Norway News and Discussions

[wjfox]

Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg says Oslo remains committed to oil and gas

8 hours ago

Norway’s prime minister insisted the Scandinavian country would continue to drill for oil and gas, ahead of a re-election campaign in which the future of the fossil fuel industry will be intensely debated.

https://www.ft.com/content/91c54cf9-454 ... 3e61754ec6

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Norway Isn’t Bowing to Threats of Capital Flight
by Sam Pizzigati
June 11, 2024

Extract::

(Common Dreams) Norway’s wealthiest have faced a wealth tax ever since 1892, and, over the generations since then, no nation in the world has taken taxing wealth as seriously. But that tradition came under a direct challenge just over a decade ago, in 2013, when a new conservative government came into power. Over the next eight years, that government set about cutting Norway’s richest some slack at tax time.

This conservative government, under prime minister Erna Solberg, trimmed down Norway’s wealth tax, eliminated the nation’s levy on inheritances, and slashed the tax rate on incomes. The predictable result: Norwegians with the greatest wealth, a Statistics Norway analysis found, saw the greatest gains.

“The richest have been given 100 times more in tax cuts than the lowest-paid under Erna Solberg,” the Norwegian Labour Party’s Hadia Talik would charge. “If you want less inequality, tax policies have to be distributive. That’s the fairest way and gives a better basis for the country to create value.”

In the 2021 elections, voters would agree. The center-left government they voted into power that year moved quickly to reverse the Conservative Party’s rich-people-friendly tax cuts. By 2023, the top wealth tax rate on Norway’s largest fortunes had risen from 0.85 to 1.1%, just one of a number of moves that distinctly displeased many of Norway’s richest, among them the industrialist Kjell Inge Røkke. Midway through 2022, Røkke announced he was moving to Switzerland.

Other rich Norwegians would follow Røkke out. By 2022’s close, over 30 of Norway’s richest had departed, more wealthy emigres than Norway had seen over the previous 13 years combined. But that exodus would only strengthen the resolve of tax-the-rich progressive lawmakers.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/norway-exit-tax

[firestar464]

1. make all the billionaires run
2. they all go to some sort of tax haven
3. tax haven goes to shit
4. everyone looks at that place and goes "wow, I'm glad we aren't like that"

[wjfox]

Haltbakk Bunkers, one of Norway's largest marine fuel companies –

[firestar464]

[firestar464]

More women reporting abuse in Norway as member of royal family to go on trial for rape

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/ ... ions-trial

[ravlora]

Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg says Oslo remains committed to oil and gas

8 hours ago

Norway’s prime minister insisted the Scandinavian country would continue to drill for oil and gas, ahead of a re-election campaign in which the future of the fossil fuel industry will be intensely debated.

https://www.ft.com/content/91c54cf9-454 ... 3e61754ec6 fnf

The policy stance isn’t surprising given how central oil revenues are to Norway’s economy. The bigger question is how they balance this with long term climate commitments and public pressure.