opinions
Arne O. Holm says:
The High North Policy Is on the Chopping Block
Comment: A few decades ago, an uneventful news cycle could always be stimulated by calling up a Northern Norwegian fisherman. Few, if any, were better suited to starting a war with the 'powers that be' in Oslo. Today, the best approach is to call a mayor in a suit and tie.
Published
This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. All views expressed are the writer's own.
And that is not just because fishermen are generally earning more money than ever.
If the mayors should, against all odds, fail to answer the phone, there are contractors in hard hats ready to hurl sticks of dynamite in the direction of the parliament and the government.
Autopsy report
Because we are now entering a period in which more than 20 years of High North policies are being laid on the chopping blocks, and autopsy reports are in progress.
If nothing else, for those of us who have followed the political debate regarding developments in the North for a few decades, it is interesting to see it come full circle in many ways.
From 2005 and for many years, part of the solution to Northern Norway's, and particularly Finnmark's, challenges, was a political and industrial cooperation with Russia.
Call a mayor in a suit and tie.
Now, Russia is the problem, yet also the solution, because the security policy situation requires completely different national efforts in the North in order to withstand or prevent a military conflict.
It failed during its first chapter, and a few years into the next, the situation has worsened.
This is precisely the bedrock argument in the criticism now pouring down on the central authorities.
Impoverished over a long period
For our readers, it is sufficient enough to refer to the past week's reports from reality, as it appears from the North.
The other day, contractor Frode Nilsen of Leonhard Nilsen & Sønner took the stage in Bodø, Northern Norway. He said that the government's High North policy was 'not worth more than the papir it was written on," adding that 'our region has been depleted over the course of a long period.'
Admittedly, paper prices have nearly doubled in recent years, but not enough to miss the point.
They each govern their own municipality, Hammerfest, Sør-Varanger, and Berlevåg. These are municipalities where foreign and security policy is becoming ever more integrated into local politics.
Regardless of party affiliation, they largely agreed on one concluding argument: the High North policy is not working.
Admittedly, paper prices have doubled in a short time.
Almost dead
Terje Rogde (Conservative) from Hammerfest told a story that many can relate to. About meetings with national politicians who have never been to Finnmark, but who have strong opinions about what it should be like there. Meanwhile, Magnus Mæland (Conservative) from Sør-Varanger spoke of “a realpolitik that is almost dead”.
The fact that he inserted an «almost» must be interpreted as a slip in what was otherwise such a merciless obituary for Norwegian High North policy.
A few hours later, the Conservative Party mayors moved on to a new political arena. There they were met by the Conservatives’ newly elected, and, so far, very anonymous, leader, Ine Eriksen Søreide. She is on tour to build the Conservatives’ new policy from the ground up.
Magnus Mæland, still representing the Conservatives, argued that High North policy has not worked, while his party leader went as far as to say that it has not «worked well enough».
There is more than nuance in the difference between these two analyses.
We have to turn to Statnett to find the explanation for the current surge of criticism. The company has introduced a temporary halt on new power consumption above 5 megawatts north of Svartisen in Bodø, Northern Norway.
They have never been here, but they have strong opinions.
In other words, a halt to all business development in a region that carries major responsibility for the nation’s security.
The moment things go off
The other day, the Norwegian Railway Directorate stirred up more trouble. The directorate proposes constructing a new railway tunnel in central Oslo at a cost of NOK 67 billion, but not a single cent for a double track on the strategically important Ofoten Line in the North. While the Finns, for security policy reasons, are postponing railway projects in southern Finland in favor of strengthening the northern areas, we are doing the opposite in Norway.
There is a well-founded revolt underway in the North. Cross-party in form, realpolitik in substance.
Because, as Professor Stian Bones at UiT put it, from the same stage where Frode Nilsen delivered his thunderous speech:
"The moment things go off, we cannot fly in a civil society. They must already be here."
