Centre Party out of the Storting (Aftenposten)

It has hardly ever happened before. According to a poll carried out by Opinion, a market research company, the Centre Party have dropped below the minimum level needed to win a seat in the Storting. Support for the party has fallen to 3.4 per cent, which would not be enough to give them a seat. The poll underlines the fact that the centre alliance alternative has weakened the party which took the initiative for its creation – the Centre Party itself. The party has hardly ever fallen below the threshold for parliamentary representation, and never in the run up to an election. A substantial majority of the Norwegian people want another government. The Conservatives have more support than all three centre parties together, Aftenposten’s leader writer points out.

Social security claimants could get NOK 250 million in interest (NTB)

The Health and Social Affairs Ministry is considering whether to propose that social security claimants be paid interest if it takes a long time to process their claims, according to a report by NRK, the public broadcasting company. If adopted the proposal could mean the Government being forced to pay out NOK 250 million each year to claimants who have to wait a long time for their money. Last year over 1,000 cases took an excessively long time to be processed, often over a year.

Spanish PM says Norway must pay (Dagens Næringsliv)

Spanish prime minister José Maria Aznar says that Norway will have to help to pay for the EU’s expansion eastwards. This is because Norway today pays a fee to the EU under the terms of the EEA Agreement. According to Mr Aznar, the EEA Agreement will very likely have to be renegotiated when new members join the EU. Bitter negotiations between Norway and Spain over fishing rights are also part and parcel of recent EU history. The EU’s expansion eastwards will be the main topic under discussion during the EU’s summit being held in Gothenburg, Sweden, over the next two days. The successful Spanish prime minister made a lightening visit to Oslo yesterday on his way to the Gothenburg meeting.

Higher interest rates if oil revenues spent at home (Dagens Næringsliv)

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics’ latest macro-economic analysis published yesterday, the decision by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and the Storting to spend more of Norway’s oil revenues at home in the coming years could have damaging consequences for the economy. The Statistics Bureau predicts that Norwegian interest rates will be higher than they would otherwise have been, and that the country’s accumulated oil wealth will not be large enough to cover future pension obligations.

Conservatives’ tax promises will cost NOK 78 billion (Dagbladet)

Riding on a wave of positive opinion polls the Conservatives have made tax promises they claim come with a price tag of NOK 40 billion. Dagbladet can now reveal that the true cost of the Conservatives’ tax promises is almost twice that sum – NOK 78 billion. Conservative tax spokesman Børge Brende is now trying to deny the figures. In a number of interviews over the past month the Conservative leadership has been calling for the level of Norwegian taxes to be lowered to more closely approximate EU levels. "The figure NOK 40 billion has come from the Labour Party. The figures we use, which are reliable and responsible, can be found in our alternative budget proposals. For the current year we would have reduced Norwegian taxes by NOK 19 billion," said Mr Brende.

Bellona slams environmental taxes (Dagsavisen)

Frederic Hauge is celebrating the 15th birthday of the environmental foundation, Bellona, with an attack on environmental taxes. According to Bellona, the imposition of environmental taxes is of absolutely no help in reaching the targets set by the Kyoto climate-change protocol. A more active use of the Pollution Control Act, legal bans and investment in new technology are more intelligent solutions, says Bellona.

More foreign investors – less state ownership (Dagens Næringsliv)

Kjell Roland, head of the Centre for Economic Analysis, wants more foreign investment and less state ownership. This is his recipe for boosting the profitability of Norwegian business. Mr Roland is highly critical of the state as a business owner and says Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen’s intervention in the Storebrand affair has materially damaged Statoil’s stock market flotation and the Norwegian investment market.

Minister’s head on the block (Dagbladet)

The Storting’s Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs Committee sat until late last night going over the statement by Children and Family Affairs Minister Karita Bekkemellem Orheim on her role in a controversial adoption case. The committee will decide today whether to take the matter further. If they do, it could have serious consequences for the minister’s future.

DLF becomes Freedom Party (Dagsavisen)

The Progress Party rebels who formed the Liberal People’s Party earlier this year have decided to rename their party. It will now be called the Freedom Party, the same name as the controversial ultra-right wing party led by Jörg Haider in Austria. The name change follows a lengthy dispute over whether they had the right to adopt the name, the Liberal People’s Party in the first place. The Local Government and Regional Development Ministry has now decided that they did not have that right since the name had already been taken by another party, though it had already been disbanded.

Worth Noting

• The Labour Party’s parliamentary leader, Hill-Marta Solberg, has warned the Conservatives not to offer Carl I. Hagen the office of President of the Storting. "It would be quite wrong to place a high-profile and controversial leader of an extremist party in such a position," said Ms Solberg. (Aftenposten)
• Spanish and Norwegian shipyards are building new frigates for the Norwegian navy. Spain’s prime minister, José Maria Aznar has now given his support for the construction of gas tankers using the same partnership model. The tankers are intended to transport Norwegian gas southwards. (Dagsavisen)
• In Norway wine and spirits for home consumption can only be bought through stores belonging to the state-owned retailer, the Vinmonopol. Now it looks as though more of the Vinmonopol’s stores will switch to a self-service concept. Recent pilot schemes have been a success. The Vinmonopol itself will be able to decide if it wishes the company’s 20 new regional outlets to be outfitted as self-service stores. (Aftenposten)
• NRK, the license-fee funded public broadcasting company, will have to be operated along more commercial lines if it is to have the financial strength to fulfil its public service obligations, says the company’s incoming chief executive John G. Bernander. This will mean more pay-to-view services and additional sources of income over and above the licence-fee in the form of sponsorship and advertising revenues for special purposes. (NTB)
• Over 60 per cent of the emergency calls attended by the country’s fire services turn out to be unnecessary or false alarms. According to the Directorate for Fire and Explosion Prevention (DBE), this is due to carelessness and ignorance about how alarm systems function. (Dagsavisen)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

We know from experience that the election result will be quite different from the forecasts indicated by an opinion poll carried out on the same day that the Storting meets for the last time this term. Nevertheless, Aftenposten today presents a poll which confirms that the Labour Party is in crisis. An election result giving them as little as 22.8 per cent of the vote, which is what the party rates in this poll, would sooner or later result in a change of government – regardless of whether Jens Stoltenberg should choose to cling to power after the election. Just as obvious is the fact that the Conservatives, with around twice as many votes as the Christian Democrats, would come into office. Today’s poll reinforces the impression that a substantial majority of the Norwegian population wants a change of government. And the Conservatives have far more supporters than all three centre parties put together. It is too early to conclude that we are facing a political watershed. However, the Labour Party is correct in its analysis of the situation when they say that this election is a choice between a Labour government and a centre-right government in which the Conservatives play the leading role. This will remain true even if the Liberals and the Centre Party manage to creep up over the minimum number of votes needed to gain a seat in the Storting. Today’s poll shows they are both currently under the minimum level. As long as Odd Roger Enoksen’s Centre Party refuses point blank to discuss participation in a wider non-socialist coalition, it is of less importance than the Liberals. However, it is equally clear that the Liberals, if they make it into the Storting, will play a key role in the creation of a coalition in which the Conservatives and the Christian Democrats both participate.