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The Liberal Party votes yes to Sunday trading and buying sex

Liberal's National CongressOslo 20170331. Venstres landsmøte i Ålesund. Foto: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix

To keep the current sex-purchase law did not stand a chance in the Liberal Party  (Venstre) . Allowing trading on Sundays was re-entered in the program.

Friday night the Liberal’s National Congress rejected the proposal to accept today’s sex-purchase law. The congress rebelled against the current policy.

– This is not about transport and communications, finance or oil drilling. This is about human dignity and our deepest moral values, Jan Erik Søndeland argued for the current legislation against the purchasing of sex.

The Stavanger-delegate fought alongside Abid Q. Raja to repel the Liberal program point on removing the ban.

– The law has an effect. As a society, we can not have a legal framework in which it is okay to buy sex. What do you say to 13-year-old who asks: Dad is it allowed to buy sex? Surveys show that 70 percent of the Norwegian people support the law, according to Søndeland.

Massive applause

Anna Dåsnes of the Young Liberals strongly defended the Party line: drop the sex-purchase law.

– If you want to help sex workers, you must support removing the ban. There is a reason why not only Amnesty International, but the sex workers own organizations wants it removed. We must be a party who support the weakest, she said to massive applause.

The program committee and the National Executive Committee wanted the new party program to clearly state to let municipalities decide rules of alcohol sales themselves.

In addition, the congress made a compromise on Sunday trading. They decided on a minimum solution for Sunday trading, “Allowing Sunday opening of shops in the town centre as a means to ensure greater city life.”

Without debate the party accepted allowing serving around the clock – and full Sunday trade locally:

“It is not the state but the local elected officials who can best assess the opening hours for services in their municipality. It should therefore not be government restrictions on opening hours in shops or for sale and the serving of alcohol.

 

Source: vl.no / Norway Today