There is turmoil at the top of Rødt’s youth party ahead of the national conference at Easter.

After six months marked by serious controversies and support for those charged with terrorism, four candidates are now ready to compete for the leadership in an organisation moving in an increasingly radical direction.

Praised terror suspects as heroes

In recent weeks, strong attention has been directed at the extreme positions within the central committee of Rød Ungdom. The youth party recently chose to name the three brothers charged with the terror bombing outside the United States Embassy in Oslo as «hero of the week». This took place at the same time as the organisation published a video on TikTok in which central committee members joked about the same terror attack.

This is not the first time that the leadership of the youth party has shown contempt for human life and democratic rules of the game. In September last year, then leader Amrit Kaur was forced to resign after she mocked the killing of the American activist Charlie Kirk in a video. Such incidents have led central figures in the parent party to openly consider whether Rødt must sever ties entirely with its own youth party.

Criticises the parent party for being too respectable

Amid this political crisis, Secretary General Syver Kleve Kolstad has authored a statement in which he attacks the leadership of Rødt. He believes the parent party is in the process of losing its revolutionary soul in favour of becoming «respectable». The statement claims that the party leadership in Rødt is more concerned with maintaining state support and strong electoral results than with fighting for its original values, according to what Klassekampen reports.

Kolstad writes directly that the party apparatus in Rødt is dependent on maintaining stable support in order to finance its own salaries, and that this weakens internal party democracy. Rød Ungdom now demands that Rødt cease overriding the youth party and is preparing for a confrontation with party leader Marie Sneve Martinussen at the forthcoming national conference.

Contest for the leadership in a divided party

Although the incumbent leader Halvor Bergkvist wishes to continue in order to improve relations with the parent party, he is now being challenged by three other candidates. Among the challengers are deputy leader Alexandra Joy Øhrn Fredwall, as well as former county leaders from Oslo and Møre og Romsdal. None of the candidates will comment to the press before the national conference begins, which indicates a highly closed and tense internal process.

Neither the support for the terror suspects nor the attacks on the parent party appear to have dampened the internal conflicts. It is clear that the forces advocating a more revolutionary and extreme line are strong within the organisation, and that the national conference at Easter will determine whether Rød Ungdom will continue its isolation from established political Norway.