– When we Storting representatives get involved in the way we do, it is of course because we believe there must be some conversations between people central to Ap and central to Inlandet, and that they make a different decision, says Bengt Fasteraune (Sp) to NTB.
He is one of several Center Party politicians who are heavily involved in the school closure case in the interior. The county municipality, led by the Labor Party, the Conservative Party and the Green Party, has decided to close several schools and school sites in the county.
It has provoked strong reactions, including from the mayor of Lom, who has declared “war” and asked journalists to dig up “crap” about the county politicians in the interior.
Fasteraune, who has himself been mayor of Dovre, says he expects Ap to become centrally involved in the matter.
– I assume that Ap people talk to theirs, just as we talk to ours. I think it is absolutely essential here, that they have that conversation, says Fasteraune.
However, Education Minister Kari Nessa Nordtun (Ap) has said that she believes the decision on school closures must be made locally.
Do not want out of government
Party veteran Per Olaf Lundteigen (Sp) and several Sp mayors moved out on Tuesday in VG and believed that the school case should have consequences for the government’s cooperation with Labor.
However, Sp’s parliamentary leader Marit Arnstad rejected this.
– Here I think Lundteigen misses the mark. It is when Høyre and Labor find each other locally and centrally that centralization accelerates, she tells NTB.
Fasteraune calls the move from Lundteigen a derailment.
– It is the Conservative Party that is the problem here. If we are not going to cooperate with Ap, then who are we going to cooperate with? he asks.
Disagree on the numbers
Fasteraune and Storting colleagues Marit Knutsdatter Strand and Per Martin Sandtrøen also dispute the numerical basis that the county mayor in Innlandet uses as the basis for the decision to close the schools.
– The school structure in Innlandet is not expensive compared to other county municipalities. It is actually quite cheap because various steps have been taken, says Fasteraune.
He points out, among other things, that at Dovre the upper secondary school is co-located with the secondary school, which he claims has cut costs significantly.
Where Innlandet’s county mayor Thomas Breen (H) claims that there are 3,500 fewer pupils now than in 2013, SP politicians believe that the number is in reality 1,600. They have calculated this based on statistics from Statistics Norway which show the degree of occupancy at the relevant schools.
Anything can happen at the twelfth hour
The proposal on school closures has been passed with barely a majority both in the main committee for education and in the county committee. The case will finally be decided on Wednesday in the county council in Innlandet.
It is happening in Hamar, and Fasteraune and Strand are both going there on Wednesday to demonstrate against the proposal.
– I still have hope. I have been mayor myself and participated in discussions in county councils where decisions are made at the last second, says Fasteraune.
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