Labour gains ground (Nationen)

The Labour Party has made significant gains in terms of electoral support in the past month, advancing 4.1 percentage points to 21.4 per cent. Labour has captured most voters from the Conservatives, who slide 3.9 points to 19.0 per cent. The Progress Party has the support of 25.2 per cent of the electorate, making it the country’s largest political party. If there had been an election today the Progress Party would have won 42 seats in the Storting. "The Labour Party is on the right track again," said Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg. He says he is pleased with the latest poll results.

Serious reprimand (Dagbladet)

"If Mona Juul shoots down our evaluation of the situation she will receive a written reprimand – a sanction which is rarely used against female civil servants. Our reaction can therefore be seen as an extremely serious move," said Foreign Minister Jan Petersen. It became clear yesterday that Norway’s Ambassador in Tel Aviv would not be recalled or transferred to another posting in punishment for her failure to inform the Foreign Ministry of the prize money that she and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, received from the Peres Centre in Israel in 1999.

Labour wants Petroleum Fund to save state pension scheme (Verdens Gang)

All or part of the Government Petroleum Fund should be used to secure the financial health of the state pension scheme. This will be one of the Labour Party’s most important demands in the coming period. "We are looking at various different models. I can confirm that one of them is to use all or part of the Petroleum Fund to strengthen the National Insurance scheme," said Jens Stoltenberg. On this issue the Labour Party is in line with Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), who believes the entire Petroleum Fund should be earmarked for pension payouts.

Fast track for brightest pupils (Aftenposten)

The brightest pupils should be allowed to study the upper secondary school curriculum before they have completed their lower secondary school years, according to the school administration at Eidsvoll. This would allow the brightest children to skip the first year of upper secondary school and start their higher education a year early. Education Minister Kristin Clemet backs the idea, and is not worried that it may lead to a greater gulf between educational high-flyers and the weakest pupils. "If all pupils are treated alike, no one is treated at their own level," she said.

State assists companies to move jobs abroad (Dagens Næringsliv)

Six industrial companies have decided to move production to low-cost Baltic countries – with the consequent loss of Norwegian jobs. Several of these companies have received assistance from the Industrial Development Corporation of Norway (SIVA), which has supplied premises and other forms of help. Odd Roger Enoksen, chairman of the Centre Party, said that SIVA is flouting the Storting’s intentions when it establishes industrial premises abroad, thus enabling companies to make Norwegian employees redundant and move industrial production out of the country.

Historic local government pay settlement (Aftenposten)

On the eve of the labour movement’s day of protest, market forces elbowed their way into the on-going local government pay negotiations. The best paid local government employees will now be able to negotiate their salaries at workplace level, without any centrally determined framework. ‘The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) leadership has been dethroned. High interest rates and rising unemployment are waiting in the distance,’ writes Aftenposten’s editorial writer.

Academics triumph (Dagens Næringsliv)

The local government sector is on the verge of a pay revolution. After just four years the Federation of Norwegian Professional Associations has succeeded in its strategy. From now on those local government employees with years of academic study behind them will negotiate their entire pay agreement at local level. "Of the total funds allocated for wage rises in the local government sector, a large amount was previously channelled into additional benefits for low-paid workers or other measures. Local authorities can now spend more on us," said chief negotiator Hans Petter Aarseth. The Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) claim the new system will increase pay differences.

1 Worth Noting

1. "It is important to steal money from Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss and give it to children and young people," said Socialist Left Party leader Kristin Halvorsen in Hamar yesterday. She was given a warm welcome by this Labour bastion, and stood by her claim that cooperating with the Progress Party was nothing to be embarrassed about. (Aftenposten)
2. Trond Giske is perhaps the Labour Party’s best public speaker. Yesterday he cast a spell over a willing audience in Trondheim as he thundered against racism, the Government’s privatization policies and the gap between rich and poor in Norway. (Dagbladet)
3. Gerd-Liv Valla, president of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) called for a boycott of Israeli goods and demanded that an international peace contingent be sent to the Middle East. In her 1 May speech at Youngstorget outside the Labour Party headquarters in Oslo, Ms Valla slammed the Government for not taking an active enough role in the Middle East. (Dagbladet)
4. "I look forward to carrying on my work as Norway’s Ambassador to Israel. This affair now lies where it should lie. I am happy and relieved," said Mona Juul, after it had become clear that she would not be recalled home. (Aftenposten)
5. A final decision has not yet been made as to whether Mona Juul will be allowed to continue as Norway’s Ambassador to Israel. The internal pressure is now building up on Foreign Minister Jan Petersen (Con). (Verdens Gang)
6. Carl I. Hagen is highly critical of the fact that Mona Juul is being allowed to keep the controversial prize money she and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, won in 1999. "Confiscating the money was not an option," said Foreign Minister Jan Petersen. (Aftenposten)
7. Just eight days before resigning as Foreign Minister, Thorbjørn Jagland sent a cheque for almost NOK 700,000 to the Peres Centre in Israel. The Centre’s request for funds was recommended by Mona Juul’s staff at the Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv. (Verdens Gang)
8. In the greatest of secrecy Norway has been financing peace negotiations in Indonesia since 1999. It was only this week that the Indonesian government learned where the money – a total of NOK 22 million – was coming from. State Secretary at the Foreign Ministry believes Norway was selected because the country is discreet and does not demand lots of good PR in return for its efforts. (Aftenposten)
9. Norwegian financial analysts are unanimous in their opinion – Norsk Hydro should get around NOK 80 billion for its oil and gas division in the event of a merger with Statoil. (Dagens Næringsliv)
10. The weather in April was so fine and warm that we must look far into the future before average temperatures at that level become the norm. Meteorologists calculate that even in 2050 the normal temperature for April will only have risen by one degree. (Verdens Gang)

2 Today’s comment from Nationen

Hardly has the Labour Party’s leadership battle been laid to rest and Thorbjørn Jagland’s tenure as party chairman as good as history – than the party’s popularity makes a substantial recovery. Even though one opinion poll is not enough to build a firm conclusion on, this is almost certainly no coincidence. The voters have perceived Mr Jagland as muddled and to a large extent politically unreliable. With the arena now cleared to give Jens Stoltenberg sole leadership of the party, Labour undoubtedly has the chance to win back something of what it has lost. But even with the progress we see today, Labour still has miles to go to regain the support it enjoyed just a few years ago. There is nothing to indicate that we are on our way back to the days when the county had two major parties, a handful of medium-sized parties and a scattering of small parties. The landscape is still typified by three relatively evenly sized political movements, which creates a very special kind of political dynamic.