Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had to divert attention this week from international crises to another one looming at home. His government’s proposed state budget lacks support from two of his four negotiating partners, but he seemed confident they’ll ride out the storm.
Greens leader Arild Hermstad (left) and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, shown here during initial debate over the government’s agenda when Parliament opened in October. PHOTO: Morten Brakestad/Stortinget
Støre was far from alone in expecting he’d come to terms with the Greens Party and its leader Arild Hermstad by Friday, when the budget needs to be ratified in Parliament. “There is no crisis now,” he told reporters on Monday. Both he and his Labour Party’s parliamentary leader Tonje Brenna remained confident they’d be able to bring both the Greens and the Socialist Left Party (SV) back into the fold after negotiations broke down over the weekend.
Støre seemed optimistic he and Hermstad would settle their differences. “I have time and respect for political discussions,” Støre said. “My goal is find a solution so that our country can get a budget.”
Støre had stayed out of the negotiations that went on for two weeks among Labour, the Center Party, the Reds, the Greens and SV. Both Center and the Reds agreed to support the state budget that had to be formally presented to Parliament on Sunday.
The Greens, however, refused to do so after Labour and Center wouldn’t modify it with a controversial plan to eventually phase out Norway’s oil and gas industry. SV, meanwhile, still wants Norway’s huge Oil Fund to sell off stakes in Israeli companies that threaten the Palestinians. Most everyone else claim that would politicize the Oil Fund.
It all left Labour without the majority it needs in Parliament to get its budget passed. If that remains the case by Friday, Støre and his newly re-elected government will have to propose turning over government power to the opposition, even though they don’t have a majority in Parliament either.
At this point, none of them can modify the actual budget agreed to by Labour, Center and the Reds. They could, though, placate the Greens with a new proposal to, for example, propose a study of how Norway’s economy can start reducing the dominance of the oil business. They could also appease SV by giving even more support than Norway already has to the Palestinians.
Brenna claimed on Monday that she was already having “good conversations” with both Hermstad of the Greens and SV leader Kirsti Bergstø. Neither the Greens’ nor SV’s leaders could ignore, moreover, the negative feedback they were getting from many of their own party members. Newspaper Dagsavisen reported on Tuesday that Greens members are split over Hermstad’s budget negotiating tactics, fearing he has “overplayed his role,” while SV members aren’t entirely pleased by SV’s hard line on Palestine.
Others, including both of Norway’s left-leaning newspapers, also claimed the Labour-Center-Reds budget proposal is a “good” one. “It’s difficult to claim that the budget … doesn’t represent breakthroughs for the entire red-green coalition,” editorialized newspaper Klassekampen on Monday. It noted how the revised budget provides an additional NOK 4 billion in state funding for hard-pressed local governments around Norway, improves dental health care, offers more support for families with small children, increases carbon emissions fees on offshore oil installations and perhaps most importantly of all, reverses the government’s earlier approval of contoversial deepsea mining, at least through the current parliamentary session that runs until 2029. It had been delayed last year.
While Klassekampen called the Greens budget expectations “unrealistic,” Dagsavisen editorialized about how important it is for Norway’s five parties on the left side of politics “to hang together.” It also thinks the Støre government has done a good job: “The budget proposal on the table now is a good one … it points in the right direction for the country.” All involved should be celebrating that, Dagsavisen wrote, not “descending into more disagreement and quarreling.”
Most important, claimed others, is to keep the conservative Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug from replacing Støre as prime minister. That’s would could happen if Støre and his government opt to step down, since Progress is now the largest party in opposition. Listhaug announced Tuesday morning that she was “prepared to take over responsibility,” but conceded that the left-side would still have a majority in Parliament. “I expect them to tidy up this chaos that has now arisen,” Listhaug told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund