The 224-page overview of Sindre Finnes’ 3,290 share transactions, all made while his wife Erna Solberg led Norway, was made public on Friday. The Solberg case has now been going on for four weeks. First, Høyre came up with an overview. The new one was created by the law firm Elden. Rødt’s Seher Aydar claims that the Conservative Party “censored and published the first list that has been available to the public”. The party has not given the public or the control committee correct information, claims Aydar. – The public’s and elected officials’ insight into Erna Solberg’s handling of her qualifications cannot depend on what Finnes personally wants to share afterwards, as the Conservative Party’s strategy suggests, says Aydar to news. For the first list of stock trades, released on September 15, contained neither the sums he traded for, nor the exact times when the trades were made. In the new overview, Finnes explains the date, purchase price, the share’s value at the time of trading and the number of shares purchased. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB – It was about time. Now I will do a thorough review of the entire list to see if the information is new and relevant, says Aydar. Aydar also criticizes the Conservative Party for leaning on Finnes and his lawyer, Thomas Skjelbred in Elden, to provide further information in the case. – It is strange that a lawyer should rectify the damage done by the Conservative Party. “Never removed information” Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg has been presented with the criticism from Rødt via her press manager, Cato Husabø Fossen. In a text message, Fossen replies that “this is the same criticism that Rødt has made x-number of times, and which we have responded to just as many times.” Cato Husebø Fossen at Erna Solberg’s side when she held a press conference about her husband’s share trading. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB According to the press manager, Solberg will not respond to the criticism again, and therefore refers to an interview with VG and E24 last week, where Solberg is said to have replied: – My employees have never removed any information. They extracted the information that was necessary to clarify my competence, and compiled this into a readable list. Høyre’s Lars Øy has also commented on Rødt’s claim previously, according to Fossen. – We extracted all the information that was necessary to shed light on Erna Solberg’s competence, and which includes the date of the trades, which securities were traded and how many in each individual case. Other material was returned to Sindre Finnes as it is his personal information. Omitted times from the overview Although Finne’s overview, compiled by the law firm Elden, is now more detailed, the times for the trades are still omitted. The law firm writes that it was not possible to obtain information about the time from the financial institutions for all the trades. However, they do not explain why this information could not be collected. This is also something Aydar has taken note of. – It is incomprehensible to me that they did not include times for recent trades. I would like Erna Solberg to answer this, since it was she who vouched for the erroneous list and it is her responsibility that we are assessing. – Positively Speaker of the Storting’s Control and Constitution Committee, Grunde Almeland, says that it is positive that Finnes has chosen to share this list with the committee. – Full transparency is important, also so that we can do a thorough job and arrive at a proper conclusion in the integrity case for Erna Solberg. Speaker of the Storting’s Control and Constitution Committee, Grunde Almeland. Photo: William Jobling / news He says that they will need time to go through everything. – But all the information helps to create a basis for the case that we will proceed to further process next week. Next Tuesday, the committee will meet to discuss the latest developments in the case. – Exactly how relevant this list will be for the control committee’s case remains to be seen, he adds.
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Rødt claims Solberg has withheld a “massive amount of information” – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
