Sandra Borch was a Member of Parliament, a rising star in Norway’s Center Party and a government minister. Now she’s landed in serious trouble after being caught driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Borch, age 37, lost her seat in parliament after last fall’s election and had already lost her post as government minister in charge of research and higher education in 2024, after she was found to have plagiarized others’ work in her own master’s thesis 10 years earlier. It was a severe blow to both the government and herself, not least since she’d demanded high academic standards of others and didn’t want university students to even re-use their own texts in future theses.
Before that, Borch had been agriculture minister after growing up on a farm herself in Northern Norway. She returned to the area in Northern Norway after leaving government and Parliament, and that’s where she ultimately got into trouble again, this time with the police after she was arrested and charged for two incidents of drunk driving.
Last week the local court for Nord-Troms and Senja handed down its decision in her case. She was sentenced to 30 days in prison, fined NOK 100,000 (USD 10,000) and lost her driver’s license for three years. She won’t actually need to serve prison time, reported state broadcaster NRK, if she completes a program against driving while under the influence.
There were no objections from Borch herself, who had already admitted her guilt after being pulled over by police first on October 9 last year while driving on the E6 highway towards Tromsø. It was just four weeks after leaving Parliament, and five days later she was pulled over again, that time in Tromsø. Her blood alcohol level was 1.56 and police seized her license on the spot.
She spoke openly in court about problems she’d had over the past few years. She said she’d felt ashamed and guilty after her forced departure from government and spoke of personal problems as well, including the loss of her family’s farm to fire and several deaths in the family.
She claimed she wasn’t trying to excuse herself and admitted that she still has problems with alcohol “and must work on getting out of them.” She also said she’d sold her car.
Her defense attorney, the high-profile John Christian Elden from Oslo, told reporters that she has been through a treatment program and was following up with a psychologist. She’s also been accepted into a program for alcoholics run by the criminal justice system that she must follow as an alternative to spending time in jail.
Borch has been one of Northern Norway’s most well-known politicians over the past 15 years, fiercely defending agriculture subsididies, import tariffs, whaling and wolf hunts. She had run for re-election for another term in Parliament again last fall, but when her Center Party only won around 6 percent of the vote, she lost it.
“After leaving Parliament last fall, life hasn’t been good,” she wrote on social media hersel in December. “I have disappointed those closest to me most of all. That hurts. Alcohol has been the solution, unfortunately.”
NewsinEnglish.no staff
