The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Oslo Press Division

Norway Daily No. 46/00

Date: 6 March 2000

COALITION STILL OUT ON VOTE OF CONFIDENCE (Aftenposten)

The prevailing view in the Centre Party is that the Fornebu IT issue is not sufficiently important for the Government to treat it as a vote of confidence, but the Liberals and Christian Democrats are inclined to stand their ground. Carl I. Hagen (Progress) feels the storm surrounding the issue has been blown up all out of proportion. I see no reason why the Government should have any problem on Tuesday, he says. A number of sources say Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik may not make his final decision until he is actually in the chamber of the Storting. If this is the case, the way Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen and Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen express themselves could be what move him to decide one way or the other.

BONDEVIK GEARING UP FOR WAR (Dagbladet)

The Bondevik Government’s fate will be determined this week, and it is preparing for the fight of its life. No longer is it simply a matter of whether or not the Government can live with a defeat on a major environmental issue. The real issue now is how Norway will be governed in the future. The one thing Mr. Bondevik was clear on last night was that all avenues will be kept open in the battle against the Storting majority. His goal is to remain sitting and deprive Jens Stoltenberg of his victory, and his tactics will be ruthless, ranging over everything from environmental politics to the processes by which the country is governed.

HAGEN WILL NOT SPARE BONDEVIK (Dagsavisen-Sunday)

Carl I. Hagen has concluded that if the Government refuses to accept defeat on the Fornebu IT issue, it ought to step down. This diminishes the likelihood that Mr. Bondevik will call a vote of confidence on the issue on Tuesday. Mr. Hagen has made it clear that he would like the Bondevik Government to remain sitting rather than see Jens Stoltenberg form a new Labour Government.

PETERSEN OFFERS BONDEVIK AN OPENING (Dagbladet-Saturday)

The Conservatives will be part of the parliamentary majority that will cast its ballot in favour of gas-fired power plants on Thursday, but party chairman Jan Petersen has now given Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik an opening that could enable his Government to remain sitting. We are not out to topple the Bondevik Government. If this were our intent, we would have done it already. There have been plenty of opportunities, not least in connection with the Telenor-Telia affair. But non-socialists have a parliamentary majority at present, and the Conservative Party will take the initiative to bring these parties together to discuss the situation, says Mr. Petersen.

CONSERVATIVES ALSO WANT BONDEVIK TO REMAIN SITTING (Dagsavisen-Saturday)

If Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik calls for a vote of confidence on the Fornebu IT issue, it could turn out that none of the eligible developers are accepted. The Conservatives are now asking the Government to stand its ground when the issue is put to the vote in the Storting on Tuesday. The Government should have put its foot down last year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it did so now, says Conservative deputy parliamentary leader Per-Kristian Foss.

OSLO DEMANDS INVESTIGATION OF GARDERMOEN RAILWAY EXPROPRIATIONS (Aftenposten-Sunday)

The City of Oslo demands a full investigation after receiving a confidential report that several houses were expropriated and torn down unnecessarily in order to maintain the Romeriksporten railway tunnel’s construction timetable. In our view, we have been the victim of outright fraud. A violation has taken place, and we must react, says Kjell Backer, special adviser in the city administration.

WORTH NOTING

• A growing majority of voters feel the Bondevik Government should remain sitting even if it is defeated on the gas-power issue. 41 per cent now feel this way, against 35 per cent who feel it should step down. 24 per cent are undecided. (Dagbladet)
• Minister of the Environment Guro Fjellanger (Liberal) says the EU does more to meet the challenges of the Kyoto Protocol than the Norwegian Storting. Still, she is not about to become an EU supporter. (Nationen-Saturday)
• I have felt all along that if Mr. Bondevik steps down, there is no reason why the task of forming a new government should automatically be handed to Jens Stoltenberg and the Labour Party, says Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen (Dagbladet-Saturday)
• Haakon Blankenborg (Labour) feels it is time to terminate the UN embargo against Iraq. We have maintained these sanctions for a very long time, and Saddam is still in power. We must find other ‘weapons’, he says. (Aftenposten-Saturday)
• Minister of Justice Odd Einar Dørum goes unusually far in accusing Russia of engaging in espionage in Norway. Substantial Russian intelligence activity is still going on in Norway, and by this I mean all types of intelligence, says Mr. Dørum. (Verdens Gang-Saturday)
• Now that Labour has declared its opposition to a merger between DnB and Kreditkassen, the state’s Kreditkassen holdings are likely to be put up for sale soon. (Dagens Næringsliv-Saturday)
• Interest in shellfish operations is spreading along the coast. The number of shellfish concessions nearly doubled last year, going from 299 to 558. (Nationen)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Aftenposten

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik and his Government now have a golden opportunity to withdraw with their honour intact. The opposition parties, for their part, will gain no honour from the last days of the Bondevik Government. Never before in the annals of Norwegian politics has there been anything even approaching this effort to humiliate a Government. Had there been any signals that a Storting majority was dissatisfied with Mr. Bondevik’s Government, then it would be a different matter altogether. But the major opposition party says it is not out to replace the Bondevik Government, and the others say it is not their intent to topple it. If this is the case, it would seem that the opposition hasn’t the faintest idea of what it is actually doing.