Prepared to step down (Dagsavisen)

Jan Petersen, Foreign Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, now admits openly that the Government could be forced to step down. Up until now he has been keen to emphasize the possibility of winning majority support for the Government’s proposed national budget which could secure the minority coalition’s future. However, he now appears to want the opposition to realize how close the situation has come to a government crisis. "So far there is no solution. When there is no solution at this stage in proceedings, it is not certain that one will be found at all. Things can easily go wrong. There is no way I can guarantee that there will not be a government crisis," said Mr Petersen. Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen said he interpreted Mr Petersen’s comments as "a warning that they are prepared to throw in the towel".

Ready for budget drama (Aftenposten)

With the clock ticking inexorably towards a government crisis, the Progress Party has put together a plan for its own organization to decide whether to topple the Bondevik government next week or not. On Thursday Carl I. Hagen and the party’s parliamentary leadership will distribute a list of arguments to all party branches. The list details the pros and cons for the Progress Party of toppling the Government. In his letter on Thursday, Mr Hagen will not recommend a particular outcome. "What happens if the party says no to saving the Government?" "In that case I think the Christian Democrats will switch sides to form a new government with the Labour Party," predicts Mr Hagen.

Stoltenberg breaks election promise (Dagbladet)

The Labour Party yesterday announced its alternative budget proposal for next year. One of the main points in the proposal is to lower the level at which wage earners become eligible for the high-income surtax to NOK 325,000, compared to the Government’s proposed entry point of NOK 340,700. According to Ministry of Finance calculations, Labour’s scheme would mean an additional 240,000 employees will have to pay the surtax, compared to the Government’s budget proposal. Under the Labour scheme tax revenues would increase by NOK 1.4 billion for the first level of the high-income surtax. However, the proposal does not rhyme with the promises made by the party during its 2001 general election campaign. At that time the party said that the entry point for the high-income surtax should be "raised to NOK 320,000 in 2002 and that it should be adjusted for wage and price inflation each year."

Higher interest rates with Labour (Aftenposten)

As soon as the Labour Party had announced its alternative budget proposal, the Conservatives asked the Ministry of Finance experts to calculate the effect of increasing public spending by NOK 3.8 billion and financing that increase through higher taxes, as Labour is proposing. "Increased public spending would pull in the direction of higher interest rates than the Government’s proposal implies," was the Ministry’s reply.

Doubts cast on calculations (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Labour Party wants to reintroduce the dividend tax, and reckons such a move will bring in NOK 1.1 billion in 2003. The estimate has been produced by the Ministry of Finance, but recent figures from Statistics Norway have prompted the Ministry’s own experts to doubt the veracity of their own calculations. The new statistical data has led the Ministry of Finance to conclude that a 14 per cent dividend tax, with a standard deduction of NOK 10,000, would give a "significantly lower" tax revenue than its experts thought earlier this autumn.

Labour propose funding cut for key Christian Democrat projects (Vårt Land)

The Labour Party would very much like to do business with the Christian Democrats, but has proposed funding cuts for all that party’s key policy areas in its own alternative national budget. Nevertheless, Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg believes it is the Conservative Party which is preventing the Government from further budget negotiations with Labour. According to Labour deputy leader Hill-Marta Solberg the only real political differences between the two parties are their views on private schooling and the additional cash benefit for children under three.

Call for Nato to study feasibility of missile shield (Verdens Gang)

For the past two decades Norwegian and allied governments have been deeply sceptical – not to say openly critical – of US plans for a "Star Wars" missile shield, but now they have changed their tune. "Norway will support the setting up of a study to examine possible options to protect Nato from the threat of missile attack on the alliance’s territory and centres of population. It is important to have the best possible factual basis for the evaluations and decisions which may be made at a later date," said Foreign Minister Jan Petersen.

Equal pay still far off (Dagsavisen)

Norway is far from leading the field in Europe when it comes to equal pay. Men still earn 11 per cent more than women with the same qualifications and experience. "This explodes the myth of equal pay for equal work. We now have extremely good figures which show that women and men are paid differently. There is no excuse for doing nothing about it," said Ingunn Yssen, head of the Norwegian Centre for Gender Equality.

Twice as many contaminated food warnings (Nationen)

Last year Norway received 1,567 warnings of salmonella and other dangerous substances in food via the EU’s reporting system. This is almost twice the number received the year before. Much of that food is also to be found in Norway. But the Norwegian Food Control Authority does not think the increase is cause for concern. "It is the efficiency of the system that has led to the substantial increase in the number of reports," said Per Atle Rosnes of the Norwegian Food Control Authority.

Worth Noting

• The Labour Party plans to invest heavily in the pre-school day-care sector next year, and intends to fund part of that investment by halving the additional cash benefit for children under three. Benefit payments could be slashed as early as the New Year.
  (Aftenposten)
• One year ago, Telenor’s chief executive, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, gave a character reference for Torgeir Stensrud, owner of Finance Credit, and his business. Stensrud, and his business partner, Trond G. Kristoffersen, were yesterday remanded in custody for two weeks, charged initially with offences in connection with the Accounting Act.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime has started investigating what could prove to be the biggest case of fraud in Norwegian history. Some NOK 1 billion may have disappeared from the accounts of Finance Credit, based at Aker Brygge in Oslo.
  (Aftenposten)
• Four individuals, who granted loans to Finance Credit when they were senior executives at various banks, are now employed in Torgeir Stensrud and Trond G. Kristoffersen’s complex web of companies.
  (Verdens Gang)
• Experts at the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime believe the two senior executives at Finance Credit, who were remanded in custody yesterday, have huge sums of money stashed away abroad, which they can live on if they flee the country.
  (Dagsavisen)
• A group of high-profile pillars of society, including several professors of law, have sent an open letter to the Director General of Public Prosecutions, calling on him to reopen the police investigation into the Orderud triple murder case. "This case is so special and there are so many clues which have never been satisfactorily explained. We therefore hope that the Director General of Public Prosecutions will ensure that the police investigation is resumed," said Anders Bratholm, professor of law.
  (NTB)
• To ensure that police informants are given the best possible protection, the Director General of Public Prosecutions is willing to accept that courts may make incorrect awards for compensation.
  (Dagbladet)
• A parliamentary majority has decided that it should be easier for men who have doubts about their paternity to bring the case to court. And mothers will no longer be able to refuse to have their child DNA tested.
  (Dagsavisen)

Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

The pre-school day-care agreement which the Progress Party, Socialist Left Party, Labour Party and Centre Party entered into this spring was supposed to fulfil three wishes at one and the same time. Everyone was to be guaranteed a nursery place, no one would have to pay more than NOK 1,500 a month for a place, and last but not least, the opposition seemed to want to ride roughshod over and humiliate the Bondevik government by forcing it to implement a complicated reform at express speed. We approve of the first objective – having a low maximum price for a nursery place. On the other hand, there is, in principle, reason to be sceptical about the Storting wresting executive power from the Government. Though parents have every reason to be disappointed in their MPs, there is no call for despair. There is still a parliamentary majority in favour of giving everyone a nursery place costing no more than NOK 1,500 a month by 2005. Perhaps there will be further delays. However, there is still reason to believe that the pre-school day-care agreement will ensure that the number of nursery places will increase faster and that prices will be lower than they would have been without the agreement.