The new Norwegian government

Erna Solberg, the new Prime Minister of Norway has formed her government, giving two key portfolios, finance and oil, to the smaller partner, the Progressive Party. Siv Jensen is the new Finance Minister. (This is what I wrote about her some years ago and this more recently.)

The new government, promising to lower taxes, reduce the economy’s reliance on the vast oil sector, invest heavily in infrastructure and curtail immigration, now has just a few weeks to revise the outgoing government’s 2014 budget to reflect its own policies.

This will be a minority government but that is not so unusual in Nordic countries (used to happen here as well)and, in any case, “the Conservatives have enlisted the formal outside backing of the Liberals and the Christian Democrats to ensure stability”. And no, before you ask, the question of EU membership is not on the agenda.