Comment: Brutally honest – VG

Erna Solberg talks openly about gross manipulation. The purpose is to keep the job.

This is a comment. The comment expresses the writer’s position

For Erna Solberg have so far not given up.

As is known, she has long had a plan to become prime minister in 2025.

It seemed so simple.

Until the husband’s secret share trading from the Prime Minister’s residence behind the Castle in Oslo became known to the whole of Norway.

Tuesday evening, Solberg and the Conservative Party published their timeline.

The point is to reject claims that they have tried to sweep the matter under the rug. And to show why the Conservatives spent so long on their U-turn.

The party completely responded to the election that this matter was unproblematic. Four days after the election, they said it was very serious.

Now they have put together a brutally honest and open timeline.

Solberg lets us inside the house’s four walls. She tells about what she said on the phone to her husband. And what she got in response. She tells about when they met, and how she turned down his proposal.

Lies and manipulation unfold in further detail. And the purpose is to cleanse Erna.

The purpose is to explain why she could be deceived. Everyone should understand it, after seeing these details.

Finnes claimed, according to her, that short-term share trading was just a one-off affair that he did because he suddenly had extra money from a fund.

This is what Erna Solberg believed in, she says. It is shown several times that the media’s questions gave her no reason to doubt.

But then she still began to doubt.

She says that she called him herself, before the party leader debate in Stavanger, to demand that he present a list. She made clear demands and also rejected his proposal to make a list of only the biggest deals.

It’s pure scalding. The fact that she managed to carry out that debate to a roll of the dice is, in retrospect, well done.

But what the timeline does not show is everything the couple and the Conservative Party have failed to answer.

E24s have written that they posed the same question seven times. Without getting an answer.

Had the Conservatives responded, they might have been forced to take the matter more seriously earlier.

Because what everyone now agrees on is that Erna should have known about the bad feeling in her stomach sooner.

And the responsibility is hers anyway.

Now we know that Finnes was ordered down to the office by his wife. There he met a bunch of younger advisers who were supposed to sort out his files. At the same time, he received help from his friend and criminal lawyer John Christian Elden.

They didn’t find any good news. On the contrary. Over 3,600 partly secret stock trades while Solberg was prime minister.

It will probably take more than a timeline to get out of this predicament.

But Solberg has so far not given up. Because on a professional level, the message is clear: Solberg is fighting to keep his job.

She has no intention of leaving. At least not today.