The Political Gossip

There are many types of gossip, and when reading gossip, it’s important to understand what kind of gossip is being presented. Is the gossip based on someone’s speculation from their own political perspective, or are there actual sources behind it? Are the sources verbal or written? How reliable are the sources? So-called sources can sometimes just be someone else’s speculation based on nothing more than personal opinions.

It’s crucial to understand the nature of the gossip, whether its purpose is to inform people about the actual situation or to mislead them. It’s possible to create all sorts of false stories about people who have real influence in politics. In fact, one could say that election promises can be a form of gossip since it often happens that some election promises simply vanish after the elections, becoming politically impossible or something of that nature. The promise of a referendum on continuing negotiations with the EU is a clear example. Both parties that ended up in government in 2016 had made such promises, but neither fulfilled them—indeed, the story didn’t include that those promises only applied if the parties ended up in government with certain other parties.

Recently, the parliamentary group leaders of the governing parties discussed continuing their cooperation after the next elections in the media. The parliamentary group leader of the Independence Party said that continuing the partnership was out of the question after the next elections, while the parliamentary group leaders of the Left-Green Movement and the Progressive Party did not rule anything out. Both claim they will go into the next elections unbound—which they don’t know yet whether will be in the spring or fall of 2025. This is interesting because the leadership of the Independence Party has criticized so-called “exclusion politics” while at the same time excluding cooperation with certain parties. So, how much can we trust this?

The word on the street is that one or another of the governing parties plans to break up the coalition this fall. This is not a new rumor, but so far, it has been more about the governing parties challenging each other to break the coalition rather than doing it themselves. Likely, this is due to the fear of being wiped out in the next elections for being seen as ungovernable, as Bright Future memorably experienced in 2017 after breaking the coalition.

But now, the last parliamentary session of the term is about to begin, and there will be a leadership contest in the Left-Green Movement this fall, and likely a leadership contest in the Independence Party as well. New leaders would then inherit a coalition partnership that they probably don’t care for. The big question then is how they plan to finish the term, as this will impact the new leaders in the next elections—whether they go into the elections bound to this government or not.