TRONDHEIM (Dagbladet): Trond Giske has criticized the government and the Labor Party leadership repeatedly since the autumn of 2021, when Ap again came into government.
But now he believes the party is on the right track.
– I want to brag about the new strategy that was put on the national board. Ap is now tougher on equalizing differences and securing everyone’s finances. The Labor Party is more clear about having political management and control over the flow, the party is clear about raising respect for a practical school and raising the jobs that make Norway go around. It is a positive development, says Giske.
– This is what I write about in my book as well. The Labor Party is now on the right track, says the former deputy leader.
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“New” Ap
Trond Giske published the book “Worth fighting for” which is about why social democracy has lost its grip on Norwegian society – and not least how the Labor Party can be lifted again.
Giske’s analysis is that the Labor Party has lost its grip on what he calls the “close voters”.
– In Nidaros there are almost only local voters. Most are skeptical of free trade and globalisation, concerned with redistributive politics, want a strict immigration policy. They are concerned with order at school and perhaps have slightly more traditional family values, says Giske.
Giske is the leader of the local team Nidaros, which is clearly the largest of the Labor Party, and this winter he became deputy leader of Trondheim Ap.
He now finds resonance from the Nidaros project with the “new” Labor Party. Tonje Brenna’s clear speech on the work line and Kari Nessa Nordtun’s line on more discipline in school are just two examples Giske highlights.
– I would also like to boast that we are clear that we will be tougher on crime. I have never understood why we on the left haven’t made it a main issue. But if the strategy is to have any meaning, you must stick to it over time. Now the Labor Party must stand on this line going forward and continue to be clear, then we will have growth, says Giske.
– Ap will be in the 30s
While party leader Jonas Gahr Støre denies that the Labor Party is in crisis, Giske describes a party in a deep, almost existential crisis. The Labor Party has now been below 20 per cent in the average of the surveys in 17 of the last 18 months.
It is still even between the blocs in Norwegian politics, if you count the Center Party on the same side politically as MDG and Red.
– What kind of victory will it be for Ap to get 20 percent and be dependent on four other parties to get a majority?
– The Labor Party can definitely win elections again, but when I talk about winning elections, Ap is in the 30s. We got that as recently as 2009. And , Most of them still exist, and we can win them back, but we are looking in the wrong place, says Giske, and continues.
– The Labor Party leadership is concerned that we are losing voters to the right, but the reality is that most of our potential voters are home sitters. There were 1.6 million home sitters at the last election, many of whom have low incomes and little education. It used to be our traditional voters.
– Then we have to talk to them as I feel that Ap is now about to do.
Trond Giske resigned as deputy leader of the Labor Party during the metoo winter 2017-2018 and the party subsequently concluded that he had broken the party’s guidelines against sexual harassment. Giske has disputed this, and the party said in 2019 that Giske was welcome to participate fully in the party.
Tax shock in Conservative municipalities
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There are now many in both the Labor Party and Trøndelag who wonder if Giske is seeking a comeback at the Storting next autumn.
– I don’t know yet what I want. The nomination is probably in November, I’m in the thinking box.
– What happens in Giske’s thinking box?
– There are some assessments about what the members here in Trondheim want, what my family wants and whether that is what I myself want to spend my time on. What speaks for it are all those who come to me with issues they are concerned about and who want me to contribute to change and carry out those issues, says Giske.
– Nidaros are around 10 per cent of the Labor Party’s members, should they be listened to more?
– Yes, Nidaros is bigger than the vast majority of county parties and our members must have influence on a par with other members in the party.
