After decades of arguing over its wording, two-thirds of the Members of Parliament finally agreed this week on a constitutional amendment that preserves local democracy in Norway.
It has always been strong, and capable of blocking state-funded projects such as highway improvements in areas where locals don’t want them. There never has been a constitutional provision for local democracy, though, and that’s why some MPs called Thursday’s breakthrough “historic.”
“Now we’ve brought an end to a discussion that’s gone on for several decades,” Jan Tore Sanner of the Conservative Party, who currently serves as the government minister in charge of municipalities, told news bureau NTB. “There have been many proposals for local self-government. Finally we have a majority.”
newsinenglish.no staff
