Ingvild Kjerkol on Facebook: Got 30 minutes to write the farewell speech

– I was given 30 minutes in the Prime Minister’s office to write a few words after almost 30 years as an elected representative, writes Kjerkol (Ap).

It was TV 2 who mentioned the matter first.

Kjerkol posted the comment under a post from former Liberal politician Mathias Fischer. He comes out strongly against Kjerkol’s performance at the press conference on Friday where it was announced that she is stepping down as Minister of Health. Fischer calls her appearance provocative and arrogant.

– Now I have been thinking about Ingvild Kjerkol for over a day, and that is longer than normal. It is also not that often that an outgoing minister gives a speech as unhumble and as provocatively arrogant as she did yesterday, he writes.

Fischer suggests that Kjerkol acted calculatedly.

– Although she has had several months to prepare, it seems as if the speech was written with emotion. But perhaps it also expresses something honest, precisely because it is not finely polished to make her look good, he writes.

– More personal than I would have chosen

Kjerkol responds to the post by stating that she had little time to prepare.

– The speech was honest, emotional and perhaps more personal than I would have chosen if, like you, I had had the opportunity to sleep on it, she writes, and continues:

– To everyone who reads Mathias Fischer’s status and my comment here. We don’t know each other – can only remember pleasant short greetings in the Storting restaurant.

Fischer is currently the leader of a think tank Initiativ Vest. He is also a former journalist. Between 2018 and 2019, he worked as a commentator on TV 2, and he also commented on the case in TV 2’s news studio in connection with the press conference on Friday.

Støre waited for the tribunal

It was at short notice that Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) called for a press conference on Friday.

– I have concluded that it will be very difficult to continue the demanding job as Minister of Health and Care. I have therefore come to the conclusion that Ingvild should resign as minister, Støre said when the resignation was announced.

At the same time, he answered neither affirmatively nor denying whether there had been disagreements between him and Kjerkol regarding the decision about her departure – and whether the initiative came from him, and not her.

He confirmed that he had been informed verbally that Kjerkol had been caught cheating on Wednesday, but that he only got access to the written assessment on Thursday. Støre has previously emphasized that he would not enter into the case until the conclusion from Nord University was available.