Erling Folkvord (15 June 1949 – 1 March 2024) was a Norwegian politician for the Red Party and a member of the Parliament of Norway. A revolutionary socialist, he was one of the leading members of the Workers' Communist Party and the Red Electoral Alliance before they merged to form Red. He sat as a member of the Parliament of Norway from 1993 to 1997, becoming the first socialist to the left of the Socialist Left Party and the Labour Party in parliament since 1961. He later lost his position in 1997 and was a candidate for parliament until his death. He was a member of the Oslo City Council from 1983 to 1993, and again from 1999 to 2011. Folkvord became one of the best-known Norwegian politicians on the left who was not connected with the Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party.
In the early part of his political career, Folkvord was a member of the Red Electoral Alliance. Known for working on several corruption cases earned him the nickname the "watch dog". Folkvord's political views turned to communism and anti-capitalism when he became a member of the Workers' Communist Party. From 1990 to 1997, he was Deputy Leader of the Workers' Communist Party, and in 2001 he became Deputy Leader of the Red Electoral Alliance alongside Chris Hartmann.
Early life and career Folkvord was born in Levanger, Norway on 15 June 1949. He was the son of school principal Sverre Folkvord and housewife Eldrid Kjesbu. He finished secondary school earning the examen artium degree in Trondheim and then started studies to become a social worker at the Social School of Trondheim. By 1976, he was the leader of the national Social Agencies Union serving until 1978. 29 November 2009. In 1982, along with fellow Red Electoral Alliance member Harald Stabell, Folkvord sued Oslo's social-office leading figures, Signe M. Stray Ryssdal and Marit Moe. They accused them of misconduct and of making a false accusation which led to an innocent man going to prison. These accusations eventually led to a police investigation into the matter. After finding no proof of their accusations, Moe sued Folkvord and Stabell for defamatatory charges made against her, but she abstained from pursuing this in court.
Folkvord and Stabell reported to the police that the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet breached the pimp paragraph of the criminal code. In an interview Folkvord stated that Dagbladet contributed to giving the Norwegian sex market more attention.
Political career
Council representative In 1983, Folkvord, along with Liv Finstad, was elected as Red Electoral Alliance representative for the Oslo City Council, taking office on 1 January 1984. According to Aftenposten, the Red Electoral Alliance and the Christian Democratic Party had the most loyal voter base throughout the election. Folkvord was later highly vocal in his opposition toward the decentralisation of health and social services in Oslo where control was to be given to the boroughs. During his early years as member of the City Council, Folkvord used most of his time in defending the then "current" social administration.
By the late 1980s, Folkvord had earned the nickname "watch dog", as he usually wanted an "independent investigation" into corruption matters. This eventually developed into one of his most well-known public traits. When leading an investigation into a corruption case in 1989, which involved several representatives of the Oslo City Council, he said "It is possible to sweep corruption and other non-essential nonsense out of City Hall. People only need to persist where necessary". Earlier that year, when finding more proof of a so-called corruption scandal, Folkvord asked for assistance from the district attorney urging him to lead an investigation into the matter.
By 1990, there were talks within the Red Electoral Alliance toward replacing Folkvord and Athar Ali as City Council representatives in Oslo to make way for more women in the top positions within the party. Folkvord was kept since he was a well-known face with the Norwegian media. By September 1990, Folkvord had demanded a police-run investigation against Conservative Party member Michael Tetzschner, accusing him of corruption and hidden money. These charges were included in a broadcast by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). Tetzschner replied to this broadcast stating that "The news feature was completely dominated by false information. If the television provider does not make the corrections that are necessary, we'll bring the case to the Complaints Board of the Broadcasting Corporation". Folkvord was one of the co-founders of the Oslo party cell, established in early 1991, of the Red Electoral Alliance. While media speculated that he would become the chapter's leader, he denied any such allegations, saying there were "better suited people" then him for that post.
Parliament Folkvord was elected the Red Electoral Alliance's Oslo lead candidate in June 1992. The decision was made based on party leader Aksel Nærstad's belief that Folkvord could easily win a seat since he had become a "national celebrity" of sorts and due to the support Folkvord enjoyed during the 1989 parliamentary election. Folkvord needed 14,000 votes to earn a seat in parliament. In January 1993, at the national convention, several long-standing members discussed the best way to organise Folkvord's Oslo electoral campaign. There was optimism among these members, as they, along with Nærstad, believed beforehand that Folkvord would be elected to parliament. The Red Electoral Alliance spent a total of for their nationwide 1993 election campaign, of which two-thirds were used to support Folkvord's campaign in Oslo. At the conclusion of the elections, the party managed to become the biggest party in six different constituencies: Grünerløkka, Ankertorget, Tøyen, Kampen, Vålerenga and Gamlebyen. Various analysts, and Folkvord himself, believed the Red Electoral Alliance achieved good results in Oslo because the Socialist Left Party performed poorly in the municipalities.
