On 14 October 2021, Jonas Gahr Støre's cabinet ministers were appointed by King Harald V. The cabinet consists of 19 ministers;[3] one fewer than the previous Solberg cabinet. It has eleven ministers from Labour and eight from Centre, reflecting the parties' numerical strength in Parliament.[4]
The cabinet consists of ten women and nine men, two of whom (Brenna and Vestre) survived the 2011 Norway attacks.[5][6] At age 28, Emilie Enger Mehl became the youngest person to serve as the minister of justice in the Norwegian government. This is also the third time in Norwegian history that a cabinet has a women majority.[7][8] The coalition is politically centre-left.[9]
A cabinet reshuffle was held on 16 October 2023. The Minister of Digitalisation position was re-established, thereby increasing the number of ministers to 20.[10]
Throughout its tenure the Støre Cabinet has been marred by scandals that first began in 2022.[12]
Hadia Tajik
In an 18 February 2022 post on her Facebook page, Tajik accused Aftenposten for wanting to make a scandal out of her usage of a parliamentary apartment in 2019.[13] She said that Aftenposten had forced her to admit that she misused the system for three months in 2019 or openly discuss her security situation, the latter which she refused to discuss.[14]Trine Eilertsen, the editor for Aftenposten, said in response that they had tried to get an interview with Tajik since 31 January, but Tajik had only wanted to give answers in writing.[13]
In the following weeks, it was also revealed that Tajik had been avoiding tax on a fringe benefit by having had a rental contract for an apartment in Rogaland in 2006, but never used or paid for it as she was at the time using a government apartment in Oslo.[15] Both media analysts and legal experts concluded that the avoidance would count as both cheating and tax fraud, with calls for her to resign quickly following.[16][17] Tajik ultimately announced her resignation on 2 March, formally doing so two days later. She was succeeded by petroleum and energy minister Marte Mjøs Persen on 7 March.[18][19][20]
Odd Roger Enoksen
In early April, Hilde Lengali [no] a former deputy leader of the Nordland Centre Party, delivered a formal complaint against Enoksen, alleging that he had inappropriately touched her and commented on her look about 20 years prior. Enoksen responded saying that he had no recollections of said events with the exception of the mentioned comment. He did however issue an apology for what happened.[21]
Despite his apology to Lengali, another woman, who remained anonymous, came forward with a similar story about a relationship with Enoksen when he was petroleum and energy minister. In the early hours of 9 April, Enoksen announced that he had asked to resign as defence minister.[22] Later the same day, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced that he had accepted Enoksen's resignation.[23] Enoksen left his position on 12 April, and was succeeded by local government minister Bjørn Arild Gram.[24]
Tonje Brenna
In June 2023, Verdens Gang revealed that Brenna had approved in May for a close friend, Frode Elgesem, to become a member of the central board of Wergelandsenteret who provides funds to Utøya AS, where her former spouse Martin Henriksen sits as a member. Brenna admitted to not having considered her impartiality, and reported the matter to the Storting's Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs and also asked for an interim minister to assume her duties while the matter is being investigated. International development minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim was appointed interim minister and handled cases were Brenna had not been impartial.[25] Unlike other cabinet members who faced scandals, Brenna was kept in place until being appointed minister of labour and social inclusion in the October 2023 reshuffle.[10]
In February 2024, Brenna was criticised by the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs for her mishandling of partiality in the distribution of monetary support to the Rafto foundation, Wergeland - centre and Utøya AS. She was also criticised for her appointment of a close friend to the board of the company.[26] Her former spouse as well as two of her close friends were already members of the board, in addition to the close friend she was in the process of appointing before recusing herself for not being impartial to the matter.[27]
On 3 April, the committee announced that it would be seeking to determine whether she had broken her duty to inform parliament in regards to providing accurate and relevant information pertaining to the case.[27] According to Aftenposten, Brenna has been given until the 12 April to respond to their questions regarding the matter.[27]
Anette Trettebergstuen
Mere 24 hours following the revelations about Tonje Brenna, Nettavisen revealed that Trettebergstuen had been involved in a similar case when she appointed two colleagues from the Labour Party to the board of Norsk Tipping, one of which was appointed chair of the board. Trettebergstuen confirmed that she had evaluated her impartiality when it came to the appointment of one of them, Thomas Breen, but not the other, Sylvia Brustad. She reasoned that her relation to Brustad wasn't strong enough to warrant an impartiality assessment.[28] Two days later, Aftenposten revealed that Trettebergstuen had earlier in June nominated close friend Renate Larsen to the board of the Oslo Opera House. The newspaper also revealed that she had made two other appointments as well without impartiality considerations, one of which is also a godparent to her son. At a press conference the same day, Trettebergstuen announced that she would resign as culture minister.[29] She formally resigned on 28 June and was succeeded by Lubna Jaffery.[30]
