Giske pulls out of deputy leadership race (Dagsavisen)

Trond Giske is to pull out of the race for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. "In this way, gender equality issues can be taken care of and we can find a solution which unites the party," he said. Anniken Huitfeldt looks like becoming the new favourite to win the position. Bjarne Håkon Hanssen, who has also been nominated for the deputy leadership slot, describes Ms Huitfeldt as a good candidate. Tomorrow, the party’s selection committee will hold its last meeting before Labour’s annual conference opens. Mette Gundersen from the Vest-Agder county branch, Eirin K. Sund from Rogaland and Karita Bekkemellem Orheim, leader of the Labour Party’s women’s movement, have also been in the running until the last minute. Several branch organizations have called for a three-person leadership team, which would eliminate the second deputy leadership position. However, this would require a change in the party’s constitution, and the issue will be voted on at the annual conference.

Labour demands NOK 7.5 billion in budget reallocations (Dagsavisen)

When the Labour Party meets representatives of the ruling coalition government for talks today, it will demand budget reallocations amounting to NOK 7.5 billion, tax increases and a cut in the additional cash benefit for children under three. In accordance with its new mantra – work and welfare – the Labour Party wants to spend NOK 2.5 billion to strengthen the business sector and safeguard industrial jobs. Included in this item is the controversial reimbursement scheme for seamen. In addition, the Labour Party wants to spend around NOK 1 billion to undo what it describes as "antisocial cuts" proposed by the Government. NOK 2.2 billion is intended to increase funding for schools and local authority provided care for the elderly, while NOK 1.5 billion will go on increasing the amount which the Norwegian State Housing Bank can lend to home buyers, building houses for the poor, as well as providing more for culture, research and education. Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg described the demands, totalling NOK 7.5 billion, as "realistic", and pointed out that previous governments – including his own – have agreed to budget reallocations far larger than this.

Government office, no – budget deal, maybe (Aftenposten)

Three out of four local Labour politicians say the party should not take office if the budget negotiations result in a government crisis. However, their advice to the party leadership is not so categorical when it comes to deciding whether the budget talks which get underway today should lead to a compromise deal with the Government. The time is passed when the Labour Party’s local politicians pushed for the party to form the next government. 72 per cent of the 400 county and local council politicians who took part in the survey carried out by Opinion on behalf of Aftenposten in the past week say that the Labour Party should not take office if the current Government is forced to resign this autumn. Only 22 per cent think that Labour should take over. A much smaller majority believes that the exploratory budget talks between the ruling coalition parties and the Labour Party, which get underway today, should result in a compromise deal on next year’s national budget. 47 per cent are in favour of a settlement, 40 per cent are against, while 13 per cent have no opinion.

Valla provoked by Gerhardsen’s comments (NTB)

Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), feels strongly provoked by Rune Gerhardsen’s call for the Labour Party to rescind its agreement with the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees which gives the union significant influence over party policy. The nationwide agreement means that the union has to be consulted on issues which affect its members. Ms Valla still wants to collaborate with the Labour Party on wages, writes the LO newspaper, LO-nytt. "We have worked together for over 100 years, and should continue to do so. The fact that so many LO members did not vote for the Labour Party at the last election only goes to show that the party has not listened to us closely enough," said Ms Valla at a conference organized by LO Service, a federation of service unions, on Wednesday. At the same time, Ms Valla hinted strongly that the president of the LO should have a seat on the Labour Party’s central committee.

Bondevik under investigation (Aftenposten)

The Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee is to investigate whether Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik intervened to overturn the decision to reject the application for asylum made by the brother of a Christian Democrat politician of Pakistani extraction. The Labour Party and the Progress Party have both raised the issue with the Committee and have warned that a full investigation will be carried out. The two parties want answers to a number of questions, which will be sent to the Government today. "We need to know why the decision to reject the application for asylum was overturned, and the Committee needs to know why it was done while the Bondevik government was no more than a caretaker government," said Carl I. Hagen. The decision was taken on 17 March 2000, four days before the Bondevik government stepped down.

