King of the castle (Verdens Gang)

The Progress Party and its chairman, Carl I. Hagen, have made big gains out of the Bondevik government’s national budget. The party has the backing of a massive 29.5 per cent of the electorate in Norsk Gallup’s October poll for VG and TV2. The biggest losers are the governing coalition parties, the Conservatives and the Christian Democrats, who slide a combined five percentage points. For the first time Norsk Gallup’s poll shows that the Progress Party is larger than the three governing coalition parties together – by three whole percentage points. The poll was taken in the days before and after the Bondevik government announced its budget proposals last Thursday. According to the poll the Conservatives are the country’s fourth most popular party. The Socialist Left Party is more popular. Labour remains unchanged at 21 per cent. Only once before has a Gallup poll shown the Progress Party to have greater support among the voters. That was in October two years ago when the party scored 30 per cent in an isolated poll.

NOK 1 billion cut in unemployment benefit (Dagens Næringsliv)

The state will save over NOK 1 billion by cutting unemployment benefits and forcing companies to pay more of the cost when they temporarily lay off workers. This is more than double the amount so far estimated. Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman has come under heavy fire from the union movement and from businesses after the national budget was announced last Thursday as a result of his proposals to cut unemployment benefits and make companies pay more when they temporarily lay off staff. In the budget proposal the Government says these measures will lead to savings of NOK 430 million in 2003, but when they come into full effect the state will save more than twice that amount.

Government reneges on own road-building promises (Aftenposten)

The Government has torn up its own promises for new and planned road-building projects in its proposed national budget. So far the Government is NOK 2.4 billion short of its own promises, which were contained in its joint political manifesto known as the Sem Declaration. So far. "I am really, really disappointed. This means the burial of the National Transport Plan," said Oddbjørg Starrfelt, transport policy spokesperson for the Labour Party. An ironic twist to the story is that the leader of the Conservatives’ parliamentary group, Oddvar Nilsen, who was previously the party’s transport policy spokesman, attacked the previous Labour government for not allocating enough money for investments in road building. Today his own government cannot even manage to meet the demands that it previously condemned as far too modest.

Seamen get tax cut after all (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Government’s proposed cut in tax breaks for seamen will be reversed. At least that was what the Progress Party’s Øystein Hedstrøm and the Labour Party’s Jens Stoltenberg promised yesterday. The leader of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association and angry seamen cheered Mr Hedstrøm yesterday, a welcome which was eventually extended to Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg. "We were the ones who introduced the reimbursement scheme for seamen and the special scheme for ferry companies. And we are prepared to fight to keep them in place," he said. So that was basically that. The Labour Party and the Progress Party together have 90 MPs, which amounts to a parliamentary majority.

She robs sick and disabled (Dagbladet)

Social Affairs Minister Ingjerd Schou is under attack. The opposition parties in the Storting are furious over the Government’s so-called poverty initiative, and have announced their intention to fight its social policies. Yesterday it became known that the Government is planning to slash the incomes of those receiving incapacity benefits. The Government’s major poverty initiative is shrinking. Public service charges and major cuts in various financial assistance schemes risk overshadowing the measures included in the anti-poverty plan. Socialist Left Party MP Karin Andersen has accused the Bondevik government’s poverty initiative of being a cost-cutting exercise in disguise. "The Government is planning to take billions from the sick and disabled. People will become poorer and being poor will become more difficult," she said.

Panic-driven downsizing in IT sector could have long-term consequences (Aftenposten)

In the space of two years 8,000 IT specialists have lost their jobs and students are shunning IT courses. Industry veteran Bjørn Trondsen from EDB has issued a warning over the consequences of the swingeing cuts taking place in the IT industry. Technical experts and students are switching to other sectors. In a few years there will once again be a shortage of trained personnel – and pay levels will once again go through the roof, he predicts. The list of IT companies which have already cut their headcount significantly is already pretty long, and includes Ericsson, Merkantildata, EDB, Telenor and in a short while probably also Bravida. And not everyone is able to find a new job straight away. Unemployment in the industry has doubled in the past year, according to figures from the Directorate of Labour.