When asked what parliamentary committee he wanted to be a member of, Folkvord replied that the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs would be an ideal choice because most of the "assaults" on the working man had their origins in that committee. He was then selected for that very committee in addition to a seat on the Election Committee. He later became elected as a member of the financial committee of parliament.
In 1994, Folkvord criticised the Labour Government for exporting weapons to Turkey, which at that time was engaged in a civil war against the Kurdish people. He claimed it violated a parliamentary decision made in 1959 which said that the government would not distribute, or export, weapons to countries involved in a civil war. Folkvord earned the support of the Socialist Left, the Centre Party and the Christian Democratic Party who all sought to end weapon exports to Turkey. The Conservative Party supported the Labour Party's decision, with the then party leader Jan Petersen claiming that the Kurdish liberators were "terrorists". According to Arbeiderbladet the Norwegian Government had sold worth of weapons to the Turkish Government in 1989 alone. Folkvord sent a letter to Bjørn Tore Godal, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and asked if the Norwegian Government had gotten the approval of the parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence to sell weapons to Turkey. In a 1967 decree, it became illegal to sell weapons to civil war-torn countries, and Folkvord believed that Norway should stop selling weapons to a country which he considered to be embroiled in civil war.
On 1 September 1995, Folkvord was arrested by Turkish law enforcement in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. The Turkish Government said the main reason for his visit was to attend an illegal Kurdish peace festival. That very same day he was flown to Ankara, and later Istanbul, and he was delivered back to Norway the following day. Nicolas Rea, a member of the British House of Lords, took a picture of Folkvord during the event. It was claimed that the picture showed Folkvord being beaten by Turkish officials and that the picture was in-turn burnt by the Turkish police when they saw Rea had a camera.
In early 1995, Folkvord announced that he would not be a candidate for parliament when his term was over. He later claimed the job was "exhausting and stressful". In an opinion poll, conducted in August 1997, Folkvords popularity in Oslo had declined while his popularity outside Oslo had increased. During the election, the party used on Folkvord's re-election campaign, which was estimated to be roughly 70% of the party's budget, which was estimated to be approximately . On 12 September, various opinion polls showed that Folkvord's popularity had increased again in Oslo which gave rise to speculation that Folkvord would win Inger Lise Husøy's seat in parliament because of this sudden rise in popularity. When 99% of the vote in Oslo had been counted, the party had managed to earn a disappointing 3.9%, losing its only seat.
1999 to the 2003 elections After losing his position in parliament, Folkvord went through a short period of obscurity. He once again earned media attention when he publicly denounced the Lund Commission. The commission revealed there had been extensive surveillance of Norwegian communists, socialists and other radicals by the Norwegian Police Security Service. Folkvord demanded to be shown his own documentation created during the surveillance. In 1999, Folkvord topped his party's list of candidates running for a seat in the City Council. Folkvord was successful and earned a seat on the City Council while the party noted an increased support of 1.3%. Folkvord's main goal during the campaign was to earn a third seat for the Red Electoral Alliance, he failed to do so though the party held its two seats on the City Council. The party earned 2% and 2.1% of the votes in the county and municipal elections of 1999, respectively.
Before the 2001 parliamentary election, both Aslak Sira Myhre, leader of the Red Electoral Alliance, and Folkvord stated their intentions of being top candidate for the Red Electoral Alliance. Later, when hearing that Myhre sought to become the party's lead candidate in Oslo, Folkvord told the media he would become third candidate if he was not elected to become the party's lead candidate. A vote was held at the party convention, which resulted in 50 votes for and 62 against Folkvord as lead candidate. Folkvord became third candidate, and Sigrid Angen became second candidate.
By February 2001, the Workers' Communist Party proposed making Folkvord the new leader of the Red Electoral Alliance, since Myhre would resign if he was elected to parliament. While the majority of the members wanted a female leader after the departure of Myhre, his supporters were perfectly aware that Folkvord could lose the nomination and a campaign was started to make him deputy leader. The main problem for Folkvord's opposition was his close ties to the Workers' Communist Party. At the convention, Myhre was re-elected the party's party leader, with Folkvord and Chris Hartmann stepping in as the party's new deputy leaders. Myhre did not become a member of parliament.