Buoyant Progress Party demands substantial cut in alcohol duties (Aftenposten)

Cut taxes on alcohol and cars. This is one of the Progress Party’s demands as budget negotiations kick off. Buoyed up by good opinion poll results, which show that the party has as much support as the three ruling coalition parties together, senior Progress Party politicians warmed up yesterday ahead of the forthcoming start of negotiations with the Government by sharpening their budget demands. Siv Jensen refused yesterday to say anything about where those demands will end, but there is reason to believe that the goal could be alcohol taxes reduced to Swedish levels. To remove any shadow of doubt that the Progress Party is prepared to take a tough stance, Siv Jensen emphasized that the Progress Party means business over this issue.

Two worlds collide (Dagsavisen)

Two political worlds collide today and tomorrow when the Storting debates the Bondevik government’s Speech from the Throne. The ruling coalition parties are defending their budget proposal tooth and nail, while Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen wants to spend more of the country’s oil revenues. Mr Hagen will launch a sustained attack on the cautious spending proposals included in the Government’s Speech from the Throne.

At the limit (Vårt Land)

The Christian Democratic Party’s leadership met yesterday after the publication of the worst poll results ever achieved by any Prime Minister’s party. "Obviously there is a limit to what we can take," said party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland. But the limit does not mark out how low support for the party can fall before the price of office becomes too high. Mr Svarstad Haugland’s pain threshold is solely a matter of what concessions the party can tolerate in negotiations with the Progress Party or possibly the Labour Party.

Call for Progress Party to be included in Government (nrk.no)

According to veteran Labour politician Thorbjørn Berntsen, the Progress Party should be included in the Government. This view is supported by several high-profile investors. "I do not think we will get rid of the problem which the Progress Party represents for the other political parties in Norway until Mr Hagen has had the opportunity to show what he is really like," said Mr Berntsen. Carl I. Hagen responded by saying he had noted Mr Berntsen’s insult to large sections of the Norwegian people, but added that the Labour Party had always been full of hot air and that he did not take Mr Berntsen seriously. However, Mr Berntsen, a former minister and Labour deputy leader, has received support from several leading investors. Stein Erik Hagen, Ola Mæle, Christian Vennerød and Trond Lykke all feel it is high time the Progress Party joined the Government – though their reasons for saying so may be somewhat different from Mr Berntsen’s.

Statkraft to invest heavily in hydro-electric power in developing world (Aftenposten)

Statkraft and the state’s foreign assistance fund, Norfund, are to invest billions of kroner to acquire hydro-electric power companies in Latin America and Asia. The Enron scandal means that Latin American power companies are going for a song. The investment will be channelled through the newly established company SN Power Invest. In five to ten years the company will apply for a stock market listing. But before then private investors may be invited to join the company.

Walkover for LO in pensions dispute (Dagsavisen)

The Industrial Disputes Court came down on the side of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees on all counts when it made its decision known yesterday. The unions had taken 11 local authorities to court because they had pulled out of the local authority pension scheme, KLP. Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Erna Solberg (Con) has nevertheless refused to accept that the KLP should have a monopoly on local authority pensions. She is considering a legislative amendment to enable private pension funds to compete in the local authority market.

Regional transfers almost halved (Nationen)

The Government is boasting that it has increased funding for business development projects. But compared to the situation more than one year ago, the cuts are large. According to Eirik Fiva, leader of the Regional Commission for Northern Norway and North Trøndelag, the Government has cut 45 per cent of all financial assistance. He is incensed over the Government’s claims that it is now giving priority to regional business development. "It is true that from 2002 to 2003 allocations will increase, but compared with 2001 this is a reduction of 45 per cent," said Mr Fiva.

