Minister in trouble over gift

Cabinet minister Liv Signe Navarsete has plunged her government into more hot water, for accepting an expensive gift from a major offshore company while she was transport minister in 2006. She has apologized, but it’s believed Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is irritated over this latest embarrassment.
Navarsete is one of the three party leaders heading up [...]

Stoltenberg bound for Murmansk

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has cleared his schedule for a sudden trip to Murmansk next week, to seal Norway’s deal with Russia on their legal division of the Barents Sea. Stoltenberg and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet once again, to sign the agreement.

Newspaper Aftenposten reported Wednesday that the meeting next week in Murmansk came [...]

Emigrant returns to support others

Fred Kavli emigrated from Norway as a young man, made a fortune as an engineer and entrepreneur in California, and now is sharing his wealth and inspiration with others in the form of generous prizes for scientists. The Kavli Prizes were awarded in Oslo Tuesday, amidst royalty and some showbiz glitter.
Kavli decided to award his [...]

Hagen mounts a political comeback

Carl I Hagen, the outspoken, longtime leader of Norway’s most conservative party, missed politics too much after taking a stab at retirement last year. Now the 66-year-old Hagen wants to be the Mayor of Oslo, but support from potential partners is lukewarm at best.
Hagen headed Norway’s Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp) for nearly 30 years, spent [...]

‘Welfare system worth higher taxes’

A vast majority of Norwegians support paying even higher taxes than they already do, if it will preserve their country’s social welfare state. Fully 75 percent are willing to pay more tax for good health and elder care.
The figure emerged over the weekend from surveys compiled by research firm Synovate and reported by newspaper Dagsavisen. [...]

Critics bash ministers’ gifts

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has suddenly found himself at the center of controversy, after reports emerged that he and government colleagues have accepted sometimes expensive gifts from their foreign counterparts. Debate over whether that’s appropriate may lead to stricter rules.
Støre’s involvement in the gift controversy marks the first time he’s personally been the target [...]

Political veteran also turns 50

There’s been a boom of big birthdays among Norway’s government leaders, most recently Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s 50th birthday celebrations. On Thursday it was former Finance Minister-, now Education Minister Kristin Halvorsen’s turn.
Halvorsen has been a professional politician most of her adult life. It’s been 25 years since she made her entry into the [...]

Powerful friendship spurs debate

As Crown Prince Haakon and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre kept up their busy schedules in recent days, debate continued over the public emergence of their allegedly private friendship. Some feel it raises constitutional concerns.

The crown prince and his wife, Crown Prince Mette-Marit, were among the guests at Støre’s “private” 50th birthday party on Saturday [...]

Oslo delays garbage sorting

Some Oslo residents may secretly be breathing a sigh of relief, after news broke Monday that they won’t immediately need to make room under their kitchen sinks for a new, elaborate system of sorting their garbage.
Newspaper Aftenposten reported that the city has delayed plans to usher in city-wide kildesortering, the system that requires households to put [...]

Norwegian hits top of French politics

Eva Joly, the au pair from Norway who gained fame as a judge and corruption fighter in France, has recently risen to the highest levels of French politics. She has her eyes on the French presidency, and may at least wind up as a government minister.

Joly has announced that she will run for the French presidency [...]

New drinks debate bubbles up

Farmers’ attempts to sell their locally produced alcoholic beverages on site have set off another drinks debate in Norway, and threaten to divide one of the goverment’s coalition parties.
Agriculture Minister Lars Peder Brekk of the small, farmer-friendly Center Party has spent time this summer visiting several farms that want to generate new sources of income [...]

Progress Party’s lack of progress

NEWS COMMENTARY: Norway’s most conservative party, the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp), must be feeling a need for attention. One of its top leaders has once again resorted to grabbing it by making provocative comments about immigrants and the flag, and thus casting doubt on whether the party has made any progress of its own in recent [...]

Conservatives now largest in the land

Erna Solberg’s Conservative Party (Høyre) is now Norway’s largest political party, according to a new public opinion poll. The Norwegian Labour Party’s decline in popularity is being called “dramatic,” after falling nearly 10 full points since its election victory last fall. 
Leaders of the Conservatives, many of whom gathered on Thursday for a belated celebration of party [...]

Minister offers new compromise

An underground, instead of undersea, cable may wind up as the compromise solution to a heated political conflict over how to run power lines through the scenic mountain area around Norway’s Hardanger Fjord. 
Newspaper Aftenposten reported Thursday that embattled Oil & Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen is inviting all sides in the conflict to discuss the possibility [...]

New anger rises over Hardanger

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was back on the defensive Monday morning, after Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that his government may not set up an independent review of controversial power lines over Hardanger after all. Local politicians in the scenic mountain area fear they’ve been fooled.
NRK reported that the government is considering ordering various reports from [...]

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