In September, Eivor Evenrud called for an inspection of the Oslo school and was reprimanded by the deputy leader of the Oslo Labour Party. Now the party’s nomination committee has placed her in 19th position. In the last election, the Labour Party won 11 seats.
On Sunday evening, the committee, led by Agnes Viljugrein, presented its first proposal for the city council list for the 2027 election. Evenrud confirmed her position herself on Facebook.
– Amidst the throng of people who are ‘happy and humble’ to have been nominated for one position or another in next year’s local elections, I find myself in a slightly different position today, she wrote in her post.
Support is pouring in under the post. It comes, amongst others, from a former Labour Party politician and from one of the country’s leading experts on freedom of expression.
The Labour Party, for its part, felt compelled to close the comments section beneath the news story about the new nomination list.
In the previous election, things went the other way. In 2023, the party placed her in tenth position, the last cumulative spot. Voters moved her up the list. With 2,369 personal votes and 708 preferential votes, she finished third in the candidate selection.
In September, a pupil was seriously injured in a stabbing at Kuben Upper Secondary School in Økern. A minor has been charged with attempted murder. Evenrud, who is the Labour Party’s group leader for culture and education on the city council, reacted on X the same day.
– ‘Search bags and lockers, demand that parents get involved, introduce body searches. I don’t care. Privacy isn’t the most important thing here,’ she wrote.
The party leadership distanced itself from her comments.
– “It is not the Labour Party’s policy to stigmatise entire schools based on isolated incidents involving individual pupils,” deputy leader Mari Morken told *Aftenposten*.
Sarah Gaulin recognises the pattern. She was a local councillor for the Labour Party in Søndre Nordstrand, but resigned in autumn 2023 following a public row with the Oslo Labour Party. There, she described how the party’s advisers rang to correct her when she spoke out about gang crime in the district. In 2025, she received the Fritt Ord Honour Award.
– “This is not on! What on earth is the nomination committee of the Oslo Labour Party thinking?” writes Gaulin beneath Evenrud’s post.
– We need politicians who dare to speak their minds, even when it doesn’t suit everyone in their own party.
Gaulin also writes that the Oslo Labour Party has closed the comments section under the party’s own post.
Lawyer Anine Kierulf, deputy chair of Fritt Ord, went even further on Sunday evening.
– Goodness me. I thought the point these days was not to undermine trust in fundamental institutions? Such as democracy, political parties, genuine politicians and freedom of expression? she wrote.
Evenrud marked the comment with a heart.
On Monday afternoon, Kierulf backtracked. She edited the comment and wrote that her support for Evenrud remains firm, but that the wording was foolish.
– “The idea that the nomination process in the Oslo Labour Party undermines trust in these institutions is simply nonsense, and I apologise for phrasing it the way I did,” she wrote.
Sociologist Kjetil Rolness raised the issue as early as September. Following the Kuben row, he asked on Substack whether Evenrud was too popular for the Oslo Labour Party.
– It seems that those who are fearless, speak clearly and attract voters are to be squeezed out, he wrote.
In the same piece, he highlighted that the party never gave Gaulin any position. A comment in *Nettavisen* describes the placement as a ‘place of shame’.
*Document* has not found any public justification from the committee for the placement.
At the top of the list, the committee names group leader Marthe Scharning Lund or State Secretary Usman Mushtaq as candidates for city council leader. The committee leaves it to the local party branches to decide which of them will head the list. Abdullah Alsabeehg is listed as a mayoral candidate.
For many years, Evenrud was Rødt’s most prominent figure in Oslo. She broke with the party following a conflict with Siavash Mobasheri and joined the Labour Party in the autumn of 2022. The then city council leader, Raymond Johansen, said at the time that she would be welcomed with open arms.
The local party branches have until 1 November to submit their input. Members will decide on the list at the nomination meeting on 21 and 22 November.
It is unclear whether Evenrud will remain on the list.
– A bit surprised – and unsure what I’ll do next. Thank you for your messages and phone calls. I’m fine, she wrote.
Document has also tried to get in touch with Evenrud, but we have not received a response to our enquiries.
