(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[19. October 2007] On Wednesday, Høyres Fabian Stang was elected mayor of Oslo. That was never the point. The son of Norway's only diva is the man who made the election campaign fun, has let the people speculate about "little man" and been a ticking bomb of games. Oslo Høyre's party leaders rather wanted the Progress Party's Svenn Kristiansen as mayor, and city council leader Erling Lae consistently showed up in joint elections with Kristiansen in joint elections. Stang lacks the political experience to lead the city council meetings in the capital, and he lacks the respect that a mayor of representation should have.
When Stang has now nevertheless become mayor of Oslo, there is one man who is responsible for it. Oslo Venstre's leader Ola Elvestuen has let his own position as leader of the city development committee in the city council weigh heavier than anything else in the city council negotiations that have been uninterrupted from the municipal elections on 10 September until the city council was appointed on Wednesday. In recent years, Elvestuen has been both group leader in the Liberal Party's city council group and leader of the urban development committee. He is a sincerely committed and hard-working politician, who has stood up for voters all over the city and listened to their challenges and problems. In the local elections, he was a self-proclaimed first candidate – but still received fewer personal votes than the party's deputy leader Olaf Thommessen. That is why it is now Thommessen, and not Elvestuen, who is the Liberal Party's first candidate in the city council. But it is Elvestuen that has been in negotiations.
There he has done his job for the party and demanded both continued leadership positions in the committee, the mayor's appointment and the deputy chair of the culture and education committee. It went almost well, and would have been a great feather in the hat for the country's oldest party after the crackdown. But the Progress Party was also right in that the Left demanded a lot when Frp refused to accept the agreement. In fact, the left had the choice between the mayor and the urban development committee, and personal preferences became more important than the electorate. In Oslo, twice as many voted on the Left as last, but they are left with just the same. For voters, the mayor's acquisition would mean more. The Left could also have got a cooperation on the left, but here they showed that the most important thing for the Left is to support the right side.
The mayor of Oslo has no political power, and few important tasks. Fabian Stang will therefore not be a disaster for the city. He will approach the task with life and desire, and in the City Hall it will probably be a little more fun than before. The position of mayor is first and foremost an ornament that parties can adorn themselves with. The Liberal Party squandered the chance, and proved to be guarantors of a continued FRP city council in the capital, without even getting anything more in return. In the committee lies power, but little honor.
