Party vows policy of anti-racism as legacy to 68 members killed

IT COULD be a political rally anywhere: two politicians at microphones in a town square, a crowd gathered, a fountain splashing gently.

But this is Oslo, four days after its worst massacre since the second World War.

The fountain is lined with flowers and many windows in the square’s buildings – headquarters to political parties and trade unions – are boarded up after being blown out by Friday’s bomb blast.

As workmen hammer and drill the buildings back to something resembling normality, the ruling Labour Party is nursing a painful wound.

Yesterday afternoon Oslo police began releasing names of the 68 young people shot dead on Friday at a youth camp on the party’s island of Utoeya, outside Oslo.

“Our party is more than 100 years old and we’ve had hard times before but we’ve never encountered a challenge like this,” said Raymond Johansen, Labour’s general secretary. “This has struck us at our core.”

Beside him stands Eskil Pedersen (27), the chairman of the Labour Youth Movement (AUF), the organiser of the annual summer camp.

“The AUF will continue to grow with our core beliefs – fairness, equality and anti-racism – and I think that to be the legacy to the people we lost,” he said.

It is a polished performance from a young man who, four days earlier, had a near-death experience on Utoeya. He declines to talk about that and instead, with the skill of a political professional in the making, talks about the future.

Away from the microphones, however, Mr Pedersen has a haunted look. He survived while dozens of his contemporaries, up- and-coming politicians, were cut down, randomly.

One was Tore Eikeland (21), a regional leader, who had been referred to by prime minister Jens Stoltenberg as “one of our most talented young politicians” and was considered future prime minister material.

“I’m in sorrow now and there will be more sorrow when we see the names of those who died,” Mr Pedersen added. “It will be heartbreaking.”

Around him, Oslo began moving slowly from mourning to normality again yesterday after Monday evening’s “flower march” brought more than 200,000 people on to the streets, one-third of the capital’s population.

On their way home, many stuck their blooms on the railings that still block access to the government quarter, creating walls of flowers around the bomb site.

Former Labour MP and government adviser Vigdis Magistad (65) is walking the perimeter of the bomb site, leaving a red rose at every flower barrier along the way.

She is wearing her old AUF badge too, in solidarity with the young victims.

“What’s been remarkable in all of this is that our leaders have actually led,” she said. “They made clear from the start, when people were shocked and upset, how they would like the nation to react: not with hate, but with tolerance.”

Already, the AUF has plans to stage new events on Utoeya to “reclaim” the island.

“We will go back,” Mr Pedersen said. “I feel in my stomach that I want to go back soon.”