Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy Generator
6.6 C
Oslo
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Politician believes he was cursed by Sami opponent

The acting mayor of a town in northern Norway claims another politician from the Sami Parliament put a curse on him because he’d voted to close a local school and make cuts at another.

Thorvald Aspenes of the conservative Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp) in Porsanger told local newspaper Finnmark Dagblad that he developed sleeping problems and infections in his throat, ears, eyes and sinuses after a meeting with Sami politician Olaf Eliassen.

“I had greeted Olaf and saw that he was upset,” Aspenes told Finnmark Dagblad. “Then he told me that those of us in Porsanger would suffer for what we’d done (closing a school in Børselv and parts of a school in Billefjord). And then he said something in samisk (the Sami language). And he said it three times.”

Aspenes thinks Eliassen put a curse on him, exercising a Sami practice of sorcery called ganding. Eliassen, however, claims he doesn’t approve of ganding nor does he have the power to practice it.

News bureau NTB reported that Eliassen has since apologized to Aspenes and said it was the Progress Party’s politics that he wanted to criticize.

Views and News staff

LATEST STORIES

FOR THE RECORD

For more news on Arctic developments.

MOST READ THIS WEEK

Donate

If you like what we’re doing, please consider a donation. It’s easy using PayPal, or our Norway bank account. READ MORE