"My staff have said they did not bring pressure to bear" (Dagbladet)

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has denied that he influenced the outcome of an application for political asylum to ensure that the brother of a Pakistani-born Christian Democrat politician was granted leave to stay in Norway. Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Erna Solberg says that the decision cannot now be reversed. The Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee wants a full investigation of the affair, details of which were published in Verdens Gang yesterday. According to the newspaper, the decision to reject the application was overturned after an intense period of 18 months of correspondence, meetings between the Pakistani-born Christian Democrat local politician and the Christian Democratic Party’s central organization. The PM spent large parts of yesterday professing his innocence. "My staff have said that they never brought any form of pressure to bear. I personally have never heard of this case before, and I have met the Christian Democrat politician concerned once many years ago. At that meeting the asylum application was not an issue," said Mr Bondevik. He claims not to be at all concerned about the affair, while the Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee is warning that it wants a full investigation. They start their inquiry today.

1. Worth Noting

• Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schröder arrives in Norway on Monday for meetings with Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, President Vladimir Putin and Kjell Inge Røkke. The subject under discussion at his meeting with Mr Røkke will be two German shipyards.
  (Aftenposten)
• In the course of more than 20 years the Pakistani-born Christian Democrat politician has helped at least 12 relatives to gain residence permits in Norway. Ten of them are purportedly Christians. Several of them claim that they converted to their new faith after corresponding about Christianity with the Christian Democratic Party politician.
  (Verdens Gang)
• The price for continuing to have an EEA Agreement after 2003 could be a dizzying NOK 6.7 billion a year. The EU will demand financial compensation from the EFTA countries as a condition for extending the European Economic Area (EEA). If the parties do not reach agreement the European Commission is threatening to terminate the entire agreement.
  (Nationen)
• Norske Skog, the Norwegian-headquartered global paper manufacturer, must save NOK 2 billion. 1,100 jobs are facing the axe. In order to reach its targeted savings of NOK 2 billion, Norske Skog could sacrifice its production facilities at Skogn and Skien. "The exchange rate is having a devastating effect on us," admits chief executive Jan Reinås.
  (Aftenposten)
• The special agreement between the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees and the Labour Party is under threat. "It is too limiting to cooperate with only one political party," said Tove Stangnes, who will become deputy leader when the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees and the Norwegian Association of Health and Social Care Personnel (NHS) amalgamate next year to form a super-union with 300,000 members.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Aker Kværner’s share price rose by a hefty 8.9 per cent yesterday after the company announced better than expected financial results for the third quarter. Chief executive Helge Lund was yesterday keen to explain that Aker Kværner is on its way out of the first of three phases in the company’s turnaround programme. "We are spending less and less time on yesterday’s problems," said Mr Lund.
  (Aftenposten)
• Norway could shortly introduce punitive tariffs on goods from Israelis occupying Palestinian areas.
  (Klassekampen)
• Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss has warned that Norway’s local authorities will see their tax revenues slump by NOK 1 billion. The parliamentary opposition parties are demanding additional transfers to compensate for this shortfall.
  (Dagsavisen)

2. Today’s comment from Aftenposten

Today the ruling coalition parties and the Labour Party will start exploratory talks on next year’s national budget. This meeting could be the start of something historic. Not since 1945 have the Labour Party and the Conservatives both been party to a budget settlement. That such an agreement could be hammered out this autumn depends on both the Labour Party and the Conservatives being willing to make substantial political concessions. Each of the two parties is facing a difficult dilemma, and there will be no agreement unless both accept that the alternative to a settlement is more damaging still. The Conservatives may be forced to choose between leaving the Government after barely a year in office or doing a deal with the Labour Party. For the Labour Party the choice may be between signing an agreement with its arch-enemy or taking office itself. Aftenposten’s survey, in which 72 per cent of local Labour politicians say that the party should not take office, is proof that the party, which has held office for most of the post-war era, is now unwilling to leave the ranks of the opposition just now. But the same group of local politicians are divided practically down the middle when they are asked if the party should take the surest path to avoid a government crisis – a budget settlement with the Government. A Storting in which there is no clear majority coalition places great demands on the statesmanship of those leading the parties. The next few days will show whether the Labour and Conservative leaderships are capable of meeting these demands.