KrF added to a rare Majority Government

Majority Government Solberg KrFPrime Minister Erna Solberg presents her extended Government after an extraordinary meeting of the King's Council at the Palace on Tuesday. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

Christian Democrats added to a rare Majority Government

Kjell Ingolf Ropstad, Olaug Bollestad and Dag Inge Ulstein represent the Christian Democrats in the Majority Government that Erna Solberg (Conservatives) presented at on the Palace Square in Oslo on Tuesday.

 

Deputy Leader of the Christian Democrats, Kjell Inge Ropstad, becomes Minister for Children and Family, while Acting Party Leader, Olaug Bollestad, becomes Minister of Agriculture and Food.

Both were central on the blue side in the Christian Democrat’s choice of direction before Christmas, and Ropstad is favourite to take over as permanent Party Leader after Knut Arild Hareide.

At the same time, Minister for International Development, Dag Inge Ulstein (38), who has experience from local politics in Bergen, was on the red side.

Former Minister of International Development Nikolai Astrup (Conservatives) becomes Minister of Digitalisation in the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation.

Secretary of State Ingvil S. Tybring-Gjedde (Progress Party) has been appointed Minister of Social Security in the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Planning.

The positions of the Minister for Digitisation and Social Security are created for the occasion.

The Advisors of the Christian Democrats are in place

The Christian Democrats have placed their advisors in important positions. Party veteran, Hans Olav Syversen, becomes State Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, while Sverre Vatnar is awarded the same position under the auspices of Siv Jensen (Progress Party) in the Ministry of Finance.

Bollestad brings along two compatriots, Julie Kristine Kordal and Widar Skogan, as state secretaries in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

The Majority Government is the largest in recent times, bringing it up to 22 members, the Prime Minister included. Something which the opposition has already reacted to.

Minister for Children, Family and Gender Equality, Linda Hofstad Helleland (Conservatives), and Minister of Agriculture and Food, Bård Hoksrud (Progress Party), are dismissed from the Solberg Government.

The changes on Tuesday also mean that the Liberals retain their three positions – Party leader, Trine Skei Grande, as Minister of Culture, Iselin Nybø as Minister for Research and Higher Education and Deputy Leader, Ola Elvestuen, for Minister of Climate and Environment.

Grande gains Gender Equality

In line with expectations, responsibility for the gender equality and discrimination policy is transferred from the Ministry of Children and Equality to the Ministry of Culture.

This means that Grande will be responsible for this field and that Ropstad will not have to front the Government’s LGBTQ policy, which would have been a big Camel to swallow.

“A cold wind from the past, the Leader of Labour’s gay network, Jon Reidar Øyan,” states before the Government is officially presented.

At the same time, the responsibility for Religion and view of life policy is transferred the other way, from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Children and Equality.

Responsibility for the Security Act and the National Security Authority (NSM) is transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Minister for Social Security.

Lack of persons from Trøndelag

The exit of Helleland means that the Government lacks representation from Trøndelag. A fact that local politicians react strongly to.

“It is important that the country’s Government is composed in such a way that the whole country is represented,” Michael Momyr, who is Leader of the Conservatives in Trøndelag, opinionated before the Government was verified.

A bourgeois Majority Government has been Solberg’s goal for many years, but the road to reach that has been long and windy.

After the election victory in 2013, the Conservatives (Høyre) and the Progress Party (FrP) wound up in the same bed – but failed to convince the Christian Democrats (KrF) and Liberals (Venstre) in making it a foursome. A cooperation agreement was established between the Government and the two other prospective brides.

After the 2017 elections, the Christian Democrats would no longer be a guarantor, while the Liberals entered the Government, following an internal process, a year ago.

The Christian Democrats decided last autumn to seek cooperation with the Government – against party leader Hareide’s expressed wishes. Pre-negotiations before Christmas – followed by the real deal in the New Year – ended with a Government platform being approved by the foursome. That agreement was presented on Thursday


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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