More women, younger ministers in Norway's new government

March 17, 2000
Web posted at: 9:11 AM EST (1411 GMT)

From CNN Norge's Morten Overbye

OSLO, Norway (CNN) -- Norway's new Labor Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced a youthful cabinet on Friday to succeed Kjell Magne Bondevik's centrist coalition government, which collapsed last week.

Bondevik lost a vote of confidence March 9 over Norway's natural gas industry and promptly submitted his government's resignation to King Harald, who asked Stoltenberg to take his place.

Many of Stoltenberg's ministers are in their 30s and 40s and almost half are women. The new prime minister, who celebrated his 41st birthday on Thursday, is Norway's youngest premier.

Despite their comparatively young ages, however, many of Stoltenberg's governing cabinet, including the prime minister himself, have held ministerial positions in the past.

"It has been important to get a combination of experience and renewal and to get a broad spectrum of knowledge," Stoltenberg said after presenting his new cabinet to the king.

Stoltenberg, whose party controls 65 seats in Stortinget, Norway's parliament, said his only problem in forming the new government was having to choose from the long list of excellent candidates. He declined to say whether all 19 ministers had been his first choice for the posts.

Dominated by the Labor Party since the 1920s, Norwegian politics shifted toward the middle in 1997 when some members aligned themselves with Bondevik's party. But Bondevik's center coalition held the narrowest parliamentary margin in the country's history -- not enough to keep Labor out of the top spot for long.

The son of former Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg, Jens Stoltenberg served as finance and energy minister in the 1990s. He named former prime minister and current Labor Party leader Thorbjoern Jagland to be foreign secretary. Former minister of fisheries Karl Eirik Schjoett-Pedersen will step in as finance minister.

The new premier's choice for minister of social affairs, however, came as a surprise. Forty-seven-year-old psychiatrist Guri Ingebrigtsen will be responsible for one-third of the country's national budget.

Norway's new minister of justice is Hanne Harlem, the younger sister of Norway's first female prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who is now the leader of the World Health Organization.

Grete Knudsen, Stoltenberg's oldest cabinet minister at 59, was named to head the industry and trade ministry.

Bondevik's minority government -- his Christian People's Party held 42 of the parliament's 165 seats -- resigned after losing a vote over easing pollution laws to allow for construction of natural gas power plants. Bondevik and his coalition government opposed the construction.

A majority in Stortinget, led by the Labor Party, favored immediate construction of gas power plants. Given the controversy, political observers and environmentalists will keep a close eye on new Minister of the Environment Siri Bjerke.

Bjerke toes the party line on construction of gas plants and said Friday that environmental issues must be seen in an international perspective.

"If building gas power plants in Norway could mean that we don't have to import polluting coal power from other countries, and this again makes other countries pollute less -- then this is best for the environment," she said.

Bondevik's losing position in the debate over the natural gas plants held that such plants were still fossil-fuel burners and would be a step back in a country that already generates most of its electrical needs from nonpolluting hydro-electric plants.

Bondevik, a priest who held the prime minister's post for two-and-a-half years, said he would seek to retake the post in the 2001 elections.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Norway's Labor leader to try to form new government
March 10, 2000
Norway's prime minister hands in resignation
March 10, 2000
Norway's coalition government resigns over power plants
March 9, 2000

Norway.org
ODIN - Official Documentation and Information from Norway
Det norske Arbeiderparti - English
KrFU - Kristelig Folkepartis Ungdom
Senterpartiets vev
Venstres vev
Alexander's Gas & Oil Connections - Norway is short of power

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