Labour drops to fourth place (Aftenposten)

The Socialist Left Party has overtaken the Labour Party as the largest party on the left. With Opinion’s latest poll showing support for Labour at just 14.6 per cent, the party has fallen to its lowest level so far. The voters’ favourite at the moment is the Progress Party which has the backing of 24.0 per cent of the electorate, followed by the Conservatives with 21.6 per cent. According to the poll, the Socialist Left Party now stands at 18.7 per cent. "I really do hope we have bottomed out," said Jens Stoltenberg, leader of Labour’s parliamentary group. "The party has attracted a lot of negative publicity in the past few months, and this has accelerated the trend we have seen since the local elections in 1999, created uncertainty about the party, led to a self-fulfilling downward spiral and resulted in a loss of support from voters," he added.

Progress Party expects Bondevik to be more cooperative (Aftenposten)

There were no whoops of joy from the Progress Party’s offices at the Storting yesterday. But there were a few broad grins in evidence as MPs and political advisers perused the latest opinion poll results. "This means we can take a long-term view of what we are doing, and don’t have to be so frantic," said Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen. "After all, we have been where the Labour Party is today, and know what it feels like. I think that the Government will be more willing to listen to our demands now that we are doing so well in the polls. But good poll results do not change the composition of the Storting. There is a long way to go before the next local and general elections," he said.

Statoil promises zero emissions (Dagbladet)

The Government has won Statoil’s support and is promising a major clean-up of the pollution caused by the oil industry. "Norway is one of the first countries in the world to have established a comprehensive policy for both its coastal waters and the seas within its 200-mile limit," said Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik when he presented the Government’s report, Clean, Rich Sea, to the Storting yesterday.

Pay bonanza in the executive suite (Dagsavisen)

The unions do not like it, nor does the employers’ organization, the NHO, or the politicians – but year after year it is the same story. Yet again it was the country’s highest earning bosses who got the biggest pay rises last year. Four times more than you and me. "The only thing we can do is give advice. It is the individual boards of directors which decide how much they are going to pay their senior executives. The Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO) cannot be blamed for this development," said Finn Langeland, head of corporate communications at the NHO.

Unions angry over executive pay (Dagsavisen)

The unions are up in arms over the sharp rise in executive pay. "The explosive growth in executive pay is a provocation to ordinary working people," said Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions. The bulk of those running small companies have seen their salaries rise relatively moderately. But Ms Valla believes that the growth in executive pay seen as a whole is far too high. "An average pay rise of 7.2 per cent in executive salaries is much higher than that achieved by ordinary employees. And that is not a good figure to have on the table ahead of the national wage negotiations. However, I would not like to speculate on what consequences this could have for the outcome of those negotiations," she said.

Call for boycott of DnB (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Norwegian Society of Chartered Engineers (NIF) has called on its 37,000 members not to choose Den norske Bank (DnB). The NIF is angry over remarks made by DnB chief executive Svein Aaser on 9 March in which he said that Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen’s proposal to force companies to include a minimum number of women on their boards would damage DnB’s share price. "I reacted to the link and the attitude to women which lies behind it. It is reactionary to write women off before they have even been elected to the board," said NIF vice president Lill Erlandsen.

Worth Noting

• "My own personal thoughts are something I want to keep to myself. But I feel a duty to show that we can carry on in the face of adversity, that I and the party are strong when the going gets tough, and that we can keep our courage up. That is something we need to do," said Jens Stoltenberg in response to the latest opinion poll which shows that support for the Labour Party has dropped to under 15 per cent for the first time ever. (Dagbladet)
• "I have to be matter-of-fact and acknowledge that the situation in which the Labour Party finds itself is dramatic. Labour has not managed to get its act together after the recent agonizing leadership conflict and a raft of ill-considered public pronouncements by senior figures," said election expert Bernt Aarebrot. (Verdens Gang)
• The secret to the Socialist Left Party’s election success lies with younger women. One in three women under thirty voted for the Socialist Left Party at last year’s general election. "This is hugely encouraging," said party leader Kristin Halvorsen. (Dagsavisen)
• It is possible to eliminate bullying if school administrations take the issue seriously and implement the necessary counter-measures, according to Education Minister Kristin Clemet. (Aftenposten)
• One in four local authorities ended last year in the red. Both the Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees and the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities have issued urgent warnings over the situation, and have demanded that the Government takes the matter seriously. (Nationen)
• Statoil and Norsk Hydro are still arguing over where the gas from the Ormen Lange field should be brought ashore. Statoil is refusing to give up, despite the fact that its facility at Tjeldbergodden was rejected. Norsk Hydro, which operates the field, yesterday chose Aukra in the county of Møre and Romsdal as the site for the new gas terminal. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• The current sick pay scheme has not been granted immunity for the next four years, as the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) claims. A majority of MPs in the Storting are threatening to change the scheme in two years’ time if absenteeism is not reduced. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Fearful of being left holding the baby, the Government has decided to embark on a new round of quality assurance and haggling over the bill for the new opera house at Bjørvika in Oslo. (Aftenposten)
• Staging the Winter Olympics in Oslo would cost NOK 18 billion, the same as 41,000 nursing home places, according to Bjørn Sund, who led the organization which staged the 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer. (Verdens Gang)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

It no longer makes any sense to speak of the bedrock of the Labour Party. A party which has lost almost half of its electoral support in just three months cannot expect to have reached rock bottom yet. We are talking about a loss of public confidence unparalleled in recent Norwegian history. At issue is a party which in the course of a few short years has changed from being practically the embodiment of the Norwegian state to being a political mediocrity. Only half of those who voted for Labour at the general election six months ago now give the party their support. A quarter are sitting on the fence, while a quarter have switched party allegiance. Half of those who have switched have turned to the Socialist Left Party. The leadership team which will be elected at Labour’s annual conference this autumn will have to build the party back up from its foundations. It will be an impossible task without the backing of a party organization which is prepared to work long and hard to prove its ability to renew itself, work as a team and show a genuine enthusiasm for the job, and in this way – possibly – rebuild Labour’s credibility as a party with strong support among the voters. Labour’s task will not be made any easier by the fact that Carl I. Hagen and the Progress Party have managed to convince substantial numbers of voters that they are at least as credible as champions of social justice as the governing coalition parties. The Progress Party is now the most popular among voters with low or medium incomes. The Labour Party comes in fifth, with the support of only 10 per cent of those earning less than NOK 250,000. You could not want a better illustration of the uphill struggle facing the Labour Party.