Norway Daily No. 198/99

The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 198/99

DATE: 14 October 1999

THEY DISAGREE ON WHY THEY AGREE

(Aftenposten)

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik and Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland agreed on most issues in the debate on the Speech From the Throne. They both believe the reason they can now negotiate a budget compromise is that the political situation in Norway has changed since last autumn. The only thing they did not agree on was why the situation has changed.

FALLOUT BETWEEN CONSERVATIVES AND CHR. DEMOCRATS

(Dagsavisen)

Relations between Conservatives and Christian Democrats have hit an all-time low after Christian Democratic party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland expressed misgivings yesterday regarding the inclusion of the Conservative in a non-socialist coalition government after the general election in 2001. The Christian Democrats made a valiant attempt afterwards to soften the impression that Ms. Haugland had totally ruled this out. In an exchange with Per-Kristian Foss (Cons.) in the course of the debate later on, she said the meaning given her statement in the news report was hardly recognizable. Damage containment efforts had only a limited impact on the Conservatives, however.

DIVIDENDS MAY BE TAXED

(Dagsavisen)

Labour and the centrist coalition parties view the option of introducing a tax on dividends as one of the final possibilities for reaching a compromise on next year's fiscal budget. Labour demands a NOK 2 billion increase in taxation of the rich, but it is not easy to do this without affecting the entire business sector.

3000 EMPLOYEES MUST GO

(Aftenposten)

Kværner Oil and Gas employees are in for further shock reports within the next two years if the market for construction of new oil platforms does not pick up soon. 3000 employees were made redundant yesterday, and large-scale layoffs will be necessary next summer in order to weather the shortage of orders from the Norwegian offshore oil fields. 1500 of the 3000 are employed in Norway, and staff reductions in Stavanger amount to 1000.

NO CONSOLATION FOR REDUNDANT ENGINEERING WORKERS

(Vårt Land)

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik believes the forced pace of development set by the Storting in the late 1990s has made an industrial crisis unavoidable. "It is obvious that the high rate of development has contributed to the current crisis in the engineering industry. After so many years of intense activity, there is no way of avoiding reductions," says Mr. Bondevik.

GREEN LIGHT FOR TELIA/TELENOR MERGER

(Aftenposten)

The EU Commission gave the go-ahead yesterday to the revised plans for merging Telia and Telenor after stripping them of some of their strongest competitive advantages. The EU's competition authorities feel the demands Telia and Telenor have accepted will ensure a fair climate of competition in the Scandinavian telecommunications market. This merger is the first of its kind in Europe.

MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION OPPOSES HIGHER PAY FOR NURSES

(Dagens Næringsliv)

Director Jan Andersen Gott of the Norwegian Association of Local Authorities (KS) believes nurses would work less if paid more. He does not accept the assertion of the Norwegian Nurses' Association that a substantial pay raise would motivate nurses to work more. "The notion that nurses working part time would work longer hours in response to pay raises is devoid of logic," he says.

WORTH NOTING

• If Kjell Magne Bondevik enters into an alliance with Labour, he will be nothing but the little brother on Thorbjørn Jagland's lap and can forget his dream of the Christian Democrats becoming the great non-socialist party, says Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen. (Dagbladet)
• Labour Party deputy chairman Jens Stoltenberg says the Centre Party's policy on predatory animals has not changed. "Killing 13 wolves is out of the question," he says. Mr. Stoltenberg also insists that Labour MP Grethe G. Fossum will never get the rest of the party to go along with a wolf-hunt. (Dagsavisen)
• "Heading a corporation with 50,000 employees is a tremendous challenge which I approach with humility," says Telenor/Telia president Tormod Hermansen. (Dagbladet)
• "I do not think any job is worth 10 times a prime minister's salary," said Minister of Finance Gudmund Restad (Centre) when asked about Tormod Hermansen's NOK 7 million salary. He will not interfere, though, despite that fact that the Norwegian state is a major shareholder in the new telecommunications corporation. (Aftenposten)
• Statoil is pulling out of the US energy market. It will sell off its entire subsidiary, Statoil Energy, in which it has invested NOK 6 billion. (Aftenposten)
• The Labour Party still has a chance to form the municipal executive board in Oslo. Its rule would be at the mercy of the Progress Party, however, which Labour is likely to find repugnant. (Dagsavisen)
• Norway increased its development assistance to 0.91 per cent of GDP last year. The OECD commends Norway for its generosity, though it points out the imbalance in its trade in agricultural products. (Nationen)

TODAY'S COMMENT

Seldom has a debate on the Speech from the Throne touched on so many important issues yet made so little impression as the one concluded by the Storting last night. For the first time in many years, a harmony of purpose and demeanour was evident between Labour and the political centre. And probably for the first time in a debate on the Speech from the Throne - traditionally the opposition's big event - hardly a negative word was exchanged between the Government and the leading opposition party. The debate showed conclusive proof that the recent local and county elections have changed everything. Shaken by its defeat at the polls, Labour has done a complete about-face in its dealings with the Government. Its implacable opposition to the cash benefits scheme has evaporated. We have long held the view that Labour and the coalition parties should seek to cooperate on the basis of the fact that the political centre of gravity is now somewhere between centre and left. A centrist Government should not count on the lasting support of Progress and the Conservatives, and Labour cannot live long without some degree of influence on the fiscal budget. It is to be hoped that the time of fruitless opposition is at an end. (Dagsavisen)