COOL RECEPTION FOR STOLTENBERG IN BODØ (Dagsavisen)

The atmosphere was subdued when Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg spoke to his own people in Bodø yesterday. The PM pledged more money to health, education and senior welfare, hoping to gain support for the course staked out by party leaders. But frustrated mayors from all over northern Norway did not rise to the bait. They chose confrontation, blaming the party leadership for the sharp rise in the Progress Party’s ratings at the expense of Labour. "Go out and listen. Don’t talk – just listen to the concerns of the people," urged group leader Tor Zachariassen of the Tromsø Labour Party.

PROGRESS PARTY STRONGEST IN SOUTHERNMOST COUNTIES (Verdens Gang)

The strength of the Progress Party is now three times that of Labour in Vest-Agder county, according to a poll published in Fædrelandsvennen today. Party chairman and Progress prime minister candidate Carl I. Hagen does not expect this magnitude of support to last, however. But with Labour scoring 13 per cent to Progress’s 38 per cent, the poll is a disaster for Norway’s traditionally largest party. In 1997, Labour received 26.2 per cent of the vote in the general election in Vest-Agder, opposed to Progress’s 17.7 per cent.

JAGLAND CRITICIZES FICKLE LABOUR VOTERS (Dagsavisen)

Labour party chairman Thorbjørn Jagland criticizes people in his own party for helping Carl I. Hagen spoil things for Labour. He asks Labour voters to consider what they are doing. "It’s time to take a good look at what one is going along with. If people in and around the Labour Party do not grasp what is going on, Mr. Hagen will succeed in putting himself and the Progress Party in the centre of the political arena," says Mr. Jagland.

GOVERNMENT MOVE TO MAKE MEAT CHEAPER (Dagbladet)

The Government’s draft budget includes a measure that will cut VAT on meat by 50 per cent in an attempt to slow down the growth in cross-border trade. The Government wishes to bring Norwegian VAT on meat down to the Swedish level, which means 12 per cent instead of today’s 23 per cent. The Government hopes cheaper meat will keep Norwegian shoppers in Norway.

CENTRE: NO COOPERATION WITHOUT VAT REDUCTION (Nationen)

Centre Party chairman Odd Roger Enoksen says the centrist alliance will not help the Labour Government with the budget if Labour does not reduce VAT on meat. "It is impossible for us to discuss a budget compromise which does not include lower VAT on food products," he says. Centrist prime minister candidate Kjell Magne Bondevik, though not as unequivocal, has gone far in expressing the same position.

TOO MANY ADDITIVES (Aftenposten)

Forty-five per cent of all foodstuffs contain preservatives in excess of official limits, according to inspections conducted by the Norwegian Food Control Authority (SNT). For example, every sample of liver spread, and two out of three samples of cereal products, exceed maximum levels according to the EU’s list of food additives. The SNT will now demand better internal controls on the part of food products manufacturers.

SVEAAS REJECTS COMPROMISE WITH ORKLA MANAGEMENT (Aftenposten)

Christian Sveaas, a major investor in Orkla, has rejected a compromise in which he and a couple of others would be elected to the Orkla board of directors. Mr. Sveaas takes the view that there is no longer any alternative to an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders. Orkla senior management, lead by group CEO Jens P. Heyerdahl, jr., met with corporate assembly chair Øystein Eskeland yesterday in a highly extraordinary meeting. No one was willing to disclose what was said.

WORTH NOTING

• The current wave of Progress Party popularity will not stop a campaign in support of the welfare state being organized by several unions affiliated with the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO). The campaign will involve demonstrations all around the country against the Labour Government’s draft budget. Jan Davidsen, president of the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees, is trying to allay the impression that the campaign is aimed at the Labour Government. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The Norwegian Truckowners’ Association has notified Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen that trucking services all over the country will come to a halt if pledges of a prompt and substantial reduction in diesel taxes are not forthcoming. (Dagbladet)
• Twelve research teams paid surprise visits to a number of Norwegian hospitals selected at random for an examination of patients and employees. The results were compiled in a report concluding, among other things, that a good working environment and good job leadership are important factors in retaining nurses. The investigators also found that one patient in three does not ask for help. (Aftenposten)
• Police officers working in contact with outlaw motorcycle gangs in Norway now express fears for their own safety and that of their families since Hell’s Angels have started keeping detailed records of police officers who interfere with their plans. It is feared that the outlaws may take revenge. (Dagbladet)
• The British frigate HMS Grafton, which had grounded in the Oslo Fjord on Monday, was pulled free at 17.00 hours yesterday. It took three tugboats to do the job. (NTB)
• Avanse Forvaltning, a long-standing shareholder and one of Orkla’s biggest shareholders, has lowered the boom. Investment Director Ole Dahl demands that Christian Sveaas, another major investor, be given a seat on Orkla’s board of directors. (Dagens Næringsliv)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Dagbladet

In the ongoing debate on the high cost of food in Norway, the large supermarket chains have so far depicted themselves as knights in shining armour. Their oft-repeated slogan that they are making Norway cheaper has been effective. But a comprehensive study performed by the Norwegian Agricultural Economics Research Institute (NILF) now puts this claim in an entirely different light. Farmers are now paid less for the meat they deliver; it can also be shown that the abattoirs (meat packers) are not adding to their profits, as some have claimed. Minister of Agriculture Bjarne Håkon Hanssen has announced his commendable intention to solve this mystery. The challenge is not likely to be an easy one, but for the sake of the consumers, we hope he is able to get to the bottom of things. All studies point to Norwegian meat prices as the main factor motivating consumers to go shopping in Sweden. After VAT on food was reduced by half in Sweden, at the same time, incidentally, that certain compensatory mechanisms were removed from Norway’s most important foodstuffs, cross-border trade took a sharp upswing. The Government is apparently contemplating the reinstatement of VAT compensation measures, but it is now more important than ever that savings are passed on to the consumer instead of lining the retailers’ already bulging pockets. Whatever happens on this front will not make Mr. Hanssen’s investigation any less important, however.

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