Regionregionen Mæland: – I'm going to shut up!

"Stakkars Mæland: Ho does not really know how he started."

(Messages in the Facebook group "We want Finnmark to be their own region.")

– This is not not only in Finnmark that county mergers upset, "said Monica and Monica Monica. Mæland

We are sitting in the office of his department in Akersgata, surrounded by two councilors and a photographer. The government stack is brilliant, the eyes are blue and the tone is good.

– There is also great opposition to mergers at Aust-Agder, where I grew up. And Viken, who becomes a giant crowd with Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold? Good discussion too! And in Bergen, where I live, nobody walks for "Vestland" and the merger between Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane! I have a lot of jaws because I have accepted the Vestland

– So you get caught in other parts of the country, not just in Finnmark?

– I'm going to shut up! Mæland hits. Then she cautiously adds:

– Maybe I can go to Trøndelag. This is the first time that a mountain trout can travel to Trøndelag for peace.

"Experience a free Finnmark!"

Because in Trøndelag, it seems to be the happiest merged romance between North and South. The promotional video "Trønder" of the new county municipality is so full of drummers, charmers and singers that most Facebook people are affected by tears. In Finnmark, on the other hand, it almost triggered a total war against the government minister Monica Mæland and her government

The resistance movement against the merger of Troms and Finnmark has long been been organized in thousands of social media. The sin, frustration and patriotism of the counties are developing every day, especially because the county council said no before the parliamentary decision, and that the merger must therefore be made under duress

and the word "compulsion" of the Germans during the war. "We never give ourselves! Live a free Finnmark!" That's the tone of the review, and it's probably the first time in Norwegian history that a county council refuses to comply with a parliamentary resolution

The 2018 war corps culminated last Friday when the Finnmark County Council decided not to send people to the new joint committee, where 19 seats would go to Troms and 17 to Finnmark Shortly thereafter, the press release of Minister Monica Mæland:

Finnmark gets only nine seats, while Troms gets another 19. When the meeting meets on August 13, she can still making decisions without Finnmark

See also: "Finnmark does not find it obligatory. Not with anyone. "

Witch Burning

The press release was perceived as a punishment and, if possible, made even more provocative the resistance movement in Finnmark.This does not say so little.Previously, those who had compared Monica Mæland to Hitler and other dictators, and some types of commentary, suggested that the Vardø witch tradition might be something to recover.

Others liked to call Monica Mæland "incredibly arrogant" who did not respect the will of the people, and caressed with quotes such as: "When people with power stop listening to people, it's time to The exchange "Astrid Lindgren)

When Venstre held his last press conference before the summer, the Minister of Culture and Trøner said that Sinei Grande had to say that everyone in the Finn mark should "sit down and watch the trumpet video". Understand: The sweet and inclusive video could inspire the Finnmark warrior to opt for cooperation and reconciliation with Troms. And maybe end up with a video where the drummers sang: "Composed and merged on the same dream song …"?

– What do you think of the suggestion of your government college?

– I thinking that it's just a little more delicate, Mæland sugar.

– I would not say that. I do not try to convince Finnmark either. They want to say what they mean. I have been a local politician in Bergen for 14 years and the head of the city council in 10 of them, and I am well aware of the feeling of having a common enemy in Oslo. In 2007, I came out and criticized the then red-green government, in part because it was a poor representation of western Norway. I went to the edge of Oslo and there were many newspapers and debates says Mæland.

Also read: – Whatever happens now

Meets Ap and Sp

– I am well aware of working against what you think are decisions unreasonable measures adopted in Oslo. It never surprised me to get angry when the Storting makes decisions with which you do not agree at all, which seems to me a little strange, it is to hold a referendum long after the Storting made two decisions. I do not understand why they did not do it in advance? Or between the two decisions? Ask Mæland, who agreed that PA leader Jonas Gahr Støre and leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum both urged the government to turn to him.

