[NB: It took me a few hours to translate this article, during which the protest the article concerns already took place. NRK reports that the protest was attended by 1,000+ students; I can translate that article later. Also, if I got anything wrong here, please say something. I took more liberties with the translation than usual, adding extra context or rephrasing ideas more naturally.]
Thousands of protestors are expected in Hamar to protest the closure of multiple schools. The police comes with a clear message.
AWAITING TRAFFIC CHAOS: The police requests that people avoid driving into Hamar when thousands of protestors are expected to descend upon the city. Map courtesy of Google Earth.
By Magnus Kallelid, Annabelle Bruun, Bendik Hansen, and Kristoffer Solberg. Published Tuesday October 22nd 2024, 10:33 AM, last updated 10:40 AM.
HAMAR (Dagbladet): Prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre strongly reacts to the comments made on Monday by mayor of Lom municipality, Kristian Frisvolds, concerning the school structure debate, TV 2 reports.
— “For a mayor to call for a war, I think that’s completely unacceptable,” Støre said to the TV channel.
County-level politicians in Innlandet County, representing the Conservative Party, Labor Party and Green Party have proposed the closure of Dokka and Skarnes upper secondary schools as well as the school grounds in Dombås, Lom, Flisa, and Sønsterud.
This has caused outrage in Innlandet County. Several thousand protestors are expected to descend upon Hamar’s downtown on Tuesday afternoon, according to the police.
According to Hamar Arbeiderblad (lit. Hamar Workers’ Paper), several buses full of people from various places in Innlandet County are on their way to the city, which is located on the coast of Lake Mjøsa.
— “We’re on the ball and monitoring the situation. These are people who desire to make use of their freedom of speech, which is by all means legal in democratic Norway,” Ketil Enger of Innlandet police district, who is leading the police group assigned to the protest, said to the newspaper.
He said that it would in principle be possible for the protest to happen without a police presence, but that they will still be present on Tuesday. He wished for the time being not to say how large the police presence will be.
— “Some have notified us beforehand that they wish to attend the demonstration while others have not. There is both an organized and unorganized section that will join in this demonstration,” Enger said.
He made a request for those thinking of going to the demonstration by car:
— “Avoid driving into the city if possible. There will be many people, and we may be forced to close individual roads and regulate traffic if the situation calls for it,” Enger said to the newspaper.
Declared “total war”
On Monday evening, mayor of Lom municipality Kristian Frisvold spat fire, saying that “a total war is declared” and that there is no longer a need to be impersonal about the case of the proposed school closures, but that it is now acceptible to go after the politicians personally.
Frisvold has received much criticism for his commentary. He said in NRK’s Political Quarter Tuesday morning that they have tried everything, but that this has been decided beforehand. [Does he mean “this was inevitable”? And who is “they”? The anti-school-closure movement?]
Kristian Frisvold is a member of the Conservative Party but in his capacity as mayor represents a different party, the Village List. The Conservative Party has distanced itself from Frisvold’s comments, saying that they violate the party’s ethical guidelines.
When Frisvold declared a total war, he stated that “all is fair game”.
He said that he had contacted journalists to ask them to dig into members of the county council representing the Labor Party, Conservative Party, and Green Party. “We want to uncover all sorts of dirt,” Frisvold said.
— “Can you as mayor say that all is fair game?” NRK’s host asked.
— “I will utilize all legal means possible to stop [the closure of the schools]. I have only encouraged legal methods and nothing else,” Frisvold replied.
On the subject of Conservative Party members contacting the police after his request, Frisvold said:
— “They can go ahead and do that. I have nothing other than legal methods to use, and I will use them. It is legal to investigate if people have nothing to hide.”
Transcript of attached video
Video of the Lom municipal council meeting on Monday October 21st 2024. There is a caption reading, “Mayor of Lom, Kristian Frisvold, declared a total war against the politicians of Innlandet county council during the Lom municipal council meeting on Monday October 21st. The casus belli is the debate around school closures.”
Kristian Frisvold: So for my part a total war is declared. This means that we no longer need to be impersonal, it means we can now go after [the politicians] personally… Uhh, it means that all is fair game. That is my conclusion after that type of behavior. I have contacted journalists to ask them to dig around members of the county council representing the Labor Party, Conservative Party, and Green Party. We want to uncover all sorts of dirt. If I can get documentation I will use it and run with it. So that is the situation. This is war. So if any of you have anything I can use, I would value it greatly.
SCHOOL CLOSURES: During the meeting of the Lom municipal council on Monday October 21st, mayor Kristian Frisvold declared “total war” against the county-level politicians in Innlandet County. Video courtesy of Lom municipality.
— “Completely unprepared”
The mayor’s political party, the Village List, commented Tuesday on the mayor’s strongly criticized remarks.
— “Mayor Kristian Frisvold must speak for himself, regarding his choice of words in yesterday’s municipal council meeting, about Lom’s situation around the school structure reform, and personal attacks on county-level politicians in Innlandet County”, Trond Volden of the Village List wrote in a press release.
— “We the members of the Village List in Lom were all completely unprepared for the words that came from the mayor’s mouth,” Volden wrote.
For some extra context: Innlandet County is the largest county of Norway, formed on January 1st, 2020, from the merger of Oppland and Hedmark counties, as part of Norway’s administrative reforms. It is roughly equal in area to Bosnia and Herzegovina, or somewhere in between the size of Maryland and West Virginia. Innlandet is also noticeably sparse, and very, very beautiful. Aside from Hamar, which has a population of ~32,000, not a single town or village or municipality mentioned in this article has a population greater than 3,000 people. So this is definitely an urban-rural conflict.