Stenseng has already become the Labor Party’s third longest-serving party secretary after the war with eight years in the job, beaten only by Haakon Lie (24 years) and Ivar Leveraas (11 years).
At the Labor Party’s national meeting 4-6. In May, the party will choose who will sit in the leadership and the central board for the next two years.
Very, very motivated
After Hadia Tajik (39) from Rogaland resigned in March last year, the party leadership in Ap has consisted of Støre, Skjæran and Stenseng.
WILL CONTINUE TO SIT: Deputy leader and Minister of Fisheries Bjørnar Skjæran. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten
For two of the three remaining in the leadership, the enthusiasm for being re-elected is apparently very high:
– I am very, very motivated to continue contributing to that role, and am used to taking responsibility, so it will be up to the election committee and the national assembly to decide, Bjørnar Skjæran told Dagens Næringsliv over a month ago, 21 December .
– I am very motivated to go on another two-year term at this national meeting. So when the election committee comes, I will give the message, says Jonas Gahr Støre to TV 2.
THIRST FOR MORE: Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre. Photo: Lage Ash / TV 2
Silent Stenseng
But Kjersti Stenseng, who has been party secretary since 2015, is on the other hand silent and does not want to talk about her own future in the party now when TV 2 asks.
“The election committee in the Labor Party will not be set up until the national board meeting in February. I relate to them and the processes that go on in our party until the national meeting,” she writes in a text message to TV 2.
After Hadia Tajik stepped down as deputy chair, it has been an open question whether this spring’s national meeting should add a deputy chair, and there both Minister of Education Tonje Brenna (35) from Akershus and Hadia Tajik – in a comeback – have been put forward as candidates to enter three.
Tajik comeback?
LO boss and head of the election committee, Peggy Følsvik, struck a conciliatory tone when TV 2 asked her about the possibilities for a comeback for Hadia Tajik last week.
– I have no objections to anyone who is a member of the party who may possibly be nominated and proposed in the election committee. I will lead work in a democratic organisation.
COMEBACK?: Hadia Tajik. Photo: Ingvild Gjerdsjø / TV 2
– So all possibilities are open?
– Yes, Følsvik replied about Tajik.
Will have two deputies
Party leader Støre has also said that he would like to see the party leadership once again consist of two deputy leaders and that Brenna “is a good name”.
– We have statutes that allow for both one and two deputy chairmen. We had two, so I think there are good arguments for having two, because we are in government, we have a big responsibility and a lot to follow up in a party organisation, Støre told NRK in December.
In the past year, the Labor Party has experienced a crisis of confidence among voters, with the worst opinion polls the party has experienced in 20 years. So far in January, an average of the surveys shows a support of 19.1 per cent for Ap, according to Poll of polls.