"Monica Mæland: Do not confuse Troms and Finnmark in a prestigious affair" wrote Støre on Facebook. "People are clearly saying no, the merger is weakly rooted, tasks not clarified, a bad start for a new region against the Norwegian border in the northeast, a wise government can say: We are putting the case on ice and reevaluating in 2022 against experiments with regions elsewhere in the country. "

– I think it's very strange that Sp and Ap, who were in government during 2000, believe we now have a system that locally surpasses the parliament. I do not think they mean. I think that they only think of decisions with which they are not in agreement says Mæland

– But when you see the great resistance of a county that feels invaded – do you worry that they are losing faith in the political system?

– I understand that they feel invaded. But I'm even more worried if we get a new political system in which anyone who does not agree with the Storting may not be able to make a decision on a settlement, says Mæland

– I also understand that you are deeply disagreeing and upset. does not mean that I have to go to parliament and say that "this is not Finnmark, then we will be, then we will scratch all the reform of the region." When people call me "arrogant" – do you think that if we, as a minority government, have not implemented a decision imposed by the Storting on us? In any case, it would have been arrogant! So, unless the Storting takes a new decision, Troms and Finnmark will become a county from 1.1.2020.

Read also: Vedum alerts Sp proposals to stop the Finnmark force

In the cave lion

Monica Mæland has now turned her full attention to us. When we walked into her office, she sat so energetically on her cell phone that she did not notice that counselors, a photographer, and a reporter were sitting around her meeting table .

For the journalist, who comes from stubborn Finnmark, it sounds a bit like entering the lion's cave. But perhaps this is offset by the fact that the photographer is from Sogn og Fjordane, who goes further with Hordaland?

The Minister looks up:

– I had to report something to a slightly over-informed mayor. It was borders, she cries briskly, still with her southern dialect of Hisøy after several decades in Bergen

"A mountain emptiness with flaws of speech", as NRK once said . Just it seems that his father was a little more fun. In his day, he was the young typographer from Bergen who, with his young wife, left the hometown of the early 1970s to work at the Agderposten in Arendal. The daughter Monica was three years old and was born in Bergen

. The family will settle in Hisøy outside Arendal. Here, Monica grew up with her parents and a sister, in her own opinion with Abba and the movie music of "Grease" as a soundtrack. In her 80s, she became one of those girls from the right who worked in nearby radio and wanted to end the monopoly law and the opening hours of the NRK

. For now, it's really going to be wrong. "

– A brutal way of cultivating

She discussed a lot of politics with the father who grew up in a home and whose typographer was active in the labor movement, and later came to vote on different parties, from Ap, SV to Frp The mother worked as a home help and was more concerned about health problems, while her mother, Monica Meland's grandmother in Bergen, ended up voting right. did the most to support her grandson, believes Monica Mæland.

She lived in Hisøy until the age of 19, but then she returned to Bergen to study for her. she was very good with her grandmother, who sometimes came by bus from Sandviken and to her dormitory in town with prepared dinners.

After the prison, Monica Mæland established in Bergen as that lawyer, married a mountain boy, two children and at the same time installed in local politics in Bergen. At the age of 30, the grandmother died, and already the following year, Monica Mæland's mother died at age 51.

Monica, who herself turned 50 this winter, said she thought it was brutal. Growing up She had never lost anyone before, and now two of her loved ones disappeared in a year. The mother had been stuck in the family, so everything was changed. The father moved from Hisøy to Arendal, and together they bought a cottage in Setesdal where the family can gather during the holidays

Also read: "Only at home" this summer?

Sleipe and Uzbek President [19659011] Last Dagsavisen interview portrait of Monica Mæland two years ago she was still a peaceful affairs minister who was sometimes accused of being insufficiently visible in the media . But she had already handled several high profile articles such as the Yara case, the Kongsberggruppen investigation and especially the Vimpelcom case in Telenor.

In the fall of 2015, she had her "Martin Kolberg moment" "At the NRK, where she and then Minister of Fisheries Elisabeth Aspaker had a rather elusive appearance, with many strong and lazy jokes. on cod, eagles, Uzbek presidents and Vimpelcom

[L'affaire continue plus bas] 19659069] The Minister of Municipality and Modernization, Monica Mæland (H), with Finnmark refusing to merge with Troms Photo: Berit Roald / NTB scanpix