- Astrid Meland
Commentator in VG. Writes about everything from Norwegian politics to gender.
The Conservative Party clearly has no intention of giving up on Erna Solberg.
This is a comment. The comment expresses the writer’s positionWhile demands for Solberg’s resignation resound, the party is fighting for the leader. Deputy head Henrik Asheim showed up on Tuesday like Erna’s PR advisor in NRK’s morning broadcast.
Everything is put into saving her. He said it took time for the Conservative Party to get an overview. Many old binders had to be rummaged through.
Asheim believes their timeline will also show that the party did not bury Erna’s adultery scandal until after the election.
In Erna’s blue-blue government, they even had their own digitization minister. But some people probably still use binders.
Solberg’s critics may ridicule the timeline.
Because why did Solberg only ask for a list from the man on the Friday before the election?
Then it is true that it would have been chaotic to arrange a “speak out” press conference on the Friday before the election, before they had the full list. Everyone who ran for the Conservatives locally would be upset.
But what the party could do was to turn around earlier.
On the Wednesday before the election, the Conservative Party could have been clear that “this looks problematic”, when E24 uncovered completely new stock trades. Instead, they said that this too was fine.
On the other hand, the timeline won’t prove they lied.
Supporters will think that the party needed some time when they had to go from saying “completely unproblematic” to “very serious”.
It is unlikely that there will be agreement on any conclusion here.
What the whole case complex has shown is bias in full bloom. Who you liked before means a lot to your view of the matter.
The right’s defense is that they were so thoroughly deceived, again and again, by Solberg’s husband.
They say this with Solberg’s approval. For a caretaker like her, perhaps financial infidelity is one of the worst things imaginable.
But a caretaker is also responsible for looking after the mess of others. Including husbands.
And so Finnes sat in the prime minister’s residence secretly and bet on Norway’s most important companies falling in value. At the same time as the rest of the country trembled in fear of school closures, unemployment and bankruptcy.
In the party, there are voices in internal forums who say that the party must now think about a successor. At the same time, the sympathy appears extensive.
The left and many others, on the other hand, are not moved by Erna’s tears.
Openly, the Labor Party cannot say much, with its own habilitus horribilis stories fresh in its memory.
But also from here the story of a cynical and eel-smooth PR machinery is spun.
They do not believe that Solberg is the victim. On the contrary. She has to go.
The frustrated party wants to remove its second biggest problem. That is, after the Labor Party itself.
When the opposition is sure that the party apparatus of the Conservative Party tried to delay the smelly news until after the election, it is probably because they know the lice in the hall.
Many parties would probably try it.
In retrospect, it may seem that the Conservative Party would benefit from making the U-turn before the election.
The party wanted probably lost some municipalities. But they would probably make a good choice anyway.
In a new one measurement in Bergensavisen 84 percent of the city’s Conservative voters still have great or some confidence in Solberg.
The handling does not remain as some brilliant PR trick.
The PR apparatus and Solberg have repeated and repeated until the election that share trading has not been a problem.
Now in retrospect, this is super embarrassing to read.
The Conservatives stood their ground throughout the election campaign. Even when the owls were out of the bog, they passed on untruths.
It tarnishes their sovereign leader Erna Solberg. Because Sindre Finnes made the entire Conservative Party lie.
