Oslo 20260623.
Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery (Labour) hosts the Government’s Pride reception at the official residence in Parkveien in connection with Oslo Pride. Several ministers, including Minister of Health and Care Services Jan Christian Vestre (Labour), Minister of Justice and Public Security Astri Aas-Hansen (Labour), and Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide (Labour), will also be present.
Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffrey topped Nyhetsmorgen. What does she know about football that would warrant that? Well, she was there to praise the sense of community and grassroots football that sustains it. The Government claims credit for the victory over Brazil because of the funding provided through the football pools (tippemidler).
It is clever, but a little too obvious, and the time was not right to score political points for its own benefit.
Virtually all the players on the Norwegian team play for foreign clubs where enormous sums of money are in circulation.
What can be said is that many of the Norwegian players still look and sound Norwegian. Haaland is a billionaire, but you would not know it from him. He is still a man from Jæren. Wealth and success have not gone to his head.
Moreover, the Norwegian team looks as though its players are from Norway. They do not look as though they come from the former colonies that have taken over the mother country, as is the case with France.
Of course the French think such thoughts when they watch their team in action: they too are reminded of population replacement. That puts a considerable damper on things.
For Norway it is the opposite, and that plays a major role in the enthusiasm the team inspires. The players look like us.
That is the real sense of community, and Lubna does not dare speak about it. She is from Pakistan.
Had she dared to do so, she would have scored many points with Norwegians. But she wants to promote a political sense of community under the guise of the enthusiasm. Everyone can take part in the spontaneous celebration, but there is no doubt that it is the Norwegian community that is the driving force behind the emotion.
Quite simply, what she is doing is a form of misappropriation. And no matter how far the Norwegian team goes, the difference will not disappear.
We know who we are.
Haaland struck nationalist notes on Sunday when he emphasised that he hoped the victory would make young players more conscious of fighting for the nation and the colours, as others do. Lubna does not dare go down that road.
On behalf of the Government, she tried to claim credit for the success. Everyone knows it is more complicated than that.
She is trying to sell a model that is being transferred to the comprehensive school (enhetsskolen). But it is in a state of complete disintegration and can only be saved through privatisation, paradoxical though that may sound. Only by facilitating excellence among both pupils and teachers can the public school receive the much-needed inspiration it requires.
Football is about skill. The model Lubna promotes is about participation. The result matters less. The essence of woke is built into the new social democracy, which has abandoned the old maxim that you must contribute before you can enjoy the rewards.
We parents and children encountered this 15–20 years ago when coaches and teachers said that winning was not what mattered. Goals were of no importance. Parents of talented children did not find that enjoyable. They moved to clubs that pursued top performers.
This is a contradiction that a Labour minister is incapable of acknowledging.
Minister of Education Kari Nessa Nordtun is one of the Government’s most capable ministers. Even she is unable to do anything about the fact that the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Utdanningsdirektoratet) has presented a plan for social studies teaching in primary and lower secondary school that is completely woke.
Only a few days ago, the Government was at the forefront of the Pride celebrations. That is another sense of community from which Labour is trying to reap political benefit. It is a risky undertaking. Many people react against forced conversion to a sexuality with which they do not identify. Now this sexualisation has also reached the school, all the way down to kindergarten.
Eid celebrations and Pride.
Jaffrey and the Government believe that the authentic, spontaneous sense of community generated by the FIFA World Cup will carry them across the finish line for their own major political project: the transformation of Norway into an entirely different society.