– There is reason to expect many long evenings and nights, but the way I see SV, they are a constructive counterparty to negotiations, says Center Party’s fiscal policy spokesperson Ole André Myhrvold to NTB on the way into the negotiations.
On Thursday, he and the Labor Party’s Tuva Moflag SV will meet for negotiations on next year’s state budget.
The two representatives of the governing parties met for the negotiation meeting ten minutes before it was due to start at 10 o’clock.
– What is important to us is that we put in place a safe and responsible budget which means that people start to feel relief in the economy, says Moflag.
– Then we must secure our country, both in terms of defense and the police, and we must ensure that people have good welfare services. We have achieved that with SV before, and we are absolutely sure that we will achieve that this time as well, she says.
Demand that the richest contribute more
SV’s negotiating leader Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes arrived three minutes late to the meeting. He pleaded his innocence with problems with the printer.
He says that SV believes that increased oil money spending is not needed in order for them to gain traction for their priorities.
– The richest in Norway must contribute more – just as much as ordinary people do. They don’t do that today. Nurses pay far more to society as a proportion of their income than the very richest, says Fylkesnes.
He says that they want real priorities for the money.
– We have drawn up an alternative budget where we re-prioritise from those with large incomes and large assets to ordinary people, people with incomes below 800,000, and we strengthen welfare, he says.
He will not say what is most important for SV to gain traction in the negotiations.
– But cutting emissions and protecting nature are two fundamental things for both SW and Norway, says Fylkesnes.
I don’t think Kaski’s sick leave will matter
In the past, it has been SV’s fiscal spokesperson Kari Elisabeth Kaski who has led the state budget negotiations for SV, but last week she was on sick leave for three weeks.
Fylkesnes does not think it will be decisive for the negotiations that SV enters with another negotiator.
– I’m the type of person who doesn’t have much faith in people, he says.
– The media circus is very concerned with and believes that it is people who decide politics, but it is parties who decide politics.
Moflag says that they relate to SV as a professional counterparty.
– SV has many skilled dealers, and we look forward to working together with Torgeir, she says.
The meeting on Thursday morning ended after around fifteen minutes. Fylkesnes had then submitted SV’s proposal, and the governing parties must go through it before the parties meet again at 2.15pm to set up the race further.
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