Stoltenberg: "Conservatives have become more extreme" (Aftenposten)

"The Conservative Party has become more extreme. The party is now espousing views that were previously held only by the Progress Party," said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. The Conservative’s proposals for trimming billions of kroner from development assistance, sick pay benefits and the cultural sphere are making Mr. Stoltenberg see red. In his view, Jan Petersen and his Conservative colleagues are copying the Progress Party’s policies in several areas. "I am surprised at the Conservative Party. It used to be a party with some sense of international responsibility," said Mr. Stoltenberg. Until now the Prime Minister has used milder language than Labour chairman Thorbjørn Jagland, who accused the Conservatives of being heartless earlier this summer. Now Mr. Stoltenberg is warning against "a more extreme Conservative Party than we have seen before".

"Jagland is argumentative", said Petersen (Dagsavisen)

Thorbjørn Jagland is out of sorts, and is more interested in quarrelling than in making his policies clear. This was the view of Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen at his first open rally of the election campaign yesterday. "I think Mr. Jagland is argumentative. He is more interested in quarrelling as a means of making his policies clear than he is in conducting a good election campaign. If he continues in this vein, people will think we’re conducting a very ill-tempered campaign, and will think that politicians just want to pick a fight," said Mr. Petersen. According to Mr. Jagland, his form of communication is a way of creating the confrontations and polarization that are necessary in order to clarify the real political choices.

EU warns Norway against violating EEA Agreement (Aftenposten, Saturday edition)

The EU Commission has warned Norway against violating the EEA Agreement in its attempt to block Sampo’s bid for Storebrand. The Commission will "closely monitor" the Government’s further treatment of this issue. This warning is being issued at the same time as the Commission is approving Sampo’s acquisition of Storebrand. It is extremely unusual for the EU to issue a warning of this nature in such cases. A statement made last week by Bjørn Skogstad Aamo, head of the Banking, Insurance and Securities Commission, led Sampo to ask the Commission to warn Norway against violating the EEA Agreement. EEA experts believe that Norway’s relations with the EU are at stake.

Orkla wants a threesome (Dagens Næringsliv, Saturday edition)

Orkla, which owns around ten per cent of Storebrand’s shares, believes that a more comprehensive solution involving Sampo, Storebrand and Den norske Bank (DnB) would be a better alternative than a merger between two of the parties. Stein-Erik Hagen, who is also a major shareholder in Storebrand, regards this as an excellent idea, but believes that the way the DnB management handled the issue may already have ruled out this possibility.

Boom expected for gas suppliers (Dagsavisen, Saturday edition)

The gigantic Russian gas supplier Gazprom, which accounts for a quarter of the world’s gas production, will stop exporting gas to Europe. It intends to give priority to its domestic industry instead. Statoil is very pleased with this decision, and hopes that this will result in more contracts for the company. "This is good news for Norway", said Professor Øyvind Noreng of the Norwegian School of Management (BI). Norwegian gas exports could increase to almost NOK 70 billion next year.

Funds earmarked for KFOR spent on asphalt (Aftenposten)

The Norwegian defence forces used Storting appropriations earmarked for the KFOR (NATO Kosovo Force) to purchase lawn mowers, computer equipment and washing machines for use in Norway. Asphalt and streetlights in military camps here in Norway have also been financed by these funds. The Office of the Auditor General has investigated this use of funds, and has criticized the defence forces for their poor supervision.

SAS disagreement on air safety (Aftenposten)

Yesterday three SAS airplanes had trouble while in the skies. During the past three weeks 11 airplanes have had to interrupt their flights. "SAS is flying with a lower technical standard now than it did in the 1980s," said airplane technician Rune Thuv. In his view, flight maintenance is being forced to drop to a minimum. "When only a minimum of maintenance is provided, the problems we have today are bound to arise," said Mr. Thuv. He believes that the number of emergency landings would be reduced gradually if maintenance work were increased. SAS management denies that the quality of air safety has declined.

Worth noting

• The number of debt recovery cases will increase by around 30 per cent this year, according to Lindorff, a debt recovery agency. Norwegians currently have a total of over NOK 30 billion in debts in the process of forced collection. (Aftenposten, Saturday edition)
• The Government has approved the building of 1000 new student flats a year, and the Storting has agreed to the plan. But the money to implement the scheme has not appeared yet, because the Government is dawdling. The responsible ministry has not yet distributed NOK 186 million earmarked for housing. (Dagsavisen)
• In the view of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Jan Petersen’s rejection of a nation-wide plan to improve the country’s school buildings illustrates the Conservative dilemma: it is impossible to reduce taxes while also investing large amounts of money in the schools. But in the view of Mr. Petersen, Mr. Stoltenberg’s campaign promises illustrate the Labour dilemma: before every election the party claims it will reduce taxes, but ends up increasing them instead. (Verdens Gang)
• According to figures from an opinion poll carried out by SentioNorstat for Nationen, fewer than half of all Norwegians believe that children are learning more in school today than they did 30 years ago. In fact, 30.1 per cent believe they are learning less. The schools are also criticized by teachers and researchers. (Nationen)
• Aetat, the Norwegian government employment service, spent NOK 128.2 million on consultancy services last year. But according to the Office of the Auditor General, Aetat does not seem to have demanded results from these enormous expenditures. (Verdens Gang)
• Over 200 000 tourists will visit Norway in cruise ships this year. This traffic is increasing steadily. Passengers on cruise ships are younger and more active each year. This year they will spend NOK 750 million while in Norway. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Yesterday a new record was set in the number of mobile phone text messages sent in Norway: we are now sending 100 000 messages every hour. The Norway Cup football tournament in Oslo is crawling with young mobile phone users. Text messages have become the telephone companies’ most profitable service, with 40 per cent of the profits going straight into the pockets of the telecommunications industry. (Dagbladet)

Today's comment from Nationen:

Political experts have already worked out the results of this year’s general election: it will end up with a coalition formed by the Conservatives and the Christian Democrats. These two parties themselves are openly basking in the sunshine of these predictions. But now we are seeing another side of the coin: the Conservatives are boldly making excessive demands with regard to what they expect the Christian Democrats to accept in the proposed coalition. There are great expectations on the part of the Conservatives as to what policies the Christian Democrats will accept in a coalition government without putting a up a fight. Now we must ask ourselves how much of its political soul the Christian Democratic Party is willing to sell in order to join the Conservatives in the halls of power. Our conclusion is that the Christian Democrats must be careful if they are not to lose their credibility as a centrist party entirely. This carries special weight now that the Christian Democrats are trying to create an image as the most important party of the political centre. This goal implies a responsibility: the Christian Democrats have to brace themselves for a confrontation with the Conservatives. They must demand that the Conservatives take Kjell Magne Bondevik’s influence into account when they brag about all the conservative policies the new government intends to pursue. After all, Mr. Bondevik will certainly not be satisfied with a role as Jan Petersen’s political errand boy in a new government constellation.