There are more and more cases about Conservative Party leader and former Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s competence and her husband Sindre Finnes’ share trading. On Thursday, news wrote that Solberg dealt with 27 toll cases while her husband traded toll shares. On Friday, the news came that Finnes was working to open up sea areas for wind power. The day before the Solberg government decided, he bet that the Hydro share would rise. That causes Seher Aydar (R) in the Storting’s Control and Constitution Committee to react. – Now new information is coming in like pearls on a string, and which paints a different picture than the one Erna Solberg has put forward, she writes. – The degree of seriousness increases at a pace that the case complex only grows and grows. The matter becomes more serious with each passing day, she continues. – She has not been interested In mid-September, Solberg said that she has been disqualified in several cases because of her husband’s stock trading. However, Solberg has emphasized that because she did not know the full extent of the transactions that disqualified her, the decisions are valid. She has referred to the legal department’s assessment in the Huitfeldt case. On Friday, news wrote that Sindre Finnes worked to open sea areas for wind power while Erna Solberg was prime minister. The day before the government decided, he also bet that the Hydro share would rise. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB But Aydar believes the Conservative leader cannot assess the validity of the decisions himself. – It is also worth noting that the legal department made these assessments based on the fact that Huitfeldt did not actually show about her husband’s share trading. Solberg, for her part, has admitted that she knew quite a lot, and that she should have assessed her capacity, she writes and adds: – Then she cannot rely on a so-called “ignorant capacity”, or assessments the legal department has made based on another matter. Frode Jacobsen (Ap) also believes that the cases news and other media have written increase the seriousness of the case. – When Solberg took office as prime minister, she knew that the man had shares in Hydro. She also knew that the man had shares in a toll company, he says. He points out, among other things, that Finnes’ shares were mentioned in the media already in 2014 and 2017. – Erna Solberg cannot have been unaware of the man’s shares, but she has not been interested in looking after her own integrity, he says. – Erna Solberg cannot have been unaware of her husband’s shares, but she has not been interested in looking after her own integrity, says Frode Jacobsen (Ap). Photo: Anders Fehn / news Hearing in the control committee On Tuesday 7 November, the control committee called for a hearing in the competency case. – The committee’s members will then have the opportunity to ask further questions about the matters that news has presented today (Friday, journal note), writes Sofie Høgestøl (V). She is currently a deputy member for Grunde Almeland (V). news has also asked Økokrim how they react to Sindre Finnes dealing in toll shares and speculation in the Hydro share. – As is known, Økokrim is currently working on an assessment of whether there is reason to open an investigation against Finnes for insider trading. We currently have no comment on the individual purchases and sales he has made, writes Ecocrime chief Pål Lønseth in an e-mail. Trust in politics news has sent the quotes to Erna Solberg for a comment on the matter, and received a reply from Peter Frølich (H). He is chairman of the control and constitution committee. – As committee leader, I do not want to participate in a running commentary on which cases are the most and least serious. All the cases have a serious background because they deal with trust in politics and the decisions that are made. So the cases are different, although they also have similarities, he writes in an email. He believes that there are nuances in the cases which do not always come across as well. – The level of precision in parts of the criticism needs to be raised a few notches, I think. Anyone being checked deserves to have their answers read carefully. There is much that is worthy of criticism that has come to light, but also nuances. These do not always get the same big headlines, the email says.
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