Just before leaving for a major peace conference in Hiroshima, the SV mayor takes issue with the government’s cuts in support for disarmament work. – I react very strongly and am a bit shocked by it, she says. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Marianne Borgen meets news in Oslo’s monumental City Hall to come to terms with the government’s disarmament policy. Here, as mayor, she hosted in 2017 when ICAN received the Nobel Peace Prize. Now the organization that works to ban nuclear weapons in the world is one of several to be deleted from the state budget. PEACE AWARD: Mayor Marianne Borgen welcomes King Harald to the peace award ceremony in 2017. Photo: Audun Braastad / NTB – We live in a world that is more unsafe than it has been in a long time. Many people also in Norway feel a fear of nuclear war and of war in general, she says. Therefore, she believes it is wrong to cut support for organizations that work to defend human rights and for disarmament, such as ICAN and No to nuclear weapons. – Irresponsible – It is unwise and irresponsible. We need a strong civil society that works for peace and freedom. – There are many organizations that get cuts in the state budget. Why exactly should these be protected? – Because we live in a time when debate, discussion and openness around disarmament and nuclear disarmament are incredibly important, says Marianne Borgen. 2017: Berit Reiss-Andersen presented the 175 gram pure gold medal and Nobel diploma to ICAN Secretary General Beatrice Fihn and Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow. From NOK 30 to NOK 10 million In the proposal for the state budget, the government reduces the allocation for work on nuclear disarmament from NOK 30 to NOK 10 million. The pot that organizations can apply for will be cut completely. – This is a complete breach of promise from the Hurdal platform, where the government says they will increase efforts for nuclear disarmament, said general manager of Norwegian Doctors Against Nuclear Weapons, Anja Lillegraven, when the budget came out. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs defends the cuts next year by saying that support for disarmament work more than doubled from last year to this year. – A number of multi-year grant agreements have been entered into, with significant planned support also paid out in 2023, writes State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson in an email to news. But he adds: – In a demanding budgetary situation, we have proposed to reduce the allocation for disarmament work in 2023. DEFENDS CUTTING: State Secretary Eivind Vad Petersson (Ap) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs defends the cuts next year by saying that a lot has been spent this year. Photo: Sturlason – Norway must take greater responsibility It is not often that Oslo’s mayor uses strong words to criticize other parties. She still chooses to do it now. – Because the fight against nuclear weapons is a very important issue right now. I think a lot of people feel that the nuclear threat is greater than ever because Putin is constantly rattling it off as a threat. – I believe that Norway could take a much greater and clearer responsibility for being a voice in the international community for nuclear disarmament. According to Borgen, Norway’s NATO membership is not an obstacle to this. Mayors for peace She points out that Oslo City Council decided in 2019 to join an international city petition in support of the UN agreement on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. Neither under the previous nor the current government has Norway signed the ban. Oslo municipality and Marianne Borgen are also part of the international network Mayors for Peace. It is under the auspices of which she is traveling to the peace conference in Hiroshima on Friday. The SV veteran himself values this position highly. – The fight against nuclear weapons was one of the issues that made me politically active back in the late 60s and early 70s. – Then the nuclear threat was quite clear and quite dangerous. It is mind-boggling that we are back there now in 2022, she says. No Cold War logic The difference is that the Cold War’s logic of terror balance and nuclear weapons as a deterrent no longer applies, Borgen believes. In a way, it makes the current situation even scarier. – It does not work when we are dealing with an irrational leader who constantly threatens to use the world’s worst weapon of destruction which is a threat to humanity, says the Oslo mayor.
ttn-69
Marianne Borgen shocked by cuts to disarmament in the state budget – news Oslo and Viken – Local news, TV and radio
