IN ATTACK MODE: Liberal leader Guri Melby points out the Center Party and Trygve Slagsvold Vedum as their main opponent in the election campaign. Photo: Rodrigo Freitas
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TRONDHEIM (VG) Liberal leader Guri Melby starts the election campaign with a proposal to the cities – and a powerful attack on the Center Party. – The Liberal Party has forgotten its roots, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum answers.
– I am afraid that we will get the most city-hostile government in Norwegian history if the Center Party gets a lot of influence. It also looks like the Labor Party has made a knee-jerk reaction to this district courtship of Vedum, says Guri Melby.
VG meets the Liberal Party leader during the food festival in Trondheim. Center Party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum is present at the same festival – and gets a tour and tastings a few meters away.
Now the Liberal leader points out Vedum and the Center Party as his main opponent during this year’s election campaign.
– On many important issues, they stand for the opposite of us, and they create an opposition between city and country that I think is very stupid, says Melby.
—-MEET: – Welcome to Trøndelag, said Liberal Party leader Guri Melby to Social Democrat leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum during the food festival in Trondheim. Melby is from Orkdal in Trøndelag, while Vedum is from Ilseng in Hedmark. Photo: Rodrigo Freitas
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– Can not maintain all district schools
The promises to Vedum to give more to the districts will lead to the cities getting less, Melby believes.
– Everything he talks about that he wants in the districts, I think everyone can be for. Like that you should not close district schools and that you should have more police. The question is how to make it happen. It costs money. If you are going to have more police officers in the village, you have to take them from somewhere, Melby says.
Melby says that she is afraid of what a new majority with Sp will do – especially after the pandemic where the cities have been hit hardest.
– There are kids in Groruddalen who have been home for weeks instead of being at school. We need to focus on them. Then we can not spend all the money on maintaining absolutely all district schools in the whole country, says Melby.
– I am very curious about what he wants to do to avoid the cities being hit hard by his policy, she adds.
—-NAM: Sp leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum got to taste a lot of food from Trøndelag during the food festival in Trondheim. Photo: Rodrigo Freitas
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Vedum: – Will cut into irrational things
The Center Party leader rejects the accusations from Melby that he will stand for the most anti-urban government in Norwegian history.
– With the Conservatives, the Liberals and the Green Party, who have ruled in recent years, many of the reforms have been about how to solve Oslo city center’s challenges. Of course, we must have a policy for Oslo city center, but we must also have a policy for the whole of Norway, says Vedum to VG.
– But you want to re-prioritize money from the cities to the districts?
– We also want an investment in the villages. I have had a clear proposal this week that spending NOK 40 billion on a new government quarter is an extreme use of money. I am concerned about cutting unnecessary spending.
– So there will be less state money for the big cities with the Center Party?
– No, we will cut into unreasonable things, such as the government building to 40 billion. Then we must also prioritize small and large places around Norway – and have a tax policy that is adapted to the whole country. Then we disagree with parts of the city policy of the Liberal Party, such as forbidding ordinary people to use a traditional car in a city, says Vedum and points to a fossil-powered car behind him.
—-CLINSH: Sp leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, Liberal leader Guri Melby, Storting representative Jon Gunnes (V) and Sp deputy Ola Borten Moe. Photo: Rodrigo Freitas
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– The left has forgotten its roots
– Do city people have something to fear if Sp gains power?
– I think a lot of city people will be happy if Sp gets power. In Oslo, it is about having a real local police who know local conditions, or preserving Ullevål hospital. We must see the whole of Norway, not just have the Left-MDG-Right thinking that has been in recent years, says Vedum.
The SP leader says that the Liberal Party is a party that has forgotten much of its roots.
– For example, it was the Liberal Party that, together with the Conservative Party, forcibly created the Viken region, without listening to people. Traditionally, the Liberal Party was concerned with rebellion against the civil service. Now they have become the biggest defender of health trusts and that those who sit at the top know best, says Vedum.
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