Politics & Power Quote by Kjell Magne Bondevik

Bondevik’s line lands like a quiet rebuke to an era that treats politics as a spectator sport: a running tally of wins, dunks, and humiliations. By insisting politics is “more than a power game,” he’s not denying that power matters; he’s naming the embarrassment of admitting it’s become the point. The phrase is strategically plain, almost pastoral, and that’s the trick. Moral language in politics often reads as performance. Here, the understatement is the argument.

The repetition of “to serve” does double duty. It frames leadership as a duty rather than a brand, and it also narrows the acceptable motive for governing. “Serve our citizens” is conventional social-democratic realism: government exists to deliver tangible goods and protect rights. Then he widens the lens to “our fellow human beings,” slipping past the borders of nationality. That expansion matters coming from a Norwegian statesman shaped by Christian democratic ethics and a Nordic welfare-state consensus, where legitimacy is built less on ideological theatrics than on competence, trust, and social solidarity.

The subtext is a warning about what happens when power becomes self-justifying: policy turns into messaging, opponents become enemies, and citizens become props. Bondevik’s intent isn’t revolutionary; it’s corrective. He’s staking politics’ moral center on something unfashionable and therefore potent: humility. In a climate that rewards outrage and tribal loyalty, “service” becomes not just a value, but a resistance strategy.