Before the massacre last week at a political retreat on an island near Oslo, youth politics in Norway was robust and active, with a tradition of involvement in national debate.
But the largest political youth group in Norway, the AUF, had its heart ripped out by the massacre on Utoya island, losing a number of its brightest figures, some of whom had been expected to rise to the top.
Still, days later, young members of the AUF (short for Arbeidernes Ungdomsfylking, or Labor Youth) say their faith in participatory politics and the principles of openness have only been strengthened by events.
Many say they intend to become more politically engaged in the future, potentially bolstering the movement in the country that has historically had a stronger youth political activism than the United States, Britain and France.
“He can take the lives from our friends but not their thoughts and wishes and beliefs, because that’s going to go on with the rest of us,” Helle Gannestad, 18, said of Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to the killing of around 76 people, mostly at an AUF retreat on Utoya.
Ms. Gannestad, an AUF local representative from Sunndal, has been active in the party for four years and writes for its magazine. She has lost numerous friends.
The AUF was founded in 1927 and now has 10,000 members. It has been a particularly well organized machine, according to academics, more radical than its parent Labor Party and focusing its resources around single issues like keeping Norway open to immigrants and fighting climate change.
The AUF produced the nation’s current, prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, as well as another dominant postwar politician, Gro Harlem Brundtland, also former prime minister.
“This was an attack on the AUF and the Labor Party but it was also an attack on the whole nation and our democracy,” said Stine Renate Haheim, 27, a member of Parliament from Opland and previously an AUF central committee member. She escaped Utoya by swimming away and was picked up by a boat.
She is already looking ahead to local elections due to be held in mid-August. “If we can get a record high number of people voting in the local election, that will be a demonstration that we are winning this,” she said.
“The main focus will be to get people to vote and have a high turnout and that will be a demonstration,” she said.
The Labor Party heads the coalition government and has been the largest force in national politics since World War II.
Mr. Stoltenberg, his party and the AUF are expected by academics to enjoy an upswing in support as a result of the attacks.
A poll released Thursday by the research firm InFact for the Norwegian newspaper VG, found 94 percent of respondents saying Mr. Stoltenberg had handled the aftermath of the attacks well, although that could end up meaning little as the next national election is not scheduled until 2013.
But there are suggestions that the population, young and old, has been galvanized and that more people want to express themselves through politics.
The newspaper Dagsavisen has reported that all political parties enjoyed an unusual upswing in membership the past few days, including conservative groups like the Progress Party led by Siv Jensen.
The AUF, with its 10,000 members, in a population of 4.7 million, is approximately the same size as the youth wings of all the other big parties combined. By contrast, the Young Socialists in France has 6,000 members, in a country of 65 million.
Such organizations are almost unheard of in the United States, perhaps because of the less centralized party structure and weaker unions.
Elin Haugsgjerd Allern, a researcher at the University of Oslo, said the AUF has a strong voice within the party, helped by “a strong structure which draws on a deep trend of party organization and networks.”
'I want to be in politics'
Before the events on Utoya, there had been some signs that the youth in Norway were becoming more alienated from conventional politics, a trend that has been seen elsewhere in Europe, with the number of candidates fielded in local elections slipping, she said.
And that trend is mirrored across demographics. Voter turnout in Norway was 76.4 percent in 2009, down from 77.4 percent in 2005 and 84 percent in 1985, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Sweden. At last year’s election in Britain, the turnout was 65.8 percent; it was 60 percent in France in 2007.
But the tradition of active youth politics is alive, Ms. Allern said. For example, students often take party affiliations at a young age and will typically debate national issues on school panels before national polls.
For the AUF, the losses are brutal. Among those cited as missing are Tore Eikeland, 21, a regional leader, who had been referred to by Mr. Stoltenberg as “one of our most talented young politicians.” He spoke at the party’s most recent conferences.
Tarald Mjelde, another emerging talent in Norwegian liberal politics, is also cited as missing. A Facebook page in his honor says he “had the whole world at his feet at just 18 years old.”
Hanne Kristine Fridtun, 20, another activist presumed dead, also addressed the last conference.
The AUF’s chairman, Eskil Pedersen, 27, survived the ordeal. Since the attacks, he has said the party will bolster its core beliefs of “fairness, equality and anti-racism” as a legacy.
“I want to be in politics and remain active,” said Khamshajiny Gunaratnam, 23, one of the 14 members of AUF’s executive committee. “We have to strengthen politics even more and you don’t do that by pulling back.”
Of Tamil origin, Ms. Gunaratnam’s parents fled war-torn Sri Lanka when she was just 3. As a youngster in northern Norway she used to get bullied because of the dark color of her skin.
“We’ll keep fighting for our values.” she said. “No one shall bomb us to silence. No one shall shoot us to silence. This is what Jens Stoltenberg says and I total agree with him.”
AUF members also harbor an important goal: “reclaiming” their island. Utoya was a gift to the party from unions during the early 1950s. It has since become a place where youngsters gather to debate issues, camp out, and socialize.
On the eve of the attack, some of the AUF members gathered for a gig from the band Datarock and then gathered around a fire till the early hours, smoking tobacco from a hookah. Alcohol is banned on the island.
“Of course we’ll take back the island and we’ll build it better.” Ms. Gunaratnam said. “We’ll go back next year with even more members and create something new for the next generation.”
Louise Loftus contributed reporting from Paris.
This story, "Young Survivors Find Their Faith in Norway's System Is Even Stronger," first appeared in The New York Times.