Joar Nesse takes over as party leader in the Industry and Business Party (INP) after Owe Ingemann Waltherzøe resigned on Thursday afternoon.
Owe Ingemann Waltherzøe resigns as party leader of the Industrial and Business Party (INP). Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTBPublished:
Yesterday 16:30
Updated yesterday 19:15
In an e-mail to NTB, Waltherzøe states that the decision to withdraw was taken in particular on the basis of a press release from the national board on 20 January. In the press release, 19 regional and central shop stewards, including both deputy chairmen, expressed their distrust.
The party’s first deputy leader Joar Nesse takes over as acting party leader in INP. This is confirmed by second deputy chairman Finn Arne Follestad NRK.
Contacted competitor secretly
The INP has recently been characterized by strife in the leadership – where several central shop stewards wanted to oust the party leader.
INP’s general secretary Ole Martin Martinsen has been at the forefront of the rebellion. The level of conflict has reached the point that Martinsen is probing the possibilities of splitting the party, wrote The class struggle Thursday.
The newspaper writes that Martinsen has secretly contacted the People’s Party, formerly Folkeksjonen mot Tompenger, and offered to bring large parts of today’s INP over to them.
– Especially the majority of voters in Rogaland and Vestland, where the INP is strong, will follow a “new” party”, Martinsen writes in the email.
Will throw the general secretary
On Wednesday evening, the central board of the INP had a meeting where the email to Martinsen was on the agenda, writes NRK. There, Martinsen was informed that he did not have the trust of the board. The board wants to oust him, and they decided to strip him of his membership.
Martinsen denies that he has been disloyal to the party and tells the broadcaster that the aim of the email he sent to the People’s Party was to get Waltherzøe thrown out as party leader, as well as to give the INP a new course.
Martinsen emphasizes that he has no plans to resign as general secretary of the INP.
Dozens of notification cases
Tuesday wrote The daily newspaper that a dozen notification cases about Waltherzøe’s behavior had been sent to the party’s control committee.
In a press release, Martinsen settled with the party leader after the weekend’s national board meeting.
Martinsen believed that before the meeting the party leader had been characterized as a representative of “coup plotters” and “dark forces” – and that he therefore stood up and commented on the party leader’s behavior and lack of respect for statutes and rules, and a lack of common customs and education.
Waltherzøe did not want to comment on the message.
Above the blocking limit
In recent years, the INP has gone from being a marginal party to making several measurements that place them above the blocking limit of 4 percent.
Last autumn, INP representatives were given seats in municipal councils in several places in the country.