Kleppe faces certain deselection as Progress Party election candidate (Dagbladet)

Vidar Kleppe is to be deselected as a Progress Party candidate for Vest-Agder county at this autumn’s general election. This has been made clear by MP Kenneth Svendsen, a member of the party’s national executive. The Progress Party’s leadership would rather lose a seat in Vest-Agder than have Mr Kleppe in the Storting for another period. Three MPs will travel to Kristiansand tomorrow to put the bite on the Vest-Agder branch. However, Mr Kleppe himself has been refused permission to go to Kristiansand to defend himself.

Local action in support of Kleppe (Aftenposten)

Sections of the Vest-Agder branch of the Progress Party are planning a petition in support of Vidar Kleppe. Messages and telephone calls supporting the MP have been pouring in. However, efforts to start a petition will not be initiated until after the representatives of the party’s parliamentary group have had a meeting with the entire Vest-Agder branch committee.

PM declared persona non grata in Finnmark (Aftenposten)

The people of Finnmark continue to show their anger with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg wherever he appears. After being slammed in a hostile public meeting in Vadsø on Monday, he was met in Gamvik yesterday by a general strike. "We will become a giant troll which the authorities will no longer be able to ignore," says Torill Olsen of the Popular Uprising for Finnmark, who hopes the spark generated in Finnmark will ignite a popular revolt throughout Norway’s outlying districts.

Fathers rewarded for childcare (Aftenposten)

Low-income fathers are among those who will benefit most from the new child support regulations to be published by the Government on Friday. Correspondingly worse off are women on high incomes, and in particular women whose income is higher than the child’s father. Plans for new child support regulations have been in the pipeline for several years and under several governments. The present government’s proposal is intended to have a clear bias in favour of those on low incomes.

Røkke loan kept secret (Dagens Næringsliv)

Despite the veil of secrecy surrounding Orkla’s relations with Kjell Inge Røkke, new details continue to emerge. In 1997 Orkla granted a NOK 600 million loan to what chairman Finn Hvistendahl describes as "a company in the Aker RGI set-up". The loan is not mentioned in Orkla’s annual reports – though details of much smaller loans are included. Terje Andersen, Orkla’s SVP Corporate Finance, confirms the existence of a convertible loan – which can be converted into shares – and that Orkla granted the loan in 1997.

Trade unions support Conservatives’ pension policy (Aftenposten)

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) has called for the Government Petroleum Fund to be earmarked to cover the country’s future pension obligations, and has warned Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg that the LO may turn to support the Conservatives if the Government postpones a decision on the issue by initiating a new round of official deliberations. "The Prime Minister risks not only losing office, but also leaving a strong economy and a well-filled petroleum fund to his political enemies," says Stein Reegård, head of the LO’s public policy unit.

Treasury bursting at the seams (Dagbladet)

Money is pouring into Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen’s treasury at record speed. Norway’s balance of trade shows that the last year alone the country had a trade surplus of almost NOK 200 billion. Divided among the entire Norwegian population, this amounts to NOK 43,600 per head.

Worth Noting

• Vidar Kleppe’s central role behind the revelations of sex scandals within the Progress Party is being used to explain why he must be thrown out of the party. But no one can put their finger on exactly what he is supposed to have done. (Dagsavisen)

• Progress Party MP Jan Simonsen has expressed his strong support for fellow MP Vidar Kleppe ahead of this evening’s contentious meeting of the party’s parliamentary group. "I have confidence in Mr Kleppe," says Mr Simonsen. (Dagsavisen)

• In just one year the number of people who use banking services over the internet has risen by 400,000, according to a survey carried out on behalf of the Savings Banks’ Association. Growth in internet banking is currently slowing down, and is expected to stabilize at just over 200,000 this year. (Aftenposten)

• The growth in insurance payouts slowed down significantly in 2000. However, growth in insurance premiums continued to rise towards new heights. (Dagsavisen)

• People who want a popular doctor as their new primary GP can easily jump the queue. No one is checking that the information people give in their application forms is correct, so people can easily add extra years to the number they have really been a patient. (Aftenposten)

• Last year more than 9,000 Norwegians used a special telephone line to donate NOK 100 to the charity, Norwegian Church Aid. Of the total amount donated, Telenor helped themselves to NOK 100,000 in telephone charges. (Vårt Land)

• Steen & Strøm is planning to sell the company’s 6.3 per cent stake in Storebrand, worth some NOK 1 billion. The sale is part of Steen & Strøm’s strategy to divest non-core businesses and focus solely on shopping centres and real estate. (Dagens Næringsliv)

• Norsk Kjøtt, the farmers-owned meat cooperative, has decided not to allow foreign sheep-shearers into Norwegian shearing sheds to prevent the possible spread of foot and mouth disease to this country. However, a small number of British shearers have already arrived. (Nationen)

Today’s comment from Nationen and Aftenposten

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has been visiting Finnmark and has been confronted with grass roots frustration – bordering on fury – over the Government’s regional policy. It is not surprising. Many small Finnmark communities feel as though they really do have their backs against the wall. And what is worse –people see that their problems are not being recognized. They are not being heard – and if they are heard, their grass roots wishes and opinions are filtered into the kind of "politico-speak" and bureaucratic "assistance packages" that hardly anyone understands. It is typical of the problem that the Prime Minister used the current buzz-word "window" as a synonym for "opportunity". "A window is opening in the field of cod farming" was about his most specific promise to the people of Finnmark. We understand their frustration. They are also keenly aware that there is not much joy to be had from the other political parties either – at least as long as they are in power. So much has already been said about Finnmark’s plight that we only dare to make a very general comment. A framework must be put in place that gives rural communities the opportunity to both harvest and further process the natural resources to which they have access. Northern rebellions are not new. The first came in 1989 when veteran Labour Party politician Anders Aune led the county-wide campaign "Future for Finnmark", and was later voted into the Storting. Much has happened since then, including a number of measures that have had a positive effect for the country’s outlying districts – but the trend has not been reversed. In some areas it has simply got worse. The most dangerous thing for the Labour Party would be to ignore the lessons of the "1989 revolution" in the north. The storm could easily spread to other parts of rural Norway.