadership is gone

In addition to sitting on the municipal council, Syse also sits on the central board of the Norwegian Farmers’ and Small Farmers’ Association.

Syse says that trust in the party leadership disappeared after the way the government treated the long-term plan for agriculture in the Storting last week.

– I am very, very disappointed. I am so terribly disappointed in my own party, she says.

Then Syse and many people with her demonstrated in front of the Storting in protest against what they believe to be incorrect figures in the government’s plan to ensure food security in Norway.

And the proposal to close the income gap between farmers and other groups by 2027 was rejected.

In addition, she believes that the Center Party is not keeping what was promised both before and just after the parliamentary election in 2021.

– That they turn their backs on it feels like a betrayal, she continued.

I think you have to take it seriously

No one in the party leadership wanted to be interviewed in this case, but parliamentary representative Bengt Fasteraune (Sp) answers on behalf of the party.

– It is clear that when people sign up for something as important as food security, we have to take it seriously, says Fasteraune.

On Friday, the government accepts the farmers’ demands for the agricultural settlement.

It could be an exciting showdown, perhaps especially for the Center Party

– There is only one way to take it seriously, and that is to deliver. If we don’t do that, people will speak out. And I also have full respect for that, he says.

The party is low in opinion polls

On Friday, the third full agricultural settlement starts with the Center Party in government, and the party is low in the opinion polls

Many farmers and trade unions in agriculture are pissed off.

According to Syse, Lesja was the municipality where the Center Party advanced the most during the last parliamentary election.

– The gods must know that we worked for it. And agricultural policy was the most important issue, she says.

Syse is resigning because she can no longer walk straight in the local community as a Center Party member.

Now he is excited about the upcoming agricultural settlement.

– If they are to have any confidence in the industry and believe in the industry, they must deliver, and deliver properly, says Syse.