Støre seems to be waging war on Jens Stoltenberg
“Jonas Gahr Støre’s many lashing out’s against the bourgeoisie, seems more like criticism of former Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg,” the Norwegian Minister of Health, Bent Høie (Conservatives), states.
“Støre sounds like he enters into the elections running against Jens Stoltenberg. He wants to wage a war against the pension reform, which is Stoltenberg’s brainchild. He further wants the use of temporary employment to decrease, even though the proportion of temporary jobs was higher when Støre himself was leading the Government. He even criticizes tax cuts that the Labour Party itself has backed,” Høie tells NTB.
In his opening speech at the National Convention of Labour, Støre lashes out against the Conservatives and Progress Party on, among other issues, temporary employment, privatization of welfare, gender equality, the police reform and inequality.
Painting a bleak picture
Not unexpectedly, both the Conservatives and the Progress Party react to the speech. Høie points, among other things, out that there are more women working full time now than when the Labour party were in power, and also fewer holding temporary positions.
“Støre is painting a bleak picture and is spreading disinformation when he claims the opposite,” Høie continues. He also criticizes Støre for making fun of the Norwegian government’s policy on poverty.
“He would spread the money thinly to everyone than to provide a boost to those who need it most,” Høie goes on. He, on his part, believes that it is better to provide free core time in kindergartens and After School Activity (SFO) to those with low income.
Neither the Liberals nor Christian Democrats are particularly impressed with Støre’s attacks on the government’s family policy, either.
“For the first time in 23 years, child benefit is increased and it will be increased further. The families with the lowest income will, after all, benefit from that,” Jorunn Gleditsch Lossius (Christian Democrats) injects. Lossius is a member of the Family and Culture Committee of the Norwegian Parliament.
The Progress Party strikes back
Leader of the Progress Party, Siv Jensen, in her turn, reacts sharply to Støre’s criticism of the ongoing police reform.
”Such maladministration of the justice sector has never before been experienced in Norway,” Støre asserts in his speech. He, among other things, points to that there have been seven Ministers of Justice in only six years.
Jensen emphasises that the prison queue has been removed, there are 2,800 more man-years in the police, the unsolved cases are lower than in 2014 and the clearing percentage on sexual offences has increased.
“We are carrying out an absolutely necessary reform to ensure that we can be harder on digital crime, and not least the fight against grotesque abuse of children online,” Jensen tells NTB.
Political game
Her party colleague, Erlend Wiborg, believes that Støre performing a political game regarding the pension reform, with a promise that the Labour party will fight for payment from the first cent earned. He points to that it was Labour who, in its time, introduced the sub-regulation.
“He must answer to if this now means that Labour wants to make an about turn and scrap the sub-regulation, or whether it is the usual fog talk, only,” Wiborg concludes.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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