– You can not spend time on bitterness, says the former prime minister, and comes with a clear advice to Jonas Gahr Støre.
Watch video interview with Erna Solberg:
STORTINGET (Nettavisen): 100 days ago, Erna Solberg’s time as prime minister was over, after eight years as the country’s leader. But now she wants to fight her way back to power.
– I miss it sometimes, says Solberg.
The online newspaper meets the Conservative leader in the Storting, where she is in full swing with her new everyday life as opposition leader.
– Is it bitter to think that the election winner slipped?
– You can not spend time on bitterness in politics, you have to look ahead. There is probably no other government that has had a third term in Norway after the war, she points out.
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Prime Minister comeback?
Solberg makes no secret of the fact that her big goal is to get Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor Party) out of government offices again. The next opportunity is in the parliamentary elections in four years.
– So now the goal is to become prime minister again?
That is the goal, and I have to plan with that in mind. If you are a party leader in the Conservative Party, your goal must be to become prime minister, she says.
Solberg recently announced the election committee in the Conservative Party that she wants re-election as Conservative leader at the party’s national meeting in April, after 18 years as party leader.
– I have motivation and desire, and I am hungry to continue, says Solberg.
– Are you running as a prime ministerial candidate in 2025?
– Now I am running for election as Conservative leader for the period it is to be elected for, for one or two years, but in that I also think that I will run in 2025 – that is the plan, she reveals.
Also read: Erna Solberg is re-elected as Conservative leader
– The grass can look greener
In any case, it did not go exactly according to plan in the parliamentary elections last autumn, when the Conservatives ended up with a historically low result of 20.4 percent. An election result that stands in stark contrast to the support the party now receives in the national opinion polls.
In Nettavisen’s recent January poll from Sentio, The Conservatives get a result of 25.6 percent, and are thus again the country’s largest party.
– I think it’s very nice. There are probably complex reasons for that, but I think maybe the voters are able to see the difference between the current government and the previous government, and that it gives a positive picture of us, says Solberg.
– But the upturn came a little too late?
– Absolutely, but at the same time in an election campaign, the grass can look greener on the other side. After eight years, it can be easy to list everything that is wrong, and everything that others think they can do better. But then they have tried a little, and then it may not be quite as the voters have expected, she says.
– New proposal every three days
For while the Conservatives are emerging, both the Labor Party and the Center Party fall like a stone in Nettavisen’s January poll. The Labor Party declines the most, to a result of 22.3 percent – and the Center Party gets a historically low result of 9.3 percent.
This is happening at the same time as the government has to deal with both a power crisis and a corona crisis, in addition to the dispute over the appointment of a new central bank governor.
– I think they are struggling because of the way they have handled some of the difficult cases, says Solberg, and elaborates:
– When it comes to electricity, they come up with a new proposal every three to four days. Before Christmas, we asked for solutions for volunteering and for small and large companies that had extraordinary right-wing electricity costs, and at first they had no suggestions. But then they have come one step at a time.
At the same time, she says that she understands that these are difficult and demanding cases.
– But it does not seem as if they sit down and make an overall assessment. We have a finance minister who spends more time on county municipalities than he actually spends on the major structural challenges in the Norwegian economy, Solberg claims.
Also read: Støre’s 100-day plan: Struggling to fulfill the promises
– I do not roll the dice
Solberg, who himself led Norway’s pandemic management for a year and a half, is also not happy with the new government’s handling of the corona crisis.
– It is not comprehensive enough, and then they often come on the field after a significant pressure. It comes a bit piecemeal and divided, she says.
She also points out the teacher specialist scheme, which was supposed to help students with writing and reading difficulties, but which the government has removed.
– There are many such structural things that I think are the biggest challenge with the government, because this goes on the long-term challenges in Norway and which ensures that as many people as possible get through the education process and into working life.
– If you were to roll the dice, what would it be?
– I do not participate in it, and do not roll the dice. I am most concerned that they are going in the wrong direction in part of the policy, and that we disagree in some of the issues, says Solberg.
Also read: 100 days after the election: Voters give the government a very harsh verdict
Watch video: She misses this most by being prime minister:
This is how she wants to win the election
The former prime minister is now making plans to regain government power. She tells Nettavisen about the issues she and the Conservatives will focus on in the future to achieve the goal.
– The most important thing is that we have the right answers to what people experience as the challenges in 2025. Those challenges will be different than in 2021 and in 2017, so there will also be other issues on the agenda, says Solberg.
Also read: On Thursday, the whole of Norway protests against electricity prices – Trond has the solution
However, she believes the long-term challenges will be the same in the future, and believes the most important issues will be to create more jobs and include more.
– We will have to work a lot with knowledge and expertise, because we will live off people’s heads and expertise in the future – and how we refine our natural resources, says Solberg, and points out that we will go through a transformation in the oil and gas industry.
– We will continue to have activity, but we will also have a green transition and manage the new things. But we can not only replace one job in the oil industry with another job, but maybe two to be able to maintain our welfare level, she says.
Here are Solberg’s most important issues:
- Create more jobs
- Include more in working life
- The green transition
- Secure people’s personal finances
- Competence development
– The whole is important
Solberg believes that the basic thing will be to secure people’s personal finances, because she believes there will be more private financial challenges in the coming years.
– There will probably be a little more room for those who understand that you should hold back a bit in the public sector, and which helps people to manage financially with slightly lower taxes, says Solberg, and adds:
– The whole is important, and what people in Norway first and foremost need is a secure job and a secure economy that allows you to pay your own bills. And then we have lots of other policies to work with.
– So you have a good plan for how to get Støre out of the government offices?
– We have a good plan on how to solve the challenges, and then we have to work to get people with us on our storytelling about what the challenge is in Norway, she says.
Also read: 100 days since the election – here is the verdict from the rivals
Want a new bourgeois gathering
Solberg now also has hopes for a new bourgeois four-party government, after the previous government partners lacked only two seats in Nettavisen’s January poll.
– It is quite close to a majority on the bourgeois side, and that is a long time ago. But it is a long time until the election, and I know that very well, says Solberg, and laughs.
– Do you want to include all the bourgeois parties in a new government alternative in four years?
– I think we must include all the bourgeois parties in order to have bourgeois politics. This means that our goal is to work with all four parties, because it is the most natural government alternative on the bourgeois side. Then we must somehow find a cooperation platform to implement policy, she says.
Also read: Consultant boom at the dissolution of Viken: – The parody is complete
– What about Frp, it did not go so well last time?
– It went well for a long time, they were in government for 6.5 years before they left. I hope they want to get back into government cooperation. But it is not realistic that the Conservatives and the Liberal Party get a clear majority, so they must expect to cooperate with more people, Solberg points out.
– Has clear advice for Støre
Although she wants to be Prime Minister again, there are also some advantages to not being so, she can tell:
– It is much calmer than when I was prime minister. Especially because we have a pandemic, we do less the things I did when I was in opposition earlier. We travel less and spend a lot on teams, says Solberg.
– But you’ve got more free time, haven’t you?
– Yes, and I can say yes to several friends who invite. You had to have almost eight weeks’ notice of that as prime minister if you were to be able to squeeze anything into the book. Now I actually have time off, she smiles, and still adds:
– But if you measure it up against being prime minister, then I would rather be.
– Do you have any advice for Støre now that there are so many storms around him?
– Get enough sleep, Solberg says quickly, and laughs well.
– Are you really a little happy that you do not have to stand in all these crises now?
– No, I would like to do that. I like challenges.
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