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In brief
- Lom mayor Kristian Frisvold declared “full war” against county politicians due to school closures in Innlandet.
- The statements have provoked strong reactions, with many distancing themselves from his rhetoric.
- Local businesses are closing in protest, and a demonstration is planned in Hamar.
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At the municipal council meeting in Lom on Monday night, Mayor Kristian Frisvold declared “full war” against county council politicians regarding the issue of school closures in the county.
Frisvold is the mayor for Bygdelista, but is politically affiliated with the Conservative Party (Høyre).
– For my part, it’s declared full war. This means we don’t need to be objective anymore. It means we can go after individuals. It means anything goes. That is my conclusion on such behavior, and I will work according to that moving forward. I have contacted journalists to ask them to dig into the county council members from the Labour Party, Høyre, and MDG. We will uncover all possible dirt, said Frisvold.
– ANYTHING GOES: Mayor Kristian Frisvold (H) in Lom says anything is allowed in the school structure debate and declares full war against the county politicians in Innlandet. Photo: Lom kommune
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The mayor continued:
– If I get documentation, I will use it and pursue it. That’s the current state. It’s war. So if you have anything I can use, I would appreciate getting it.
As a result of the statement, the security department in the county municipality has been alerted, reports NRK.
The Secretary General of Høyre, Tom Erlend Skaug, tells Dagbladet that he perceives the statements as “unacceptable and contrary to Høyre’s ethical guidelines.”
– UNACCEPTABLE: Høyre’s Secretary General Tom Erlend Skaug perceives the statements from the Lom mayor as “unacceptable and contrary to Høyre’s ethical guidelines.” Photo: Vegard Wivestad Grøtt / NTB
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To be adopted on Wednesday
The background for the conflict is that the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and MDG have come together with a proposal to close down Dokka and Skarnes high schools, as well as the school sites in Flisa and Sønsterud at Solør high school and Dombås and Lom at Nord-Gudbrandsdal high school.
The reason is that the total number of students at the upper secondary schools in Innlandet has decreased by nearly 3,500 since 2013 and is expected to drop another 3,000 in the coming years.
The proposal will lead to such significant consequences that it violates the principles of equal educational offerings for students throughout Innlandet, believes the Education Association.
The County Council adopted the proposal on Friday. The final decision will be made in the county council on Wednesday.
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– Cannot support
The deputy mayor of Lom, Bjørn Ola Aukrust (Ap), distances himself from Frisvold’s “declaration of war.”
– What Kristian has said, he will have to stand for himself. But I cannot support the message of full war, Aukrust tells Dagbladet.
However, regarding the fight against the county municipality’s decision, he stands shoulder to shoulder with Frisvold:
– I have never encountered such behavior from politicians in my own party. They are dishonest and lie. They say one thing one day and something different the next, Aukrust says – and adds:
– When you provoke Arne Brimi, Matoma, and Helsesista, then you have a problem, says the deputy mayor in clear Lom dialect.
Aukrust refers to it as “the hell of a case background.”
– I hope there are grown-ups in my party, but there is a democratic problem in the Labour Party. They can throw the party whip as far as they can and never find it again. Now people must stand up for what we ran for election on, he says.
The municipal council representatives for Lom Sp distance themselves from the statements:
– The debate on school structure in Innlandet has been about substance, and it should continue to be so. Tomorrow, many young people and adults will go to Hamar to have a peaceful demonstration. The message is that district schools must survive, says group leader Magnus Bø (Sp) in a statement.
The party Lomslista also distances itself, stating in a statement that they “do not support personal attacks.”
The same goes for the Cross-Party List in Lom, which writes in a statement to Dagbladet that they “do not support personal attacks.” This means that four out of five parties in the Lom municipal council have distanced themselves from Frisvold’s statements.
– I hope and believe that Kristian Frisvold retracts this once he has calmed down. We all want the best for the young people in Innlandet. This is not how we do politics in Norway, says Johannes Christian Wahl Gran, group leader for the Green Party in the Innlandet County Council.
FIRED UP: At the municipal council meeting in Lom on Monday night, Mayor Kristian Frisvold (H) declared full war against county council politicians. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB
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– Not acceptable
Ola Tore Dokken (Sp), mayor of Nordre Land, tells Dagbladet that he believes the rhetoric does not contribute to a fruitful and constructive debate.
– Closing schools is the wrong solution from county politicians, but the rhetoric used in Lom is something I cannot endorse. We must keep the debate at a factual level, he says – and adds:
– I do not want to work on issues in the way that is being done here.
Along with others like Lom and Skarnes, the high school in Dokka is also threatened with closure. Dokken emphasizes the charged nature of the debate, advocating for continued discussion, but not in the manner it was conducted at Lom’s municipal council meeting today:
– It is not acceptable to go out like this.
Hanna Flækøy Skjåkødegård, founder of TAFI (Transdisciplinary Working Group for the Future School in Innlandet), says in a statement that she “notices that there are a lot of emotions in play in Lom” on Monday evening.
– This is a painful process to be in. At the same time, strong emotions do not change the facts. This outburst from the mayor of Lom is not a free pass to draw the debate away from the actual issues and onto how we debate. Facts and research show that district schools have a right to exist and that message must not be drowned in war rhetoric, she says.
Caught by the wind
– Stands by what I said
Dagbladet has not succeeded in getting a comment from Frisvold on Monday evening. To NTB, he says the following:
– If county politicians have skeletons in their closets, it is worst for them. I stand by what I said in the municipal council, Frisvold tells NTB.
He emphasizes that he will only use legal methods when he talks about digging up “all possible dirt” on the county politicians after they decided to close several schools and school sites in Innlandet.
– But when county politicians act with such total arrogance as in the school issue, then they have to tolerate this, he tells NTB.
Four Tyrili centers are closing
Staying closed in protest
Both grocery stores, bakeries, sports shops, and other businesses in Lom will close on Tuesday in protest against the proposal.
Leaders, employees, and residents will head to Hamar together with school students to protest against the school closures, writes Nationen.
– All businesses will close except for the pharmacy, which is necessary for life and health. I called a competing grocery store, and they immediately said yes. Everyone I called said yes right away, says merchant and initiator Arnt Rune Vole to the newspaper.
Businesses in neighboring municipalities like Skjåk and Flisa are also staying closed. At least two businesses in Flisa are closing, according to Glåmdalen.
Fjuken reports that several businesses in Vågå will also stay closed on Tuesday. The local newspaper covered the closures in Lom and Skjåk already last week.