Andreassen seemed more than too ready to simply move on, stating that many of the cases were dated and would “not be followed up by her office.”Īndreassen’s office has also come under harsh criticism for failing to reveal abuse of MPs’ generous benefits. Things worsened heading into the weekend, when the top administrator at the Parliament, Storting Director Marianne Andreassen, claimed that she hadn’t seen any need for further probes into the individual cases, or that they should have any consequences on the MPs involved. Norway’s new hard-pressed Labour Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre quickly acknowledged that “we are dependent on the public having confidence in our election politicians and our democratic system.” The “various cases” of rule-breaking, he said, “can contribute to weakening that confidence.” He claimed it was “crucial” that Parliament “cleans up both the rules system itself and individual cases.” New Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has had a rough start, amidst tough budget negotiations and scandals involving politicians in his own Labour Party along with several others. She became the second president of the Parliament to step aside amidst scandal, while her immediate predecessor faced questions, too. She tried to hang on, bold enough to think that since even she had “misinterpreted” rules (at an expense to taxpayers of nearly NOK 400,000), she’d be best able to help “clean up.” When police announced they would investigate six specific MPs’ alleged misuse of their benefits, likely including her, she quickly resigned. Then came lots of media reports about how MPs have been exploiting benefits such as severance pay and their use of special commuter apartments in Oslo. Last week things went from bad to worse, when the newly elected President of the Parliament Eva Kristin Hansen of the Labour Party was found to have been breaking the parliament’s own rules herself.
#Weclean oslo trial#
One MP from the Progress Party has already been sentenced to jail and another from the Labour Party has been on trial in recent weeks, insisting she was only incompetent in handling her personal economy, not the state’s. Norway’s Parliament has been shaken by a wave of scandals involving MPs that was first sparked a few years ago after the “me too” crisis, and revelations that quite a few Members of Parliament were cheating on their travel expenses. Not only were they hit by an immediate tragedy, there’s still no majority in Parliament for a new state budget, and a Labour politician found herself caught in the biggest scandal of all. Norway also had a new, if minority, Labour-Center government, but things could hardly have gotten off to a worse start. She’s vowed to be “the mosquito in the tent” that will irritate other MPs into supporting her cause.
She was swept into the national assembly from the northern city of Alta on the back of a single-issue movement: to get a new hospital in Alta that would also preserve a local maternity ward. The new Parliament is the most diverse in Norwegian history, with lots of fresh faces including its first woman of colour who also wears a hijab, an age span ranging from just 25 to 78, and even one new MP with no national political experience. When the new Parliament (Stortinget) opened last month after the September election, meanwhile, hopes were high that it would redeem itself after several months of media reports about benefits exploitation involving veteran Members of Parliament.
Their Corona containment measures, once hailed because of Norway’s earlier low infection and death rates, are now facing criticism, too. Their credibility has been questioned on climate issues. The past few months have been rough for Norwegian politicians, both at home and abroad. That’s not likely to be recommended right now. The late US President Franklin D Roosevelt famously called on his fellow Americans to “look to Norway” for inspiration during World War II. Now many may hope the world is looking the other way, amidst drama and scandal in the Norwegian Parliament that’s undermining the traditional confidence Norwegians have in their leaders. NEWS ANALYSIS: Many Norwegians are proud of how the legendary US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, once urged Americans to “look to Norway” for inspiration during World War II.
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