10 more metoo warnings in Labour in 2018

Giske Støre"Today Trond Giske is 50-years-old. Do you see, @jensstoltenberg. He gets hugged by our new party leader ...". Photo: Anniken Huitfeldt / Twitter.

10 more metoo warnings in Labour in 2018

The Norwegian Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) received and dealt with another ten notices of sexual harassment last year. This in the wake of the extensive #metoo spring cleaning one year ago.


«In the winter of 2017/2018, we handled a total of twenty cases against various persons in the party. Later in 2018, we dealt with just under ten cases related to sexual harassment locally,» informs Communications Manager of Labour, Ingrid Langerud, in an email to NTB.

She, furthermore, writes that some of the cases are relatively recent events, while some are related to issues that have happened back in time.

«In several of these cases, the processing of the cases has led to persons withdrawing from positions or not re-elected. We handle all inquiries about harassment continuously – in line with our guidelines and routines.», Langerud continues.

Several regarding Trond Giske

Several of the metoo notifications that Labour dealt with during the winter of 2017/18, referred to then Deputy Leader, Trond Giske. It ended up with that he resigned from the leadership on January 7th. Later on, he was also sent packing from the position as the fiscal spokesperson of Labour.

In the period after this, the discussion has raged whether the profiled politician should be invited back in from the cold. The party is still bereft of a 2nd Deputy Leader, but several from Trøndelag want Giske to be renominated to the Norwegian Parliament for the next period.

The party case against Giske was recently concluded. Last year’s conclusion, that he had broken the party’s internal guidelines, is thus left standing.

More warnings against Conservatives

Labour and the Conservatives (Høyre). ie, the largest parties in Norway, were also the ones who received the most notifications of sexual harassment in the wake of the metoo movement.

Earlier this week, it was made known that the Conservatives has received two more alerts after last year’s clean-up, both of which concerned conditions that occurred back in time. Previously, the party has received a total of 35 notifications with varying degrees of severity, affecting 21 different persons.

“We have, on our part, dealt with a total of nine issues of varying severity,” the Progress Party (FrP) tells NTB.

Last week, it was made known that a representative from Rogaland has been arrested, charged with rape. The indicted man has been deprived of all duties in the local party organisation. He is, furthermore, scrapped from the electoral lists until further notice.

Apart from that, the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) has not received further alerts since the spring cleaning last year, Communications Manager, Ida Krag, enlights NTB.
They received a total of eight metoo notifications, including regarding Member of Parliament, Ulf Leirstein, by then. He withdrew from all positions after sharing hardcore porn with young boys in Østfold FpU, according to NRK.

Silence from the Christian Democrats and the Socialists

“KrF has not received any new alerts since June last year. Then there had been one warning and two concern notices. All three regarding the Youth Party (KrFU). These cases have now been completed. The notification applied to an elected representative of KrFU at a lower level. It concerned an incident in a private context from 2011. That person was met with «sanctions according to the ethical guidelines of KrF and KrFU».”, The Christian Democrats (KrF) informs NTB

The Socialists (Sosialistisk Venstrepart) has not received notices after June 2018 either. Before that, they received two warnings, both of which concerned cases back in time. There had been three notifications, including a case that was investigated as rape, in two years concerning the youth party.

No answer

The Centre Party (Senterpartiet), the Liberals (Venstre), the Greens (Miljøpartiet de Grønne) and Red (Rødt) has not yet answered the inquiry by NTB about the number of metoo warnings in the past year.

  • The Liberals announced on June 1st last year that they had had six cases of sexual harassment in the last five years, with varying severity. After that, they received three notifications, all of which are dealt with.
  • The Centre Party informed that they had received 15 alerts, of which 13 had been processed.
  • Red announced that they had not received any notifications since the metoo campaign was launched in October 2017. This occurred in January 2018.
  • MDG had, at the same time, received one warning, which was then under consideration.


© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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