Tuesday this week published VG an interview with investor and billionaire Stein Erik Hagen, who ended up in the shadow of the presentation of Erna’s new crew in the government. In connection with the Davos summit tend the Garden, to be generous with interviews in the Norwegian press, and it is good. But some of the answers he gives in the meeting with the VG is suitable to give gust down the back, and to set the current rules for partifinansiering in a bad light.
Stein Erik Hagen criticize in the interview, Erna Solberg. He has every right, as any Norwegian citizen. He is especially exasperated that the government cut too small in the net wealth tax. The garden characterizes it as an “incredible injustice” that “we must pay tax in Norway, while our foreign competitors release”.
This paper do not share Stein Erik hagen’s assessments of what is an incredible injustice in this context, but it is not that we react to. In the same interview going the Garden also with dulgte threats to phase out partistøtten to the Right. The garden has in recent years been one of the party the Conservative main economic contributors, among other things, an extraordinary grant of five million to stortingsvalgkampen in 2017. Then the same newspaper interviewed him about the amount, he gave Solberg praise and emphasized the need to cut the net wealth tax – a tax on working capital.
This tax is reduced under america’s reign, but not removed completely. Thus, the Garden apparently gone tired. The signal is that since the party does not do as he will, he will consider to stop with financial contributions.
This kind political pressures from private individuals or organizations is unfortunate for confidence in the Norwegian political system. On the right is the private contributors, and on the left hand side are the trade unions – with the LO in the tip – that make significant contributions to the political parties ‘ work. The garden’s contribution of five million in 2017 is little money for him, but much for the party – which had a total of 25 million in valgkampbudsjett this year. LO gave even more to the Ap, which had a valgkampbudsjett of 30 million.
amounts in the relative sizes are so huge, it means that they can have real impact. It is absurd, especially if we compare with what the Norwegian politicians decide over. The parliament manages each year a budget of over 1200 billion. The Norwegian its oil wealth on the 8000 billion is under political control. The assessment of the management of these values should occur with the voters as clients, not LO or the Garden. It should be a much lower ceiling on the grant amount, and the system for partifinansiering should be reviewed to create a system that ensures the policy greater credibility.