AUF leader Astrid Hoem received an unreserved apology when she met Red Youth leader Amrit Kaur at Politisk kvarter on Monday morning. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB
Of NTB | 06.05.2024 09:04:04
Policy: – What I want to regret now is primarily that I used the word terrorist in the description of Støre, Stoltenberg and Tangen. It wasn’t just stupid and recklessly said – it’s wrong and it’s not right, Kaur said when she was a guest on Politisk kvarter on Monday morning.
It was on Friday that Kaur published a Tiktok video in which she, among other things, labeled Prime Minister and Ap leader Jonas Gahr Støre, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and oil fund chief Nicolai Tangen as terrorists. Kaur later apologized for calling Støre a terrorist and deleted the video.
– It has been important for me to point out that you have to be careful with how you use the word terrorist when referring to the Palestinians and Hamas, so it becomes a double standard on my part. It was simply wrong, Kaur said on Monday.
– We are very concerned that you have responsibility for your own surroundings and have said that the far right has a special responsibility for the far right to speak out when you see this type of conspiracy theories and use of words. When we now also see it on the left, it is important that Rød ungdom comes to terms with it, said Hoem.
Hoem, who himself survived the terrorist massacre on Utøya, has received a number of strong reactions to the use of words by the Red Youth leader and the apparent attempt at clarification the following day from general secretary Syver Kleve Kolstad in the youth party.
During the radio programme, Kaur was confronted with an audio clip of Kolstad, in which he stated that it is “completely reprehensible” to use 22 July as a counter-argument against people who criticize Støre. Kaur responded by calling the handling of the case “really bad”.
– There is no 22 July card to go, and it would be completely wrong to imply that there is, said Kaur.
Regarding her own statements, she said that in the Tiktok video she prioritized using a rhetorical tool to promote her views that Norway is profiting from Israel’s warfare in Gaza, rather than “speaking the truth”.
AUF leader Astrid Hoem was also at Politisk kvarter on Monday morning. She believes Kaur placed Støre in the same category as Anders Behring Breivik by calling him a terrorist.
– We have heard the same from the right many times before. Now, for the first time, we have heard the same from the left, said Hoem.