On Tuesday morning, Solberg started to explain himself about the competency case. She was asked by three different members of the Control and Constitution Committee whether she should have resigned if the share deals became known when she was prime minister. – It would have been a question on which the parties that stood behind the prime minister would have had to make a decision. It is a hypothetical question, but it would mean that one would have to deal with the fact that it could have been difficult to be prime minister at that time, says Solberg. Conservative Party leader and former Prime Minister Erna Solberg during the hearing on Tuesday morning. Photo: Ole Berg-Rusten / NTB Frode Jacobsen (Ap) also highlighted news’s case from 2014 and pointed to Sindre Finnes in an email to State Secretary Sigbjørn Aanes describing the media attention as “disturbing”. – There is no doubt that my husband found it uncomfortable when questions were asked and that he contacted the Prime Minister’s office about it. – Should have asked and dug more Solberg again used the opportunity to apologize for what has happened, and said that she is sorry that she has dealt with cases as prime minister where she has been incompetent because of her husband’s stock trading, which she did not know about. – When it subsequently turns out that he has nevertheless conducted extensive trade in secret, it is clear to me that I should have asked and dug more about this, she says. Solberg says, among other things, that she checked the shareholder register “every few years”. Chairman of the control committee Peter Frølich (H) asked Solberg about the various media inquiries Solberg received about her husband’s shares while she was prime minister. – Was there information in the inquiries that deviated from what you already knew, or was everything known? Frølich asks. – No, there was nothing unknown in the information contained in those cases, she replies. Consequences of breach of integrity Carl I. Hagen (Frp) asked Solberg if she believes it is also up to the other bourgeois parties to decide whether she is a candidate for prime minister in 2025. He pointed out that Solberg stated earlier in the hearing that it would be a question for an imaginary civil majority to decide whether she could continue as prime minister, if the integrity issue had arisen while she was head of government. – Does this mean that the question of whether you are a candidate for prime minister in 2025 is not only up to the Conservative Party? Hagen asks. – It is up to the Conservative Party who is the Conservative Prime Minister’s candidate. And then, of course, it is up to other parties whether they agree to it. In short, it has to be like that, Solberg replies. – What political consequences should there be if you have breached the competency regulations a number of times? Hagen asks further. – I think it is up to this committee to assess and not me. I would like to say that in the last eight weeks I have experienced a number of consequences, in the form of the strain it is to stand in such a case, she replies. Must answer questions Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg must answer both about her own integrity case and about the rules when she was prime minister – when the Storting holds a control hearing for almost 12 hours today. – The purpose is to get an answer to why on earth could things go so wrong? Why have the various ministers and a former prime minister broken the rules of competence? This is what case mayor Grunde Almeland (V) says to news. HEARING: Prosecutor Grunde Almeland (V) will ask questions to former Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) and five other of Norway’s most prominent politicians. Photo: NTB – Both Erna Solberg and the now resigned ministers risk facing various degrees of criticism from the control committee, but the most important thing the committee must do is to ensure that Norwegian politics does not end up in these matters once again, says Almeland. This is how the open hearing is being held today Part 1 – About the breaches of integrity by individual members of various governments 08.35 – 09.45: Former Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H). 10.15 – 11.25: Former Minister of Culture and Equality Anette Trettebergstuen (Ap). 12.00 – 13.10: Former Research and Higher Education Minister Ola Borten Moe (Sp) 13.20 – 14.30: Former Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt (Ap). 16.00 – 17.10: Minister for Employment and Inclusion and former Minister for Knowledge Tonje Brenna (Ap). Part 2 – About the government’s handling of the competence regulations 17.25 – 18.35: Former Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H). 18.50 – 20.00: Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap). * The hearing will be streamed on the Storting’s online TV. (NTB) The hearing lasts all day, and is not finished until 8pm tonight. It is the three resigned ministers, Anniken Huitfeldt (Ap), Ola Borten Moe (Sp) and Anette Trettebergstuen (Ap), as well as Labor Minister Tonje Brenna (Ap), who will answer. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Ap) must also appear at the marathon hearing. In addition, former Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) comes twice when the committee holds an open hearing on the integrity cases that have shaken the political system this year. MUST ANSWER: Tonje Brenna, Anniken Huitfeldt, Ola Borten Moe and Anette Trettebergstuen. Photo: Terje Pedersen/Joakim Halvorsen/Stian Lysberg Solum – Haven’t understood the regulations Benedikte Moltumyr Høgberg, law professor at the University of Oslo, believes that this may indicate that the politicians do not know the rules. – At least not all of them. We have seen all these reply letters that some of the former ministers have sent to the control committee. And in any case, Borten Moe now says that he would have acknowledged that he was incompetent, but he did not understand that on 21 July, says the law professor to news. Benedikte Moltumyr Høgberg is professor of law at the Department of Public Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. Photo: University of Oslo 21 July was the date the then Minister of Research and Higher Education resigned as a result of the competence case. – It may indicate that he has not fully understood the regulations. And similarly with Anniken Huitfeldt who established so-called watertight bulkheads for her husband. You can’t do that to change the rules of competence either, says Moltumyr Høgberg.
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– I should have asked and dug more – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
