On Friday, the leader of the city council in Bergen announced that the current city council is resigning. It happened after the revelations of two serious child protection cases, where several children did not receive the help they were entitled to from the municipality. This is the child welfare scandal in Bergen Photo: Marthe Haglien In January 2022, it became known that a 17-year-old was admitted to Haukeland University Hospital due to severe malnutrition. The boy had been home-schooled all his life without it being checked, and the County Medical Examiner concluded that the municipality failed the boy and a sibling. The health and school health service, the public dental health service in Vestland county municipality and the child protection service had not cooperated. The mother has been charged with serious abuse. In August 2022, it became known that a father had been charged after a boy was found tied to a bed in Bergen. The boy had injuries and wounds all over his body. The father sought help from the child protection service a month earlier, but this was not registered as a report of concern. Child welfare director Alette Hilton Knudsen in Bergen resigned after the revelations. The city council led by Roger Valhammer (Ap) also announced his resignation after a vote of no confidence from a majority of the city council in Bergen. For the second time in a year, Valhammer’s city council is resigning, and there is once again political chaos in Bergen. The city is left without a clear party collaboration that can take over for the city council that is now leaving. – After the mess in the city council in Bergen, I question whether parliamentarism fits in Bergen, says Cesilie Tveit, leader of the People’s Party FNB in Bergen. Political scientist and professor Anne Lise Fimreite also believes that parliamentarism is not the best form of government for Bergen. Threatens the ability to govern – In parliamentarism, two parties of fairly equal size are needed for it to work. When you have such a violently fragmented city council as in Bergen, there will be problems in forming coalitions that can be managed together, says Fimreite. Only Bergen and Oslo have parliamentarism as their governing model. The rest of the country uses the chairmanship model. Anne Lise Fimreite is a political scientist. She says that the party political situation in Bergen is not the best for parliamentarism. Photo: Leif Skaar In Bergen, parliamentarism has been the form of government since 2000. The city is therefore governed in much the same way as Norway, with a government and parliament. The people elect representatives to the city council, which is a kind of parliament. The parties that manage to agree on a common political platform and receive the support of the majority in the city council can form a city council. The city council functions as a government, and thus depends on trust in the city council. Those who sit on the City Council have similar roles as ministers in a government. In Bergen, the city council currently consists of the Labor Party (Ap), the Liberal Party (V) and the Green Party (MDG). Now they lack confidence in the city council thanks to the child welfare scandal. Fears the party system may crack In the city council, there are currently eleven parties represented, in addition to five independent (non-party) representatives. The researcher believes that it goes beyond the governing ability of the city council when the city council consists of very many parties. – This means that you cannot gather a group that can be unified when governing. The stronger you can be together in a governing coalition, the stronger you can govern externally, she says. The sitting city council that has to go. Photo: Leif Rune Løland / news – But aren’t many parties important for democracy? – It is a question of how many parties you can have in a party system, before the whole party system cracks. I think you are approaching a limit, even if it is not absolutely absolute, says political scientist Fimreite. Few people and small parties can gain a lot of power in the parliamentary form of government, as when two representatives from the Center Party barely obtained a majority for a light rail route over Bryggen last year. They also ensured that the Valhammer city council could once again lead the city after the city council resigned following the light rail chaos. City council representative Steinulf Tungesvik (Sp) and party colleague Stig Torgersen sat with almost all power when a political light rail tangle had to be resolved earlier this year. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news – The parties engage in horse-trading in the east and west In the chairmanship model, on the other hand, the parties are represented according to their size in the popularly elected municipal council. This is the most common form of government in Municipality Norway. The chairmanship cannot be thrown out by the municipal council like the Valhammer city council lost confidence in the city council in Bergen. This leads to fewer political changes in the municipalities. Tromsø also previously had parliamentarism as a form of governance, but returned to the chairmanship model six years ago. Torstein Dahle, who left the city council as a Rødt representative after 30 years in 2019, is critical of parliamentarism in Bergen. Torstein Dahle sat for many years for Rødt i Bergen city council. He is unimpressed by parliamentarism. Photo: Simon S. Brandseth / news – The big parties are getting desperate to get into the city council. They engage in horse trading in the east and west at the expense of political processes and that the cases receive good treatment, says the veteran. Liberal Party and Conservative Party satisfied But neither Conservative Party nor Liberal Party, which are the largest parties in Bergen, want to change their governance models. – You take responsibility and resign when you are distrusted. I think it is strange that the debate is coming now, says Geir Steinar Dale, leader of Bergen Ap.
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– Too much mess – news Vestland