Ola Borten Moe
A month following the Brenna and Trettebergstuen cases, NRK revealed that Borten Moe had appointed "an old acquaintance", Karl Eirik Haug, to the board of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in December 2021 and that the Ministry of Education had considered him impartial in the issue. However the nature of the appointment is classified. Borten Moe knew both Haug and his wife Monica Rolfsen, with both he also served with in the Trondheim City Council, and Borten Moe had also attended their wedding.[31] Later that month, on 21 July; E24 revealed that Borten Moe had bought weapons stocks in Kongsberg Gruppen. He also admitted that he had breached the government's guidelines for stock trading and had not considered impartiality in the matter.[32] The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime announced that they would open an investigation into his dealings.[33] At a press conference the same day, Borten Moe announced that he would resign as higher education minister.[34] He formally resigned on 4 August and was succeeded by agriculture minister Sandra Borch.[35]
Anniken Huitfeldt
In late August 2023, Huitfeldt informed Verdens Gang that she had breached several impartiality rules with her husband Ola Flem having bought stocks in several weapons and fisheries companies. Both Huitfeldt and her husband apologised for the situation, while prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre expressed that he still had trust in her based on her apology.[36] The Progress Party later asked her to consider resigning when discrepancies in her public revealed and undisclosed information were revealed to contradict each other.[37] Similar to Tonje Brenna, Huitfeldt was kept as minister until the October 2023 cabinet reshuffle. Unlike Brenna, Huitfeldt was dismissed and replaced with Espen Barth Eide as foreign minister.[10]
Sandra Borch
In January 2024, E24 revealed that parts of Borch's master's thesis had been plagiarised ten years prior. The case led to multiple calls for her resignation by both academic and legal experts, and she ultimately announced her intention to do so on 19 January.[38][39][40][41] She formally resigned on 23 January and was succeeded by her state secretary, Oddmund Løkensgard Hoel.[42] In March of the same year, the University of Tromsø announced that her thesis would be annulled and Borch confirmed that she wouldn't object to the decision.[43]
Ingvild Kjerkol
In January 2024, it was revealed that the master's thesis of Kjerkol had[44] similarities to other papers.[45] The story broke shortly after the case involving Borch and placed the minister under heavy scrutiny. On 21 January, Støre affirmed his trust in the minister and expressed that he sees it as important that the case should be treated as that of any other student.[45] In 2021, Kjerkol pursued a master's degree in knowledge management at Nord University.[46] The thesis bears similarities to a case report in the same field that was not cited in the sources by Kjerkol and her undisclosed writing partner.[47] In addition to bearing similarities to other papers and reports in the field, the thesis may also allegedly constitute research fraud.[48] This allegation was made by Hans Fredrik Marthinussen, a professor of law at the University of Bergen.[49] Marthinussen contended that it may be fraudalent research if it was true that Kjerkol presented answers collected from participants in another research project as her own findings.[50] Kjerkol has since the revelations vehemently denied any wrongdoing and insisted that what may appear as plagiarism is instead a result of having used similar methods to other researchers in the field.[51]
On 26 January, it was revealed that the university would examine the case in order to determine whether the paper contains plagiarised passages[52] and on 8 March 2024, the case was reported to have been referred to Joint Complaints Board that will ultimately decide the case.[53]
On 2 April, it was revealed that Kjerkol had hired a lawyer to represent her in the upcoming decision by the board.[54] The lawyer hired by Kjerkol, Marianne Klausen was herself formerly a part of the Joint Complaints Board, which is the highest body ruling on cases pertaining to plagiarism and cheating by Norwegian students in higher education.[55] Klausen served for two periods but was dismissed shortly after being appointed a third time, due to having been unlawfully appointed to the board by Sandra Borch.[56] The hiring of Klausen was controversial not only due to the prior revocation of appointment but also due to Klausen's high fees as a lawyer. The controversy stemmed due to it first being reported that the university would pay for the representation. However, this was quickly corrected by Kjerkol who clarified that she would be paying for the lawyer herself.[54]
On 11 April, the Joint Complaints Board of Nord University confirmed that they had found the thesis to contain plagiarized sections. As a result of which, Kjerkol's degree will be revoked.[57] She received the university's verdict on 12 April, which concluded that she had cheated with intent. Later that day, she and prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced that she would resign as minister.[58] She was succeeded by trade minister Jan Christian Vestre on 19 April.[59]
On 2 May, her lawyer announced that Kjerkol would appeal the verdict from Nord University.[60]
Notes
^Minister of Petroleum and Energy until 1 January 2024.[11]
^Gaarder, Tharald Halvorsen, Kristoffer Solberg, Renate Karlsmoen, Jorun (19 January 2024). "Flere deler er identiske". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 19 January 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
