Hagen piles on the pressure (Aftenposten)

The Progress Party is stepping up its political pressure on the three coalition partners. The party is looking for agreements on specific issues, including defence spending, already this autumn, while it will probably demand a general cooperation agreement sometime later. Yesterday evening prime ministerial candidate Kjell Magne Bondevik arrived at Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen’s office for a meeting at which he delivered the coalition’s answers to 54 questions sent to them by the Progress Party’s parliamentary group last Thursday. Today the Progress Party’s parliamentary group will decide whether or not to back a new Bondevik government. Since 17 of the party’s 19 branch offices have recommended the formation of such a government, the answer seems fairly certain to be positive.

Parliamentary officials put on mail alert (Verdens Gang)

Everyone who works at the Storting will be warned today to take care when opening suspicious letters and parcels. Recent incidents in the USA involving letters contaminated with anthrax have prompted security chief Gerrit Løberg to issue a clear warning. Officials at both the Storting and the Government’s offices are currently having discussions with the National Police Security Service (POT) on how to cope with the possibility of anthrax-contaminated mail.

Cash-strapped CAA cannot afford increased security (NTB)

Following the terrorist attacks on the USA, the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) does not have enough cash in this year’s budget to pay for increased security at Norwegian airports. The CAA is therefore using funds from next year’s budget. "All investments in services aimed at passengers, terminal buildings, snow clearing equipment and that kind of thing will be postponed indefinitely. Next year I expect we will have sufficient funds for the security measures designated as having the highest priority. In the long term this policy is obviously questionable, but we will just have to shout an even louder warning before the lack of investment affects flight safety," said CAA deputy chief executive Lasse Bardal.

FAFO fed state subsidies (Aftenposten)

During the past two years the Labour government has proposed a three-fold increase in state subsidies to the Institute of Applied Social Science (FAFO), a research foundation dominated by the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO). FAFO has received earmarked allocations against the recommendation of the Research Council of Norway. FAFO has been in financial difficulties since the Storting voted in 1996 to cut the amount of state subsidies it receives. Last year FAFO had a record deficit of NOK 7.7 million, on gross revenues of around NOK 70 million. The year before it made a loss of NOK 1 million. As recently as 1996 FAFO made a profit of NOK 4.2 million. The institute is totally dependent on the income generated by research projects commissioned by the public sector in order to balance its books.

Jagland to lead Foreign Affairs Committee (Aftenposten)

The Labour Party has control of the major international questions in the Storting, while the Conservatives concentrate on issues closer to home. The leaders of the parties’ parliamentary groups agreed yesterday on which parties should chair which of the Storting’s various committees. It has already been announced that the Progress Party will chair the Finance Committee and the Social Affairs Committee. That the Labour Party has taken the leading role in the Foreign Affairs Committee is a sign that the party is preparing for a spell in opposition. This office is traditionally filled by a member of the official opposition.

Public sector employees queue up for "teachers’ pay" (Dagbladet)

Last weekend the teachers were awarded an extraordinary wage hike of NOK 15,000. Now social workers and nurses are also expecting a substantial improvement in their salaries. "We are demanding an increase of NOK 50,000 for all State Registered Nurses," said Bente G.H. Slaaten, leader of the Norwegian Nurses’ Association, which represents 63,000 nurses. Oddrun Remvik of the Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers, part of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), expects the next people to receive deals similar to the teachers’ will be the substantial, largely female occupational groups with a three-year higher education qualification.

Coalition considers partial privatization of NSB (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Norwegian national railway company, NSB, is one of many public companies which the new coalition government is thinking of selling. Banks and the power distribution companies are much farther down their wish-list. "We have discussed both complete and partial privatization of public companies. It is in the national interest to preserve some of these companies – among other things in order to secure a nationwide level of services. The trains are not among these," said chairman of the Christian Democratic Party, Valgerd Svarstad Haugland. She feels it is important to retain public control of the railway tracks themselves, but is open for a complete or partial privatization of today’s NSB train traffic which runs on those tracks.

Worth Noting

1. The Russian company, Yukos Oil, has requested that the election of a new board of directors take place at Kværner’s extraordinary general meeting to be held 2 November. (NTB)
2. It is not certain that Yukos Oil will help to save Kværner. The Russian company says it has no particular vision for Kværner as a whole, but has its own interests in individual parts of Kværner’s operations. Yukos Oil’s Hugo Eriksen has said he cannot guarantee Kværner any help with the crucial share issue to take place in November. If Yukos allies itself with Kjell Inge Røkke the Russians could overturn the share issue and divide up the company. (Klassekampen)
3. A number of Statoil executives are currently in Iran to bid for oil exploration blocks. The Norwegian state-owned oil company has not been scared off by the war in neighbouring Afghanistan. (Dagbladet)
4. Stock market analysts far too often act as salesmen for the shares their broking houses have in their customer portfolios, according to Sven Arild Andersen, chief executive of the Oslo Stock Exchange. (Dagens Næringsliv)
5. Norsk Hydro’s decision to close down magnesium production at Herøya was taken in defiance of advice from the company’s technical experts. It is extremely rare for a group of technical experts, consisting of highly qualified personnel with both engineering backgrounds as well as other specializations, to protest so strongly against a management decision. (Dagbladet)
6. Teachers are not happy with the NOK 50,000 salary increase they have received over the past two years. Anders Folkestad, head of the Norwegian Teachers’ Union, is demanding at least another NOK 15,000. (Dagens Næringsliv)
7. Since 1998 at least 20 people have notified Norwegian insurance companies of their own deaths. Death fraud has cost the insurance industry NOK 25-30 million. (Dagsavisen)

Today’s comment from Dagens Næringsliv, Dagbladet and Vårt Land

There are many good reasons for a change of government. Some of them have faded after the coalition partners presented their political manifesto. But even though the policy changes are small, it is still important to get the Labour Party out of office. The revelations published in Aftenposten over the past few days underline the fact that Labour is not just a party, it is a network of close friends who demand payment in the form of financial allocations and shameful political postures. (Dagens Næringsliv) The transition from political pariah to necessary facilitator in the formation of a new centre-right coalition has been remarkably swift for Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen. The Conservatives have never concealed the fact that they were prepared to take a pragmatic approach in their relations with the Storting’s right-wing protest party. For the Conservatives, the moot point has always been how predictable Mr Hagen and the Progress Party were going to be. The Conservatives have painful memories of 1986 when Mr Hagen, after having been reckoned as part of the Conservative government’s parliamentary base, suddenly preferred a Labour government led by Gro Harlem Brundtland. After a long decade without political influence during the 1990s, the Conservatives have recognized that government office is tied to making certain concessions to Mr Hagen and the Progress Party. (Dagbladet) Carl I. Hagen is in the political driving seat at the moment. He has the power to depose and install prime ministers. Once this choice has been made, his power will fade. So he is using all the means at his disposal to wring as many long-term concessions out of his short-term importance. Mr Hagen’s greatest triumph was to secure the chair of the Storting’s Finance Committee for his deputy, Siv Jensen. This is a position of power which the coalition partners had not reckoned on handing to the Progress Party – a position which in political terms means more than the honourable office of President of the Storting. For the Progress Party it is likely that the question of whether to support the new Bondevik government or not was decided last week when it was awarded this prize. (Vårt Land)