On the prospect of EU membership, Søreide said it was unlikely to materialize “immediately.” Indeed, Norway’s current government has not shown interest in launching a national debate about membership, and the next parliamentary elections aren’t until 2029.
But Søreide said that attitudes toward membership were shifting. “I do sense … there is a more open approach to the issue in Norway,” she said. “Now when you hear debates among everything from the business sector to large private sector organizations to people on the street, there is a difference in tone.”
The conservative party leader also criticized Norway’s Labour Party minority government, which is backed by a center-left coalition, for making the subject of EU membership taboo.
“I’m very disappointed and also quite surprised that the government, a Labour government, has kind of put even the debate off for the next four years,” she said, adding she found the approach “very strange in this situation.”
Søreide’s Høyre party is currently the third most popular in Norway, with about 18 percent support, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. But that share has been inching up in recent months.
Asked about her own plans, she said she aimed to make her party “significantly bigger than we did in the last election, which was a very poor election for us,” and would seek to become prime minister in 2029.