Jagland bugged (Dagbladet)

The Australian intelligence service secretly listened in to conversations between the then Foreign Minister, Thorbjørn Jagland, and the Norwegian Ambassador on board the Tampa last August, according to a new book on the refugee drama aboard the Norwegian cargo ship, written by Terje Svabø, a consultant with the advertising and PR firm, Dinamo. Foreign Ministry spokesman Karsten Klepsvik says that when the claims first surfaced in the media Norway demanded an explanation, which the Australian government supplied. "Based on what we know today, there is no reason to take this matter any further," said Mr Klepsvik.

Worth Noting

• The Norwegian krone set a new record yesterday against the euro. This increases the likelihood of the Norwegian Central Bank cutting interest rates as early as December, according to Harald Magnus Andreassen, chief economist of First Securities. The stronger krone is good news for Norwegians on holiday abroad, but has a negative impact on oil sales, which are paid for in US dollars. However, this loss is more than made up by steadily rising oil prices – yesterday on the back of fears of terrorist attacks.
  (Aftenposten)
• Telenor Business Solutions has decided not to stick to the principle of seniority as it embarks on efforts to shed 239 jobs. Union representatives are threatening legal action. "We will pursue this as a matter of principle. At the end of the line it could mean taking the issue to an industrial tribunal," said senior union representative Helge Enger of the Norwegian Electrician & IT Workers’ Union at Telenor Business Solutions.
  (Klassekampen)
• Despite falling prices and reduced exports to EU countries, 2002 will be a strong year for Norwegian fish exporters. The value of exports after the first nine months of the year amounts to NOK 20.3 billion. This is NOK 1.2 billion less than during the same period last year, but the trend from August continued on into September. This means that sales are rising.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The market value of Norwegian fishing quotas is NOK 47-62 million, reports Intrafish, quoting Fiskeribladet, a fishing industry magazine. The value of the quotas corresponds to half that of Statoil’s current market capitalization. The calculations, which were made by professor Torbjørn Trondsen of the Norwegian College of Fishery Science, are based on the value Iceland has put on its fishing rights.
  (Aftenposten)
• The value of Aker Kværner on the Oslo Stock Exchange slumped by ten per cent on Monday after Dagens Næringsliv published estimates that the company’s British pension fund is underfunded to the tune of NOK 4.1 billion. Aker Kværner rejects Dagens Næringsliv’s calculations, but has declined to clarify its assumptions.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Once again we have the proof – Norway is Europe’s most expensive country. The same basket of goods is 144 per cent more expensive in Norway than in Portugal. Pricerunner Research has put together a basket of 12 goods and compared prices in 13 European countries. Norway is a massive 57 per cent more expensive than the average.
  (Verdens Gang)

Today’s comment from Dagbladet

The tug-of-war over next year’s national budget will dominate the autumn in political terms, as we have grown accustomed to in recent years. Minority governments must seek support wherever they can. The Labour Party pushed its budgets through with the help of the centrist parties. Kjell Magne Bondevik’s centre alliance coalition received support first from the Conservatives and later from Labour. Today’s government assembled a parliamentary majority in favour of its first budget last year with the help of Carl I. Hagen and the Progress Party. No one was very surprised at this since Mr Hagen had also been instrumental in putting the coalition into office. But Mr Bondevik was forced to demand a vote of confidence in order to win that particular power game. Many people expect the same thing to repeat itself this year. Mr Hagen will demand his pound of flesh in return for supporting the budget. Along the way Mr Bondevik will have to sound out the possibilities of collaborating with the Labour Party. But it would be strange indeed if the Labour Party were to give political support to a government which was created because it wanted to pursue a different political line to that represented by the Labour government. In other words, the price to be paid for a voluntary budget partner is high. Most of the solutions to the as yet unknown budget equation go in Mr Hagen’s favour – whether they are arrived at by agreement or by force. Efforts in the past decade to keep Mr Hagen and the Progress Party out in the political cold have so far only resulted in his party becoming larger and larger. Mr Hagen represents the only untried alternative, and therefore embodies the dream of something different. Until he is given responsibility for his (mis)deeds, he will continue to terrorize the established parties and drain them of voters. And anyway, the right-wing policies Mr Hagen wants are currently being pursued by the sitting government. Kjell Magne Bondevik’s aversion to Mr Hagen joining the ruling coalition looks increasingly like nothing more than a political fig leaf.