Norway’s newly re-elected Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has made some changes in his ministerial line-up and signaled looming reforms after last week’s Parliamentary election. He claims the country will need more “major reform” in the years to come.
Støre strode out of the Royal Palace on Tuesday after a largely ceremonial meeting with King Harald V, who must formally approve changes in the government. Støre wanted to have one of his deputy leaders of the Labour Party, Tonje Brenna, as leader of Labour’s delegation in Parliament, and that triggered some shifts in his government personnel.
Brenna, who survived a right-wing terrorist’s attack on Labour’s youth organization in 2011, will now be responsible for negotiating approval of government initiatives with other parties in Parliament. Some commentators liken the post to a “prime minister school,” because of all the political deal-making involved, and have speculated over whether the 37-year-old Brenna is being groomed to succeed Støre as party leader and a future prime minister when his term ends and retirement looms four years from now.
Brenna’s former post as Støre’s government minister in charge of labour and inclusion was quickly filled by Kjersti Stenseng, who worked for 10 years as secretary of the Labour Party. Stenseng, age 51, joined Støre’s government earlier this year and most recently has been his minister in charge of local governments and outlying districts. Now she’ll take on the task of, as she and Brenna have both put it, getting more Norwegians into the workforce and off welfare.
Taking over Stenseng’s post will be Bjørnar Skjæran, age 59. Skjæran is from Nordland and served as mayor of Lurøy from 2011-2015, so he’s well-aware of local political issues and needs. Skjæran also served as fisheries minister in Støre’s first government, from 2021 to 2023, and most recently has served as Labour’s parliamentary leader himself.
Støre claimed he now had “a stronger government team” and that it was important to have one of Labour’s two deputy leaders in Parliament. The other, Jan Christian Vestre (who also survived the terrorist attack on Labour in 2011), serves as health minister and will now be “next-in-charge” of the government in Støre’s absence.
Støre, who also led a national board meeting for the Labour Party on Tuesday, went on to signal “more major reforms” in his government program during the next four years. Among them are plans for tax reform, a crackdown on crime, more digitalization, greater government efficiency and simplification of complex government systems. “We’re going to need more major reforms in our country in the years to come,” Støre told the gathering of Labour’s leaders around the country, adding that “most important” was to “bake the cake bigger and get more people into the workforce.”
He also expressed once again his gratitude over Labour’s election victory last week, which marked a remarkable rise from terrible public opinion polls just a year ago. Labour emerged as Norway’s largest single party, but with just 28.2 percent of the vote it will need to negotiate a majority with at least the other four parties on the left side of Norwegian politics, and with those on the right.
Støre cautioned, however, that “we know and have experienced that (voter) confidence isn’t a subscription” one can take out for a few years. “It’s a loan, given to us from people all over the country,” Støre said. “It’s a loan that we’ll pay back with politics that will be noticed in everyday life.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
