Stoltenberg noncommittal (Dagsavisen)

Incumbent Labour Party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland did not get the answer he was looking for from Jens Stoltenberg yesterday. Mr. Stoltenberg will be keeping him up in the air for a little bit longer. He still refuses to say whether he is interested in the party chairmanship. Despite an intense round of meetings, he still refuses to accept Mr. Jagland’s proposal for restoring peace. The struggle for power will therefore continue unabated. According to Dagsavisen’s sources, Mr. Stoltenberg’s current strategy is to say nothing at all about whether he intends to challenge Mr. Jagland’s chairmanship at the executive committee meeting on Monday.

Jagland hasn’t a chance (Verdens Gang)

Thorbjørn Jagland has set off a wave of open rebellion throughout the Labour Party against what is perceived as his efforts to stifle the ongoing leadership debate. A number of executive committee members have told VG that Mr. Jagland has no chance of re-election. Fifteen of Labour’s nineteen county leaders are not prepared to let him stop the debate by announcing this early that he is a candidate for re-election at the national convention in November, and a number of them are highly critical of him.

Conflict coming to a head (Aftenposten)

The obvious discord between Jens Stoltenberg and Thorbjørn Jagland has assumed dramatic proportions. For the first time, their conflict is now out in the open, despite assurances from both of them that relations between them are good. Nonetheless, on matters of party leadership and their clarification of the issue on Monday, public statements made by the two of them continue to disagree. Mr. Jagland reiterates the necessity of concluding the issue, while Mr. Stoltenberg continues to remain silent. As to whether the two agree, Mr. Jagland is the one who is evasive.

Jagland: The eurosceptics were right (Dagbladet)

Thorbjørn Jagland takes a critical look at the stand he shared with all the other advocates of EU membership who lost the membership referendum in 1994. In his book Vår sårbare verden ["Our Vulnerable World"] scheduled for release today, he writes that the EU will have to alter its resource policies as they relate to fishing and farming before Norway will be able to join. He also acknowledges that the objections raised in 1994 by those who opposed EU membership were correct. The pro-EU side shrugged off the problems Norway’s agricultural and fisheries sectors would face inside the EU.

DNA tests may be demanded by men (Vårt Land)

Minister of Children and Family Affairs Laila Dåvøy has now made it possible for men to demand DNA tests in cases of disputed paternity. "Men have pleaded for the chance to find out whether they really are the fathers – both those who do not believe they are fathers, but also those who do believe they are fathers, and want to prove it. We are opening up for the possibility of DNA testing in cases where paternity is disputed. Conditions and application deadlines are cancelled. I am doing this because children are entitled to know who their parents are," said Ms. Dåvøy.

DnB may have another shot at GPF (Aftenposten)

DnB president Svein Aaser’s application to manage a portion of the Government Petroleum Fund was turned down last year. But he will be given a new chance this year, says Knut Kjær, who heads the GPF, or Norges Bank Investment Management, as it is formally called. With billions of kroner from oil and gas revenues flowing into the fund, Mr. Kjær is continually on the lookout for good financial managers.

Wolf packs disappearing (Aftenposten)

One year after one wolf pack and one breeding pair were exterminated in Østerdalen, near the Swedish border, there are no wolves left in family groups in Norway. The wolf population has declined from around 28 to around 13 individuals on the Norwegian side of the border. When permission was given last year to cull the wolves in Østerdalen, provoking considerable controversy, it was assumed that three to five family groups of the south Scandinavian wolf stock still remained. Secretary-General Rasmus Hansson of WWF Norway says the situation is dramatic. "Things are just as bad as we feared and just as bad as we said they would be when we testified in the court case against the government last year," he says.

Worth noting

• Director General Trygve G. Nordby of the Directorate of Immigration characterizes Police Chief Truls Fyhn’s allegation that Norway has become an ideal haven for foreign criminals as total nonsense. "We are now getting asylum policy under control, and if the police do their job, we will soon see results," said Mr. Nordby. (Aftenposten)
• The number of asylum-seekers from countries which the Immigration Directorate associates with criminal activity here in Norway rose 83 per cent from 2000 to 2001. (Dagsavisen)
• Karita Bekkemellem Orheim, Labour Party executive committee member and head of the Labour Women, is incensed at the pressure now being put on Jens Stoltenberg. "Thorbjørn Jagland and Jens Stoltenberg have left the way open for a debate on the party’s leadership. Neither the one nor the other can stop the debate now just because he doesn’t like what he hears," she said. (Verdens Gang)
• Kjell Inge Røkke feels he deserves a NOK 2.7 billion discount because the market put a lower value on Aker RGI shares than the corporate assets would otherwise indicate. The former small shareholders reject the idea. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Conservatives and Christian Democrats are at odds on the issue of municipal consolidations. "We cannot have a rule specifying that municipalities must consolidate in order to receive funding. Nor is it acceptable to reduce funding to small municipalities," said Christian Democratic parliamentary leader Jon Lilletun. (Aftenposten)
• Women are still excluded from the board rooms of Norway’s banks and 200 largest companies. Only one board member in ten is a woman, according to a recent survey. (Dagsavisen)
• The Petroleum Directorate is concerned that the number of leakage incidents on gas rigs is on the rise. The precise number in 2001 has not yet been determined, but over 40 incidents took place in 2000. (Nationen)

Today's comment from Dagsavisen

Truce or a prolonged struggle for leadership? The issue may be resolved at the meeting of the Labour Party’s executive committee on Monday. Thorbjørn Jagland’s attempts to get other senior party officials to state their positions this early have been well-received by his own circle, but people surrounding Mr. Stoltenberg have reacted sharply. So far, chairman Jagland and deputy chairman Stoltenberg seem to have diverging views on how to inform the party regarding their own candidacies. The controversy is tearing the party apart, however, and it is impossible to concentrate on the essentials, namely, hammering out the party programme and staking the political course. Peace hasn’t a chance until the two senior figures clarify their own positions, and the sooner, the better. If the party leaders cannot resolve the issue in a sensible manner, they will both disqualify themselves from further leadership. For their own good and for the good of the party, they should agree on a course of action that will enable the party to get on with its business.