Stoltenberg congratulates new French president

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has formally sent his “warmest congratulations” to Francois Hollande after he was elected as the new president of France on Sunday. Hollande beat incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy and hails from the same Labour side of politics as Stoltenberg and the coalition he heads in Norway. “My government puts heavy emphasis [...]

Norway cool to bailing out SAS

Norway’s government minister in charge of business and trade doesn’t seem inclined to infuse Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) with more capital, after the airline reported more heavy losses this week. Norwegian Trade Minister Trond Giske called SAS’ financial situation “worrisome,” but he’s more interested in selling off Norway’s stake in SAS than boosting it. “I have [...]

Troubled ministry under probe

Norway’s Justice Ministry, badly hit by last summer’s terrorist attacks and suffering from low morale, now has another problem to deal with: Police have been called in to investigate how a long-time bureaucrat allegedly allocated more than NOK 4 million to various organizations through advertising purchases. News broke Thursday that a ministry employee had been [...]

China’s ambassador leaves in a freeze

Relations between Norway and China remain in a deep freeze, and China’s embassy in Oslo no longer has an ambassador in place. There’s been another rash of diplomatic snubs since Tang Guoqiang left Norway earlier this year. Tang’s departure came 16 months after China first blamed the Norwegian government for the awarding of a Nobel [...]

Speculation flies around Telenor CEO

UPDATED: Another top leader at Norwegian telecoms firm Telenor is quitting and the future of Jon Fredrik Baksaas as Telenor’s chief executive seemed far from secure after a week of more drama around the state-controlled company. As political intrigue over Telenor and its ill-fated venture into India reached the highest government levels, a business researcher [...]

State workers want more time off

Labour unions representing state workers are demanding 12 extra days off every year, plus even more for senior workers over age 62. The idea is to make it easier for the employees to take care of ageing parents, for example, and to discourage older workers from retiring. Newspaper VG reported that the unions want state [...]

Political intrigue swirls around government’s climate report

NEWS ANALYSIS: The gloves have come off during the week that’s followed release of the government’s long-awaited report on how Norwegians are supposed to reduce carbon emissions. Not only has the opposition found bones to pick with the report, the government players behind it have been accused of an unusually high degree of political intrigue [...]

‘A place in my heart’ for children

Norway’s new chief advocate for children was preparing this week for her new job that she’ll take over in June, and clearly looking forward to it. Dr Anne Lindboe, a pediatrician who’s worked extensively with children’s rights and cases of child abuse, is Norway’s fifth barneombud and appointed by King Harald to serve for the [...]

Pressure builds on youngest minister

Inga Marte Thorkildsen is the latest government official to land in trouble for allegedly abusing her political power. Just a month after taking over as cabinet minister in charge of family and equality issues, she’s under harsh criticism for involving herself in a specific case of suspected child abuse while she was still a Member [...]

Lukewarm greeting for climate report

NEWS ANALYSIS: After months, even years of delays, Norwegians have now been handed the most comprehensive climate report ever compiled by their government on how they’ll be asked to cut carbon emissions. Environmental activists, opposition politicians and some researchers, however, warned it won’t meet its own ambitious goals, and puts off the tough and expensive [...]

Politicians debate security measures

Nine months after a terrorist’s bomb severely damaged Norway’s government headquarters and left eight people dead, the street running by the country’s Parliament building just a few blocks away remains open to traffic. Neither city nor state politicians have ordered the street blocked off, and they’re still debating other security measures as well. Nor have [...]

Strong support for Progress Party leader

Her party fare poorly at the polls in the last municipal elections, but that didn’t dampen support within the ranks for their leader Siv Jensen. Members of the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp) are counting on her to help them finally get a taste of government power when the next national elections roll around in 2013. [...]

Norway to start troop withdrawal

Norway’s Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it will begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan this autumn, several months earlier than scheduled. Norway will end its presence in Faryab province in northwestern Afghanistan and then concentrate on operations in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif instead. Original plans called for the Norwegian forces to remain in Faryab until 2013. [...]

Progress Party ready to rule

Norway’s most conservative political party, the Progress Party,  wrapped up its annual national meeting on Sunday and the message from party leader Siv Jensen was clear: “We have one ambition, to have influence. There won’t be any (non-socialist) majority without us.” Jensen had stated firmly in her opening address on Friday afternoon that there was [...]

Liberal Party logs leap in popularity

Members of Norway’s small and, until recently, struggling Liberal Party (Venstre) could head into the weekend smiling. After months of poor showings in the polls, they jumped a relatively whopping 3.5 points in a new voter survey. If the results had been an election, Venstre would have won 14 seats in Parliament, compared to its [...]

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