Record support for Carl I. Hagen (Dagsavisen)

Carl I. Hagen is smiling more broadly than ever before. The Progress Party, of which he is chairman, now has the support of a record 36.5 per cent of the electorate, and his lead over political rivals has never been so large. "We are now joking that it is possible to reach the 36.9 per cent which Gro Harlem Brundtland managed to get in 1993. We are obviously riding a wave," said Mr Hagen. In January, by comparison, only 15 per cent of voters said they supported the party. In the past month support for the Conservatives has dropped by 4.1 percentage points to a measly 14.1 per cent. Nevertheless, the Progress Party and the Conservatives together amount to a majority.

Threat of dissolution (Dagsavisen)

Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen has hit back at those politicians who continually point out that opinion poll results should not carry so much weight because it is still another three years until the next opportunity to change the composition of the Storting. "I am painfully aware that opinion polls are not the same thing as an election result. But that is something we can change," said Mr Hagen, pointing to the fact that constitutional amendments are in the pipeline which could enable the national assembly to be dissolved and new elections called before Christmas. "It is not certain that the Progress Party would oppose such a move," he added.

Budget meeting could end in breakdown (Aftenposten)

The ruling coalition parties and the Progress Party are due to meet today for further budget negotiations. Officially the Progress Party does not want talks to break down, but given the stridency of the party since the Government’s proposal for next year’s national budget was announced, it is certainly a possibility. A breakdown of negotiations today does not automatically mean that the Government will be knocking on the Labour Party’s door. Aftenposten is given to understand that negotiations could be elevated to the party leader level, which would mean that Carl I. Hagen would emerge from the wings to take command of the proceedings.

Demand: NOK 5 billion (Dagsavisen)

The Labour Party wants NOK 5 billion in adjustments if the ruling coalition parties turn to them for help in getting the Government’s proposed national budget for 2003 adopted by the Storting. "The Government has announced an anti-social budget, which we want to do something about," said Jens Stoltenberg, leader of the Labour Party’s parliamentary group. The party has not yet finalized its plan for where the NOK 5 billion will be coming from, but Mr Stoltenberg says that Labour will reject proposals for an increase in the additional cash benefit for children under three and increased state support for private schools.

Labour branch chairmen say party should not return to office (Aftenposten)

If the Labour Party can put its stamp on the Government’s budget proposal, the party’s branch chairmen would prefer to do a deal with the Government. In the event of a political crisis, Labour should not itself return to office at this time, they say. This has become clear after conversations with 11 of the party’s 19 branch chairmen. "The last thing the Labour Party should do is to let itself be dragged back into office right now," said Reidar Åsgård, chairman of the Labour Party’s Hedmark branch.

Government to offer Progress Party pensions package (Verdens Gang)

In order to secure a budget agreement with the Progress Party, the ruling coalition parties are thought to be willing to do something about the current scheme under which the amount married couples receive in pension payments is less than the amount two single people are paid. The pension package is thought to be a partial concession to the Progress Party’s demand for equal treatment of married and cohabiting pensioners. But the Conservatives and Christian Democrats are firm in their view that there is no room this year for a reduction in taxes on wines and spirits.

Borrowing boom a cause for concern (NTB)

Norwegians’ debts are growing faster than their incomes. Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss has warned the banks not to be too open-handed when it comes to granting loans. "Any increase in unemployment, fall in house prices or rise in interest rates will increase the banks’ level of risk. There is no reason to criticize the bank’s lending policies on a general basis, but there is always room for a word of caution and a reminder not to set too much store by the security offered by property values," Mr Foss told senior executives of the country’s savings banks.

Cluster bombs tested in Norway (Nationen)

On 7 October this year, Norwegian and Belgian air force jets dropped cluster bombs over the Hjerkinn firing range at Dovre. The search for highly dangerous unexploded bomblets has not yet been completed. The Defence Ministry has said it has no knowledge of the affair. The Norwegian Storting has ordered the Government to work towards an international ban on the controversial cluster bombs. The story became known as a result of a bombing mistake.

