Norway’s Christian Democrats meet to decide fate of gov’t
Justice minister Sylvi Listhaug angers parliamentarians, says opposition puts terrorists’ rights before national security
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway’s Christian Democrats, holding the balance of power in parliament, were meeting on Monday to decide whether to back a no-confidence motion against the justice minister, a step that could bring down the government.
Sylvi Listhaug rocked Norway’s traditionally consensual politics by accusing the opposition Labour Party – in 2011, the target of the country’s worst peacetime massacre – of putting terrorists’ rights before national security.
Five opposition parties last week said they would vote on Tuesday to oust the minister, leaving her fate in the hands of the small Christian Democratic Party.
“The polarizing rhetoric and behavior must end,” party leader Knut Arild Hareide told delegates in an opening address on Monday, before talks began in earnest behind closed doors.
He said he was seeking their advice on how to proceed. “The conclusion has not been drawn,” he added.
On Sunday, the Verdens Gang newspaper and broadcasters NRK and TV2 quoted sources close to Prime Minister Erna Solberg as saying her cabinet would stand by Listhaug and resign if the no-confidence vote succeeded.
Snap elections are not allowed, and Norway’s next general election is not due until 2021. Solberg might be able to form a new government, but if the Christian Democrats switched sides, the task could fall to Labour leader Jonas Gahr Stoere.
Political scientist Johannes Bergh said they were unlikely to do so.
“They do not want a new a government,” said Bergh, a researcher at the Institute of Social Research in Oslo. “They do not want to contribute to a Labour-led government coming to power.”
On July 22, 2011, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed eight people in downtown Oslo with a car bomb and then shot dead 69 people, many of them teenagers, at a Labour Party camp on Utoeya Island.
On March 9, Listhaug posted a photograph on Facebook of masked people clad in military fatigues, black scarves and ammunition with the text: “Labour thinks terrorists’ rights are more important than the nation’s security. Like and Share.”
The comments unleashed a political storm, and Listhaug, a member of the right-wing Progress Party, apologized in parliament on March 13. Most opposition parties said her gesture was not sincere enough.