AUF leader Gaute Skjervø has criticised Norway’s left for failing to understand how money, social media and digital platforms shape political culture, even as centre-left parties currently hold power in Oslo.
Skjervø, the outgoing leader of the Workers’ Youth League (Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking, AUF), told Klassekampen that the left has become too slow to respond to the forces setting the public agenda. His remarks come days after he announced he will not seek re-election at AUF’s national congress in October.
AUF leader links political influence to money and platforms
Skjervø said that after 16 years in youth politics and two years as AUF leader, he has become convinced that political power cannot be understood only through elections, parliament or government.
According to him, those who shape what people think and care about are increasingly those who control financial resources and digital attention. He argued that the Norwegian left has not properly understood how TikTok, social media and economic power now influence political life.
“The people who decide what people think and care about are those who sit with the power of money,” Skjervø told Klassekampen.
The criticism is aimed not only at Labour (Arbeiderpartiet, Ap), AUF’s parent party, but at the broader left. Skjervø’s point is that the left may still govern institutions, while losing influence over the spaces where political identities and cultural priorities are formed.
Norway’s left is in government, but not setting the agenda
Skjervø’s warning is especially pointed because Norway is currently governed by the Labour Party. Yet he argues that formal political control has not translated into cultural influence.
He said there is no major left-wing podcast, Facebook page, Instagram account or YouTube channel that shapes the agenda among people he grew up with in Levanger. For Skjervø, this shows that the left has failed to build the kind of media ecosystem that now matters in everyday politics.
His comments reflect a wider concern across European social democracy: parties that still have organisational strength and governing experience are struggling to compete with new forms of political communication. In many countries, right-wing and anti-establishment actors have been quicker to use short-form video, personality-driven platforms and alternative media networks.
Skjervø’s argument is not simply about communication strategy. It is about cultural power: who defines the language, emotions and priorities of politics before voters reach the ballot box.
A call for a new Norwegian power inquiry
Skjervø has called for a new inquiry into power relations in Norway, modelled on previous research programmes that examined power and democracy in the country.
He argues that the last major inquiry belongs to a different political era. At that time, he said, billionaires were barely a concept in Norwegian public debate. Today, he described them as “almost an aristocracy”.
For Skjervø, the issue is not only wealth concentration in itself, but how money can shape culture, media, politics and the limits of public debate. He said Norway has not fully understood what this shift means for democratic life.
The Red Party (Rødt) proposed such a new inquiry earlier this year, but Labour voted against it. That makes Skjervø’s position politically uncomfortable for Ap: one of its most visible youth figures is now publicly backing an idea his own party rejected.
Skjervø’s departure comes after a short but visible AUF leadership
Skjervø announced on Sunday that he will step down as AUF leader when the organisation holds its national congress in October. He has led AUF since 2024, after serving as deputy leader for four years and sitting on the youth party’s central board since 2018.
His leadership has been marked by strong positions on international politics, security and democratic resilience. In recent months, he has also warned against Norwegian dependence on the USA under Donald Trump and called for stronger European democratic cooperation.
The latest intervention suggests that Skjervø wants to leave AUF with a broader warning for the left: winning government is not enough if the movement loses the ability to shape culture, media and political imagination.
For Labour and the wider Norwegian left, the debate may become more difficult as the next AUF leadership takes shape. Skjervø’s criticism points to a strategic question that extends beyond Norway: whether centre-left parties can rebuild influence in a media environment increasingly dominated by platforms, private wealth and fragmented attention.