Government rejects oil exploration request (Aftenposten)

Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs (Chr.Dem) has flatly rejected Statoil’s request to start oil exploration operations in the Barents Sea before an impact assessment for the area has been completed. In fact, Mr Steensnæs has said that it could take longer than anticipated before the impact assessment is finished. He confirmed that the previous target for completion of the impact assessment was the end of 2003. "The Government will take as long as necessary, and the oil companies will have to put up with it," said Mr Steensnæs.

Work harmful to health (Dagbladet)

Over one million Norwegian employees say that they have experienced health problems as a result of stress at work. A high tempo, unpredictable working days and fear of getting the sack are some of the reasons. In a survey of 730 employees carried out by MMI on behalf of the Directorate of Labour Inspection, as many as 40 per cent said that in the past year they had experienced such a level of long-term stress at work that it had led to health problems.

Worth Noting

• Foreign Minister Jan Petersen has said that the hostage situation in Moscow is more proof of the insecurity into which the world has fallen. "It will cost us a lot to secure ourselves against terrorism. We do not have the situation fully under control," admitted Mr Petersen.
  (Dagbladet)
• The Immigration Directorate (UDI) has started a hunt for suspected disloyal employees, who it believes are leaking information to the media. The UDI has previously reported such alleged leaks to the police.
  (Verdens Gang)
• Newly qualified graduates are finding it difficult to get work. Three out of ten law graduates who qualified this spring still do not have a job. One in ten of those who graduated with a master’s degree in economics in the autumn of 2001 were unemployed six months later.
  (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Politicians who have decided that women should pay five times more than men if they want to be sterilized are violating Norwegian law, according to Gender Equality Ombud Kristin Mille.
  (Dagsavisen)
• Storebrand has endowed the Norwegian School of Economics and Business (NHH) in Bergen with a five-year professorship in insurance economics. The NHH is now set to hire an internationally renowned Danish professor.
  (Aftenposten)
• The Storting is strengthening the requirement that teachers react to incidents of bullying. Yesterday a parliamentary majority voted that teachers who ignored the persecution of pupils could be jailed for up to three months.
  (Vårt Land)
• Of the country’s 110 electricity providers, 70 have announced further price rises which will come into effect in the next two weeks. The remaining 40 will probably announce similar rises in the next couple of weeks.
  (Verdens Gang)
• ABB’s 1,400 employees at its offshore construction yard in Haugesund could be the biggest losers after an emergency sale of the corporation’s global oil and gas division. ABB is to sell off businesses with a total of 6,000 employees in Norway.
  (Aftenposten)
• Norway shares first place with Finland, Iceland and the Netherlands in a global ranking of those countries which respect press freedom the most. The ranking has been put together by the international organization, Reporters without Borders.
  (NTB)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

Today’s meeting between the ruling coalition parties and the Progress Party should be decisive for the continuation of negotiations in the Storting over next year’s national budget. However, that should not be interpreted as meaning we believe it is realistic to think that the parties will reach an agreement. They should either break off negotiations today or agree to go forward with a completely different tone than the unworthy gamesmanship we have seen up to now. From the moment the Government announced its budget proposals, the Progress Party has treated the coalition parties with a mixture of indulgence, mockery and contempt. More than one month before Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik even needs to think about demanding a vote of confidence in the Storting over the budget issue, 15 of the Progress Party’s 19 branch chairmen have said that, if the PM does call for a vote of confidence, the party should not back down, but throw the country into a state of political crisis. And this after Carl I. Hagen has rebuked the country’s Prime Minister and Finance Minister for having opinions about the national budget which they, in the end, must take responsibility for. And Siv Jensen has leaked her version of the coalition parties’ offer to the media because she is far more concerned about winning each individual round of the political boxing match than creating majority support for a national budget. No other chairman of the Storting’s Finance Committee has acted in this way before. For their part, the coalition parties have not so far demonstrated a particularly impressive political adroitness in their discussions with the Progress Party, either. But their job is anything but easy. There is a limit to how much a government can allow itself to be pushed around by an opposition party which, despite its surge in popularity in all the opinion polls, still only has 25 out of the Storting’s 165 elected representatives.