Prime minister loses support
April 2, 2021
Conservatives leader Erna Solberg has ranked as a highly popular prime minister in recent years, until now. A new poll this week indicates she’s lost a lot of voter support just in the past month.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg and her husband, Sindre Finnes, ran into trouble when they gathered with family in Geilo to celebrate her 60th birthday in February. Now Solberg’s popularity has tumbled in a recent public opinion poll. PHOTO: Facebook screen grab
The poll, conducted by research firm Norstat for state broadcaster NRK, shows Solberg’s voter support falling from 58 percent in February to just 46 percent in March. At the same time, her main rival Jonas Gahr Støre of the Labour Party has seen his popularity rise from just 27 percent to 34 percent. Around 20 percent of those questioned had no opinion when asked who they felt was “best-suited” to be prime minister.
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Norwegian PM Erna Solberg has been fined 20,000 Norwegian kroner for breaking the country’s virus curbs by organising a family birthday dinner that she ended up not attending. – EPA pic, April 9, 2021.
NORWEGIAN Prime Minister Erna Solberg received a hefty fine today for breaking the country’s virus curbs by organising a family birthday dinner that she ended up not attending, police said.
Police concluded that the dinner organised in part by Solberg had exceeded the number of guests allowed at private functions.
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Solberg budgets for better times ahead
March 16, 2021
Prime Minister Erna Solberg found a way around her own government’s rules against meetings this week, to start hashing out a state budget proposal for 2022. She and her ministers face enormous budget uncertainty, over the state of a post-Corona economy and whether she’ll still be in office to carry it out, but her government predicts fairly rapid economic recovery.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg (far left) led her ministers into a press briefing at Hurdalsjøen north of Oslo on Tuesday. Their job is to hammer out a state budget for 2022. PHOTO: NRK screen grab
Ministers land in quarantine
March 9, 2021
UPDATED: Just hours after Prime Minister Erna Solberg addressed Parliament on the jump in Corona infection in Norway came news that she now needs to go into quarantine herself. Two of her ministers have also landed in quarantine.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg, shown here addressing the nation Sunday evening on the sudden spike in Corona infection in Norway. Now she’s in quarantine herself. PHOTO: Regjeringen.no
Newspaper
VG reported Tuesday afternoon that Solberg, who addressed Parliament Tuesday morning and then held a press conference, had to leave the Office of the Prime Minister after one of her state secretaries was confirmed to be infected with the Corona virus. She underwent a Corona test herself and planned to work from home until test results were available.
Latest Corona-related news in brief:
March 17, 2021
NORWAY’S THIRD CORONA INFECTION WAVE was crashing over the country on Wednesday, as the highest numbers of confirmed virus cases ever rolled in. A total of 1,156 cases were registered during the past 24 hours, with areas like Haugalandet on the West Coast now being hit hard.
“These are high and disturbing numbers,” Jarle Nilsen, the mayor of Karmøy, told state broadcaster NRK. Fully half of all cases in neighbouring Haugesund now involve children and youth. In Oslo, the number of new confirmed cases hit 495 in a just a 24-hour period. That’s 214 more than on Wednesday last week. Numbers were also high in Drammen, Bergen and Tønsberg.