Norwegian Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre reached out to voters with a brutally honest pledge — he’s going to raise their taxes if elected prime minister next week.
A year ago, Norway’s general election on September 11 looked like a certain victory for Støre’s Labor-led center-left bloc over Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s center-right coalition government. Now they are neck-and-neck in the polls.
Solberg’s Conservative Party has attacked Labor’s platform by suggesting the party will raise taxes by more than it says if it gets into power, or will be forced to do so by its leftist allies in a governing coalition. But the Norwegian left says there is no option but to raise taxes because of the way the Conservatives have been spending money and giving tax breaks to the rich.
“Do you know how much money they have spent? It’s a piñata,” said Bjørn Jacobsen, who is running for parliament for the Socialist Left Party (SV) in the county of Møre og Romsdal. His party is a likely junior coalition partner if Labor gets into power.
Jacobsen shares the widespread feeling in Norway that it will be a very close contest on Monday, though he expects the outcome to be a coalition of Labor, the rural Center Party and the Socialist Left.
Bernt Aardal, a political scientist at the University of Oslo, predicts it will be “very close, both in terms of the election result and what is going to happen with the government afterwards.” The uncertainty stems partly from weak support for many smaller parties, some of which could fail to reach the 4 percent election threshold, and from shifts in strength between parties in opposing blocs.
Though it’s a safe bet that either Støre or Solberg will be prime minster, the daily Aftenposten recently listed 10 different possible government coalition constellations. A weak result for Labor could force Støre to rely heavily on the small Green and/or Red parties for support, which could make governing difficult and hand the tiny parties considerable power.
Welfare costs money
Egalitarian Norway already has steeply progressive income-tax rates, with a top marginal rate of 46.7 percent, and a total tax burden of around 45 percent, which is above the OECD average.
“Tax is not so important as what we shall do with it — we want to have as low taxes as possible, but as high as necessary,” Støre said in an interview on national broadcaster NRK, reconfirming his pledge to raise the total tax take by up to 15 billion Norwegian kroner ($1.93 billion).
He said Norway needs that money to invest in teachers, to deal with an aging population and to boost job training.
“We kept our tax promise in 2005, 2009, 2013, and we will keep it in 2017,” Støre said.
Though voters are showing signs of fatigue with Solberg’s minority coalition of her Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, the disillusionment does not seem as rampant as when voters in 2013 ousted the previous Labor-led coalition, which had governed for eight years under Støre’s predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg.
Stoltenberg’s approach, when he won power in 2005 for a second time, had been to tell the people not to expect tax cuts; Støre has gone one better and chosen to campaign on a promise to raise taxes.
For the social democratic Labor Party, which is the biggest party with 55 seats in the 169-seat parliament, that means rolling back tax cuts granted by the Solberg government to high earners and the rich. But in a country where income differences are smaller than in many others, the planned tax increases would not affect only the super-rich, but also people earning a high, though not extravagant, annual income of more than 600,000 Norwegian kroner ($77,120).
So, it’s a “soak the rich” strategy that would affect Norwegians who likely think of themselves as unmistakably middle-class — and unwilling to hand over more to the taxman.
The tabloid VG in July launched on its website a “Jonas Tax calculator” (named after Støre), where readers can plug in their financial details to find out if or by how much Støre’s tax-hike pledge will affect them.
Truls Wickholm, a Labor lawmaker from Oslo who sits on the parliament’s finance and economic committee, said the party felt “the need to be upfront with voters about what welfare is actually going to cost.”
(politico)
I strongly condemn that North Korea has conducted a sixth nuclear test today. This is yet another flagrant violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions, including UNSCR 2321 adopted in November 2016.
The Norwegian Police Directorate has selected the Leonardo AW169 as a law enforcement helicopter following a tender for its helicopter service modernisation programme.
If you’re in academia, you’ve likely heard the mandate, “Publish or perish.” However, a recent report from the Research Council of Norway reveals that more than a quarter of the country’s humanities researchers haven’t published. Here’s a closer look at the data, along with other key findings and suggestions aimed at facilitating growth in humanities research in Norway.
After a six-year diplomatic freeze, China and Norway have resumed talks towards a free trade agreement, with a ninth round of talks held in Beijing August 21-23.
Sri Lankan startups can take part in Oslo Innovation Week, with a pitching event this week, says the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) and ICT Norway (IKT-Norge).
Statoil and Argentina’s leading energy company YPF have entered into an agreement to jointly explore hydrocarbons in the Bajo del Toro block in the Neuquén Basin onshore Argentina, the Norwegian energy major said on August 25.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday left for the Norwegian capital Oslo, where he will meet political and business leaders, and will skip ally RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s opposition rally in Patna on Sunday. “On the invitation of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be travelling to Oslo for a few days,” he said on Twitter.
Norway and Germany have officially marked the start of a long-term agreement for cooperation on submarine and naval missiles programs, the countries announced on Tuesday.
Kongsberg Defense Systems will maintain gear boxes on Norway’s Sea King helicopters, under a deal with the Norwegian Defense Logistics organization.
Norwegian airport operator Avinor has officially opened the new Nkr 3.7bn (US$468m) terminal at Bergen Airport, in Flesland, Norway. Opened on time and within budget, the terminal has the capacity to accommodate up to 10 million passengers annually.
NASA and the Norwegian Mapping Authority are partnering to develop a state-of-the-art satellite laser ranging station 650 miles from the North Pole that will produce high-precision locations of orbiting satellites, help track changes in the ice sheets and improve the efficiency of marine transportation and agriculture.
Norwegian expert Bent Aagaard submitted the interim report on the Uma Oya Multi-purpose Development Project to President Maithripala Sirisena at the President’s Official Residence in Colombo on Friday.
The terrorist attack by Anders Breivik in Norway in 2011 caused a dramatic increase in trauma- and stressor-related disorders in Denmark, concludes a new study.
Germany and Norway officially joined the European/NATO program to acquire Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft along with Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said that it is regrettable that series of problems have arisen during the implementation of the Uma Oya Multi-purpose Development Project as the previous government had hurriedly commenced the project without proper study of the feasibility report and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
The world’s three most populated countries, China, India and the United States, have a more positive view about the EU than close neighbours like Russia, Norway and Switzerland, a 
“The hatred that was displayed toward some empty bus seats really shows how much prejudices trump wisdom.”
Facebook Sindre Beyer screenshotted the many reactions to the picture. He posted the photos on his personal account, asking: “What happens when a photo of some empty bus seats is posted to a disgusting Facebook group and nearly everyone thinks they see a bunch of burkas?”
Five countries have extended sanctions against the Crimea until June 23, 2018. Norway, Albania, Montenegro, Georgia and Ukraine made the decision subsequent to that of the EU.
On 5 April 2017, the Norwegian government proposed an amendment to the Norwegian code of criminal proceedings to allow the police to compel the use of biometric authentication. After two quick debates, the Norwegian Parliament passed the proposition into law on 21 June.
The world’s first crewless, automated ship will launch in 2018, 
To improve offshore oil spill preparedness, Norway’s government and the oil industry are building an offshore broadband wireless network.