Norway Daily No. 87/01

NOK 3.5 billion more in local authority funding (Aftenposten)

Local and county administrations can expect a record increase in funding next year. The Government is planning to boost the amount of cash it gives to local government by between NOK 3 billion and NOK 3.5 billion in 2002. Local Authority Minister Sylvia Brustad will announce the exact amount on Friday. Most of the money is earmarked for specific projects like the construction of sheltered housing for the elderly, nurseries and to provide better psychiatric care. The Government will permit local authorities whose populations are growing and which are in financial trouble to apply for additional grants.

Wants Valla for itself (Dagsavisen)

The annual congress of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) will today vote on a proposal to end the "marriage" between the Labour Party and the LO. The Norwegian Civil Service Union, newly elected LO president Gerd-Liv Valla’s own union, is calling for an end to the hundred-year-old tradition in which the LO president is also a member of the Labour Party’s executive committee.

Liberal leader rejects two-party coalition (Aftenposten)

The Christian Democrats will never form a two-party coalition with the Conservatives, said Liberal Party chairman Lars Sponheim yesterday. It was a statement Kjell Magne Bondevik came close to agreeing with. Two parties cannot form a coalition because one of them would be too large and dominating in relation to the other. It takes three parties to secure the necessary balance between the coalition partners, said Mr Sponheim during last night’s debate between the party leaders, which was broadcast on TV2.

Jens smells trouble (Dagsavisen)

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is having trouble in the polls, but he is not having it any easier in the Storting either. The PM’s biggest headache is the Government’s proposal for a comprehensive reform of the hospital system, which could end up inflicting a major defeat on the Labour Party just before polling day. The Stoltenberg government risks being torpedoed on a number of other issues too. These include defence restructuring, higher education reform and a new property tax scheme.

Jens afflicted by opinion poll jitters (Nationen)

Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, chairman of the Christian Democratic Party, has accused Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of being afflicted by opinion poll jitters. Ms Haugland’s broadside was prompted by a letter issued by the PM on the same day that a poll carried out for VG and TV2 showed the Labour Party and the Conservatives running neck-and-neck. In the letter Mr Stoltenberg warns voters against the most right-wing prospective government Norway has seen for many years.

Higher pensions give hope of wage boost (Dagens Næringsliv)

Higher pensions for private sector employees will probably be one of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions’(LO) important demands at next year’s round of wage negotiations. Around a million private sector employees are currently not covered by a company pension scheme. They will have to make do with the state pension, which according to the LO amounts to around 50 per cent of the wage level a person had before they retired from the workforce. Public sector employees are in a much better position. Their supplementary pension schemes ensure they will receive 66 per cent of their previous income when they retire.

Worth Noting

• There were tears and smiles aplenty, and many a warm hug for Gerd-Liv Valla yesterday. After 102 years the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) elected its first woman president. She was given a standing ovation as she took her place as the country’s most powerful union boss. (Aftenposten)
• A lot of issues are still unclear as the election approaches, but the campaign’s first TV debate between the various party leaders did reveal one thing. Almost incredibly, the Norwegian people want Jan Petersen (Conservative) as the country’s next prime minister. According to last night’s straw poll, a formidable 35 per cent of those who rang in wanted Mr Petersen as prime minister, followed by 26 per cent for Jens Stoltenberg and just 20 per cent for Kjell Magne Bondevik. (Dagsavisen)
• "Every time I travel to Oslo to take my seat in the Storting I get asked if I am off to vote for more taxes," laments a Labour Party MP. An increasing number of the Labour Party’s representatives in the Storting have begun to blame the Government’s tax policies for the party’s problems. Something has to be done about it, they say. (Aftenposten)
• Almost half the population would prefer the trials of those accused of the murder of two small girls in Kristiansand and the triple murder at Orderud Farm to have been conducted behind closed doors, according to an opinion poll carried out by Nationen. (Nationen)
• The Government is planning to pay the county authorities NOK 18.5 billion in connection with its take-over of the country’s hospitals. The Government will not pay the county authorities for hospital staff accommodation, pharmacies or real estate. This is expected to result in a conflict which could end up being decided in the courts. (Aftenposten)
• Norsk Kjøtt, the Norwegian meat processing cooperative, is making such huge losses that the company is being forced to put up prices in order to meet even the most modest of budget targets. Last year the meat cooperative made a loss of NOK 140 million, and without price rises it will probably make a loss this year as well. (Aftenposten)
• In the days before Kværner’s annual general meeting DnB Investor’s chief executive, Jan Penne, and his staff organized an election-style campaign in support of Kjell Inge Røkke, it has been claimed. DnB Investor is a subsidiary of Mr Røkke’s main banking services provider, the state-owned Den norske Bank. (Dagbladet)
• The Government is backing proposals to remove the crews from the 31 lighthouses up and down the Norwegian coast which are currently still manned. The Government maintains that maritime safety is well enough taken care of with today’s technology. (Nationen)

Today’s comment from Dagbladet

The obvious influence over the Labour Party’s policy-making which is wielded by the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) could prove to be a double-edged sword. In the immediate post-war period, when the Labour Party governed with an absolute majority in the Storting for a long and unbroken period of time, the relationship was beneficial to both sides. At that time over half the entire workforce was a member of the LO, and the Labour Party got almost half the votes at election time. Today only 28 per cent of the workforce is a member of the LO, while support for the Labour Party in recent opinion polls has fallen to around the same level. The signs are that the marriage between the party and the unions has become a millstone around the necks of both major players in the labour movement. The LO is losing members because of its relationship with the Labour Party, and the Labour Party is losing votes because of its relationship with the LO. Gerd-Liv Valla’s biggest challenge as new LO president is to gain influence on the basis of the organization’s strength and will to renew itself, not because of a political confederacy and a determination to defend past victories.