Worth Noting

• Kjell Inge Røkke and Orkla have worked closely together for over 10 years. But just one week after Stein Erik "Rimi" Hagen increased his stake in Orkla, Mr Røkke has cut his links with the industrial conglomerate. Yesterday he bought Orkla’s entire 20.6 per cent stake in Norway Seafoods Holding.
  (Verdens Gang)
• Orkla’s new major shareholder, Stein Erik Hagen, wants former chief executive, Jens P. Heyerdahl, completely out of the company. Mr Hagen, who has not ruled out further purchases of Orkla shares, is convinced that current chief executive Finn Jebsen must be given a free hand at Orkla and that Mr Heyerdahl must go.
  (Aftenposten)
• Statoil hopes that within ten years, Iceland’s vast geothermal resources could be used to produce large amounts of renewable energy in a steam-driven power station. Statoil, Statnett and the Icelandic power company, Landsvirkjun, are looking at the possibility of using water from the hottest geothermal springs in a major new steam-driven power station.
  (Aftenposten)
• Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg is awash with Norwegian airline passengers. The reason is obvious. Passengers can save thousands of kroner on their airline tickets. So far this year 200,000 Norwegians have travelled from Gothenburg. The traffic has also boosted sales in the tax-free shop at Landvetter Airport.
  (Aftenposten)
• 100-300 former Braathens employees have lost accumulated benefit rights and have started legal proceedings against SAS. "This could go all the way to the Supreme Court," said attorney Per Jostein Ekre, representing the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS).
  (Klassekampen)
• Norway needs more industrial jobs in the next 20 years or the country will go bankrupt. According to researchers at Statistics Norway, there will be room to cut the size of the industrial sector only "in the very long term".
  (Dagsavisen)
• Norwegian professors have the opportunity to nominate candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, but only a few of them do. Torill Johansen, secretary to the Norwegian Nobel Committee has told the University of Oslo’s student magazine, Universitas, that over 500 nominations for 136 candidates were received last year. She added that "very few" of them came from the University of Oslo.
  (NTB)
• Norway’s new cross-country skiing coach, Carl-Henning Gran, has denied reports indicating that Norwegian skiers might have taken performance-enhancing drugs during the World Cup events in Lahti and the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. According to a research report from the Norwegian-American Jim Stray-Gundersen, half of all those who won a gold medal at Lahti and Salt Lake City could have taken banned substances.
  (nrk.no)

Today’s comment from Dagens Næringsliv, Verdens Gang and Dagsavisen

In the past year Norwegian politicians have been discussing whether it is possible for a government to include the Progress Party. As voters’ support for the Progress Party approaches 30 per cent in the latest Gallup poll, the question is whether it is inevitable. With an election result at the level of the latest opinion polls, it would be natural to see Carl I. Hagen assume the office of Prime Minister. But it is difficult to imagine who he would govern alongside. There are many good reasons why Carl I. Hagen should be kept out of office, but it would practically impossible to do so if today’s surge of support continues. The only way to dampen the voters’ faith in Mr Hagen’s magical medicine is to let him write the prescription himself from the Prime Minister’s office. Unfortunately. (Dagens Næringsliv)

The two parties at the extreme right and extreme left of Norwegian politics, the Progress Party and the Socialist Left Party are rapidly gaining ground in the opinion polls, while the ruling coalition parties are under severe pressure. The price of taking government responsibility without the backing of a parliamentary majority is becoming dangerously high. The voters’ savage reaction to the national budget can be clearly read in Norsk Gallup’s latest opinion poll for VG and TV2. After the budget was announced last week, a massive 37 per cent said they would vote for the Progress Party if there were an election tomorrow. In the days before the budget announcement ‘only’ 24 per cent said they would vote for the Progress Party. However, opinion polls are not elections, as has been repeated ad nauseam, and the parties’ relative strengths in the Storting remain unchanged. But the Government cannot ignore forever the Progress Party’s sustained high level of support in the country. (Verdens Gang)

The voters are now listening only to Carl I. Hagen and Siv Jensen’s primitive demagoguery. It is currently not possible to win a hearing for arguments which demonstrate that the Progress Party’s economic policies would lead to galloping inflation and record levels of unemployment if they were to be implemented. During the forthcoming budget negotiations the Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party should join forces to give the Government an alternative to the Progress Party. The political left must prevent the Progress Party from exercising any influence over the budget. (Dagsavisen)