The Storting scandals – Money laundering damages trust

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It was also the taxpayers who had to pay for the galloping costs of building the Storting garage, which ironically was built at the same time as Oslo became impassable by car. However, this did not prevent the then President of the Storting, Eva Kristin Hansen, from driving shuttle traffic between the Storting garage and Ski with the presidency’s private driver. Despite the fact that she had a free Storting apartment in Oslo. A stone’s throw from the Storting.

To recover confidence in the Storting, the former director, Marianne Andreassen, recently chose to resign. In addition, the Storting’s presidency decided to give the Office of the Auditor General a mandate to review the Storting politicians’ financial arrangements, which has led to 28 representatives being notified of tax cuts. But the presidency would first refuse the Auditor General to pass on possible criminal matters to the police. The presidency wanted to give the representatives of the Storting a criminal law amnesty, so that they would be exempt from the same criminal law reactions that they impose on the rest of the population by law. Such as the NAV victims.

Mean it so dangerous then? That the politicians in the Storting have some extra advantages that the rest of us do not have? That some are a little more similar than others? If everyone has what they need, there is a tacit acceptance of a certain inequality. But today, many are struggling to make ends meet when food, electricity and fuel become more expensive at the same time as interest rates rise. These basic expenses make up a larger part of the household budget for those with poor advice than those with good finances. Those who struggle with high expenses need precisely the elected representatives to have insight into their challenges. The representatives of the Storting will not get it if they are sitting in a heated Storting apartment with a full refrigerator at the State’s expense. Then electricity, higher house prices, rising interest rates and higher food prices will only be a theoretical exercise. Then the citizens lose confidence in the politicians. Trust is the mainstay of a democracy.

The Yellow Vests in France was precisely the result of a lack of trust in the political elite, which the protesters felt had no insight into the economic challenges of ordinary people. The French president’s loss of the governing majority in the French National Assembly, in favor of a coalition with the far left, was partly a result of the uprising of the Yellow West. In addition, the record low turnout was also an expression of a lack of trust in politicians.

The protests from The “yellow vests” began with the fuel tax being raised by 17 øre to meet the CO2 obligations in the Paris Agreement. Although the increase was small, it hit skewed. For who had to pay the fee, the “Yellow Vests” asked rhetorically. It was not the political elite of Paris that had access to public transport and the limousines of the Elysée Palace. But ordinary people in the villages who depended on the car to get to work and kindergarten. People believed that it was deeply unfair that those who had the least should bear the entire financial burden of the climate agreement.

The political elite in Oslo was also the subject of harsh attacks throughout the election campaign, especially from the Center Party, until Vedum itself took over the Oslo elite’s stronghold, the Ministry of Finance. For the time being, the Minister of Finance has avoided demonstrations against high fuel prices, because in Norway most people still have such good advice that they can handle current fuel prices. But food prices are rising dangerously. In countries such as Turkey, where they have risen by 80 percent. There have been large demonstrations in Belgium, Greece and Argentina due to high food prices and in Sri Lanka the high food prices led to the overthrow of the president. The same thing happened to the Tunisian monarch, when the Arab Spring broke out in 2010 due to high grain prices.

Trust in politicians is crucial at a time when democracy is on the wane. The Economist has published a democracy index for 2021 which shows that only 6.3 percent of the world’s population lives in full democracies. The Nordic countries are in this group, along with Germany, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Uruguay. Several countries have been degraded as a result of strict measures during the corona pandemic. This applies, for example, to France, which during the pandemic passed parts of the legislative power to the president through decrees, at the same time as very strict restrictions were introduced on people’s freedom of movement through curfews. The degradation of the United States is due to the storming of Congress and Trump’s unwillingness to relinquish power.

The war between Russia and Ukraine stand between dictatorship and democracy. In a time of upheaval where we can no longer take democracy for granted, politicians in full-fledged democracies such as Norway must manage the political capital they have gained through elections in a trustworthy way. The Storting politicians’ management of the people’s trust is therefore put in a larger perspective. Norway is a great power when it comes to international democracy building. Now it is important that the politicians in the Storting themselves follow the learning points Norway provides budding democracies on economic regulations, equality before the law and building trust. Because democracy deserves it.

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