Bondevik’s popularity slides (Aftenposten)

After 100 days in office, 47 per cent of voters feel the Government is doing a fairly good or excellent job. In contrast, 76 per cent of voters said the same of Kjell Magne Bondevik’s centre alliance government in a corresponding survey in 1998. Not one of the 111 people from north of Dovre who were interviewed said that the Government was doing an excellent job. However, the picture is reversed when the figures for Oslo and Akershus are analysed.

Labour in free-fall (Dagbladet)

MMI’s political barometer for January shows the Labour Party has hit rock bottom. Support for the party has slipped 3.4 points to just 20.8 per cent. The Centre Party has suffered an almost equally large drop in support and can now muster the backing of just 3.0 per cent of the electorate. This puts the party under the minimum level required to win a seat in the Storting for the first time ever. The Conservatives are the poll winners, up 2.6 points to 23.2 per cent. The other ruling coalition partners have also made gains, with the Christian Democrats now on 12.9 per cent and the Liberals on 4.3 per cent.

Violent men will not get away (Dagsavisen)

Justice Minister Odd Einar Dørum has promised that women who have been threatened or suffered violence at the hands of their male partners will be given help and protection faster than they do today. Among the measures detailed in new police instructions are the issuing of new identities, personal safety alarms, secret addresses and restraining orders. The police have been told to implement the new instructions with immediate effect.

Liberalization of drugs legislation proposed (Aftenposten)

Aftenposten has learned that the government-appointed Penal Code Commission will probably propose that possession and use of such hard drugs as heroin and amphetamines should be decriminalized. When the panel of experts presents its conclusions to Justice Minister Odd Einar Dørum, it is expected to make a number of controversial proposals. There are strong indications that the Commission wants to abolish the article which makes it possible to convict someone of negligent rape. Work to modernize the Penal Code has been underway since 1994, and is being led by Einar Høgetveit, head of the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime.

Minister promises competition (Dagsavisen)

Transport Minister Torild Skogsholm has welcomed the Danish state railway company’s interest in competing for passengers on Norwegian railway lines. "We are working to prepare the ground for competitive tendering of passenger traffic on the railways. The objective is not competition in itself, but to offer cheaper and better quality services to passengers. I believe that introducing competitive tendering will enable this to happen.

No more cuts in interest rates (Dagbladet)

Yesterday’s Norwegian Central Bank decision to keep interest rates at present levels signals a pause in what had been a downward trend. A number of experts now believe we have seen the last of interest rate cuts for this period. Low inflation is a prerequisite for additional cuts in interest rats, and the Central Bank has not altogether ruled out the possibility of further cuts ahead. However, it is the small rise in the cost of imported goods which has salvaged the Central Bank’s inflation target of 2.5 per cent.

Finance Minister believes interest rates will fall this spring (Aftenposten)

Many people were surprised by yesterday’s decision by the Norwegian Central Bank to maintain interest rates at current levels. Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss believes there is room for a cut in interest rates before the summer. But he was quick to underline that the timing was up to the Central Bank. At the same time he warned the nurses and other public service employees not to demand excessive wage increases.

Minister to create unmarried couples register? (Vårt Land)

Rights are normally accompanied by duties, according to Children and Family Affairs Minister Laila Dåvøy. She is now considering the creation of an unmarried couples register. The Government has started a debate on whether new rights for unmarried couples should be accompanied by duties, and whether unmarried couples should be forced to register their union before they can enjoy the new benefits. Ms Dåvøy is also not ruling out an extension of the scheme under which married couples seeking a divorce must go through compulsory mediation. The scheme would then also apply to unmarried couples in the same situation.

Worth Noting

• "Last time we came to power on a wave of enthusiasm. That is not how it has been this time," said Christian Democratic Party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland. Oddvar Nilsen, leader of the Conservatives’ parliamentary party, is very happy with the poll. "We have been through a tough budget process," he said. (Aftenposten)
• In the past month alone the Labour Party has lost 55,000 voters. This corresponds to all the Labour votes cast in party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland’s own county of Buskerud at the 1997 general election. (Dagbladet)
• Whether Thorbjørn Jagland and Jens Stoltenberg talk to each other, is a purely internal matter to be kept within the Labour Party. The party leadership has now decided to draw a veil over everything that happens between the two men. (Dagsavisen)
• Reiulf Steen fears that the Labour Party will drop even further in the polls. "The Labour Party has still not managed to develop any policies which have changed the situation since election day. It will take time," he said. (Dagbladet)
• Stein Reegård, chief economist at the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), has warned against local wage negotiations because of the danger of massive wage increases which could threaten jobs. New LO figures show that centralized wage negotiations give the lowest wage rises. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), fears that this spring’s national wage negotiations could spiral out of control if the nurses win support for their demands. But she has been roundly accused of acting like a wages watchdog by both her own members and the nurses. (Aftenposten)
• Social workers, child protection officers and mental health nurses are threatening to cancel their membership of the LO if they do not get a substantial wage rise this year. This was the message Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the LO, received at yesterday’s wage agreement conference. (Dagsavisen)
• Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman’s campaign against the privileges of over 70,000 public service employees has met with opposition from day one. The public service unions are furious about the Minister’s plans to make it easier to fire public service employees, cut pension benefits and reduce working conditions. (Dagbladet)
• The Christian Democrats are opposed to advertising-financed school textbooks. The call for a ban will therefore probably have a majority in the Storting. (Klassekampen)
• The Norwegian film classic "Nine Lives" is to be remade in Hollywood. The independent production company, Radar Pictures, is to produce a new version of Arne Skouen’s Oscar-nominated film from 1957. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten and Dagbladet

The so-called ‘honour killing’ which took place in Sweden on Monday night, where a Kurdish father shot his daughter because she refused to conform to his rules, has shocked both Sweden and Norway. No one can expect the debate which follows to be anything but emotional, and we are seeing tendencies in that direction both in Sweden and here at home. Let us begin by making plain that premeditated murder is premeditated murder. It is gruesome and it is a punishable offence – and references to tradition or religion can in no way represent mitigating circumstances. (Aftenposten) Justice Minister Odd Einar Dørum has at his disposal a number of measures, initiated by his predecessor, Hanne Harlem, with which to increase the safety of women who are the victims of domestic violence. But neither personal safety alarms, restraining orders or the forcible eviction of the man concerned can save women on the run from families who seek their death. What is needed is a broad coalition of all authoritative bodies and individuals, particularly within the immigrant community, to eliminate attitudes which must not be allowed to survive in closed ghettoes under the pretext of cultural diversity. (Dagbladet)