LABOUR POLITICIANS WANT TO COOPERATE WITH CENTRE (Aftenposten)

Three out of four Labour politicians at the local level want Labour to form a coalition government with other parties after the elections. Most of them want to enlist the Centre Party, while the second choice is the Socialist Left. The Labour government is getting solid support from its own ranks in its attempts to cooperate with the centrist parties on the fiscal budget. Eighty-five per cent of the 300 participants in the survey regard the Centre Party as the most natural partner in this cooperation.

ATTACKING PROGRESS PARTY (Dagsavisen)

Encouraged by higher ratings in the polls and by support from economists at home and abroad, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is having it out with Carl I. Hagen. "The Progress Party is promising more funding for every good cause. Yet at the same time they promise to reduce taxes on almost everything. Both of these promises sound attractive, but they cancel each other out. This would destroy a great deal of what we have managed to accomplish in Norway," says Mr. Stoltenberg.

JENS HAS LOST HIS CHARM (Dagbladet)

While Labour has again reached first place in the polls, Jens Stoltenberg himself is experiencing a decline in popularity. People find him less competent and charming than they did in a similar poll in May. One poll indicates that 44 per cent of voters believe that Mr. Stoltenberg is competent, while in May 71 per cent thought so. The Prime Minister scores highest on the competence scale among voters who earn more than NOK 500,000 a year.

INCREASED PRESSURE (Verdens Gang)

The day before Labour’s national party conference, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is strengthening and fine-tuning his arguments to convince the 300 delegates that they must approve privatization of Statoil. "I believe that Statoil’s potential for international success is clearly limited as long as the state has sole ownership of the company," he says.

REJECTED OFFER OF NOK SIX BILLION (Dagens Næringsliv)

Odd Reitan, head of the Rema 1000 supermarket chain, rejected an offer of NOK six billion in cash, and will instead receive shares worth over NOK three billion after the merger with Narvesen. "It is possible that I am put together a little differently than the people who just like moving money around," says Mr. Reitan. He makes no secret of the fact that his desire to continue being a "shopkeeper" together with his sons played a major role in this decision. The Rema 1000-Narvesen merger will be based in Norway, and will have 17,000 employees and a NOK 20 billion turnover. Many players have expressed an interest in buying the Rema 1000 chain, including Stein Erik Hagen, head of the giant Rimi supermarket chain.

FRONTLINE LARGER THAN BERGESEN SHIPPING (Aftenposten)

The long-established Bergesen shipping line is no longer Norway’s largest shipping line in market value. Yesterday John Fredriksen and his Frontline sailed past Bergesen, and its share price set a new record. Frontline’s stock market capitalization passed NOK 13.5 billion yesterday, putting it just ahead of Bergesen at "only" NOK 13.4 billion.

WORTH NOTING

• Minister of Foreign Affairs Thorbjørn Jagland has been appointed to a five-member commission established by the United Nations and the USA to investigate the violent incidents between Israel and the Palestinians. ( Aftenposten)
• Thorbjørn Jagland, chairman of the Labour Party, says that enough is enough. Now he wants to see an end to companies being destroyed by greedy money-grubbers. In tomorrow’s important speech at Labour’s national party conference, Mr. Jagland intends to call to account both unscrupulous businessmen and short-sighted politicians. ( Dagbladet)
• Minister of Education, Research and Church Affairs Trond Giske will probably make a third try to gain a position on Labour’s Central Executive Committee. The last time he lost out due to the quota for women, and this time it may be the quota for ministers that keeps him off the committee. ( Aftenposten)
• Labour chairman Thorbjørn Jagland will devote a great deal of energy to the EU membership issue during Labour’s national party conference. He insists that the party must be open for a Norwegian application for EU membership during the next Storting session. ( Dagens Næringsliv)
• According to Socialist Left Party chairman Kristin Halvorsen, the party is not trying to pick a quarrel with its proposal for an alternative fiscal budget, but is trying to extend a welcoming hand to the Centre Party. ( Nationen)
• With small adjustments in the Conservative Party’s budget proposal in the Oslo City Government, the Labour Party will struggle to survive in the municipal government this autumn. Now Labour will initiate negotiations with the Socialist Left Party. ( Dagsavisen)
• With only a week left until decisive climate negotiations begin in The Hague, the Storting will begin its own hearings on the issue of gas-burning power generation today. ( Dagbladet)
• Harald Tyrdal, head of the Narvesen news agent chain, does not want to be accused of promoting the merger in order to earn money himself. As a result, he refused to accept a bonus of NOK 700,000 this autumn. ( Aftenposten)
• The Labour government ostentatiously promised that alcohol duties would be reduced. But Minister of Finance Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen had a clever little trick up his sleeve: the introduction of a special VAT will make up for a good portion of the projected reduction in alcohol duties. ( Verdens Gang)

TODAY’S COMMENT from Dagens Næringsliv:

The EU campaign will begin tomorrow at 12.00 when Foreign Minister and Labour Chairman Thorbjørn Jagland opens the party’s national conference. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has called this meeting the most important for the party since the war. Whether it will actually be that important remains to be seen, but it is clear that the party is divided on several major issues. Many observers thought that the party would try to work out a compromise on the three most important issues before the meeting began, but this did not happen. The three issues that will take priority are whether Statoil should be privatized, whether the state should take over the county hospitals, and what the party’s view on EU membership should be. When we remember what a negative effect the EU issue has had on public support for Labour when it has had top priority on the political agenda, it is impressive that the party leaders choose to raise the EU flag now that Labour support is under 30 per cent. We also know from experience that an active EU debate will make it more difficult for Labour to obtain solid parliamentary support from the Centre Party or Christian Democrats. It seems as though the party leadership is choosing to stand by its principles and keep fighting the battles it regards as important, regardless of whether this is advantageous for the party or not. We regard this as a good thing.

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