UPDATED: Negotiations over the Norwegian Labour government’s proposed state budget broke down during the weekend, at least among enough parties to form a majority in Parliament. Two of Norway’s five left-leaning political parties, the Greens and the Socialist Left (SV), declared they were putting the state budget talks “on pause” after losing patience with Labour over oil policy, and the Greens pulled out entirely on Saturday.

The Norwegian government’s state budget proposal is the single most important document that guides the country for the next year. Political negotiations over it broke down on Friday, for now. PHOTO: Morten Brakestad/Stortinget

“We have stretched ourselves far and been willing to go along with several issues that are difficult for us,” the Greens’ chief negotiator Ingrid Liland told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) late Friday afternoon, “but we don’t see the same goodwill from Labour. We don’t see any movement, only ultimatums.”

On Saturday the Greens’ party peader Arild Hermstad showed up to see whether he could bring the party back to the table. By mid-afternoon he declared his party had pulled out of budget talks because of deep differences on issues related to climate, the environment and solidarity.

SV had said much the same on Friday: “We don’t see any real willingness to come closer on issues that are important to us, and would make sure that this is a budget for welfare, the environment and solidarity,” said SV’s communications chief Espen Løkeland-Stai. He said SV would resume negotiations “when the Labour Party shows adequate willingness to meet us halfway.” SV leader Kirsti Bergstø showed up on Saturday and seemed keen to resume talks, while refusing to comment on the Greens’ withdrawal.

Labour, the Greens (MDG), SV, the Reds (Rødt) and Labour’s former government partner, the Center Party, have been negotiating for the past two weeks over the state budget proposal that Labour presented in October. It sparked immediate controversy, also from Center, not least because it deviated from several stands Labour had taken during the election campaign.

Election results in September also left Labour having to negotiate with four other parties on the left, never easy when they include two relatively far-left parties (SV and the Reds) and the much more conservative and protectionist Center Party. The Greens, which won enough votes to engage in budget negotiations for the first time, seemed positioned somewhat in the middle between Labour and Center on the one side (even though they also disagree on many issues) and the more radical SV and Reds on the other. The Greens remained steadfast on various climate issues that both Labour and Center apparently rejected.

Member of Parliament Ingrid Liland has been serving as the Greens chief budget negotiator over the past few weeks, but lost patience with Labour on Friday. PHOTO: Morten Brakestad/Stortinget

The Greens had also won important support from the large trade union federation Fagforbundet, which mostly represents public sector workers and has more than 400,000 members. It’s part of LO, Norway’s largest labour confederaton, which in turn is among Labour’s biggest supporters.

Newspaper Aftenposten reported on Friday that Fagforbundet supports the Greens’ key budget demand for a restructuring (omstilling) of Norway’s economy that’s long been dominated by oil and gas production. The Greens still want to halt exploration for new sources of oil and gas, draw up a plan for phasing out Norwegian oil and gas operations, raise the fee for carbon emissions and introduce a new fee on oil and gas production that would finance climate measures in developing countries.

“There’s no doubt that the oil and gas business must be restructured towards renewable energy,” Helene Harsvik Skeibrok, leader of Fagforbundet, told Aftenposten. “It’s absolutely crucial to make a plan for this.” The trade union federation’s former leader, Mette Nord, is also a member of Labour’s central board.

Yet Labour so far hasn’t budged from its rejection of the Greens’ plans to formally start preparing for the end of Norway’s oil era. There’s disagreement among Norway’s trade unions on the future of oil business, in which many other union members work. The Center Party is even more pro-oil than Labour and didn’t want to even discuss any changes in oil policy at the budget negotiations, while SV and Rødt supported the Greens’ phase-out plans.

Bjørn Arild Gram, who served as Norway’s defense minister when Labour and Center were government partners, has been leading budget negotiations for the Center Party. He’s shown here meeting local media when Labour’s state budget proposal was released in October. PHOTO: Morten Brakestad/Stortinget

Center Party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum had predicted “rough” budget negotiations of its own with Labour, which emerged as the biggest party in Parliament after the September election but with just 28.2 percent of the vote. Neither Center, SV, the Reds nor the Greens won more than 5.6 percent of the vote. That makes them more “equal” partners amongst themselves, but all with their own agendas.

Center, meanwhile, has accused its former minority government partner (Labour) of budget cuts similar to those proposed by the Conservatives in opposition. Center has lost much of its former power, though, going from 28 seats in Parliament to just nine after the recent election. All five left-center parties together hold just 49.3 percent of the vote and a bare majority of seats in Parliament. Now, with the Greens gone from budget negotiations, Labour will only have firm support for its budget from around 45 percent of Parliament, meaning it will still have to negotiate with other parties in opposition to get it through.

In a “worst case scenario,” according to election researcher Johannes Bergh, Norway faces a government crisis if Labour fails to agree on a state budget with the smaller left-center parties. The budget was supposed to be “in the box” by Sunday, when the Parliament’s finance committee is due to present its position on state funding for next year and debate in Parliament can begin. Tuva Moflag, who’s been leading budget negotiations for Labour, seemed to downplay the Greens’ and SV’s “pause” in negotiations and claimed they would resume, telling NRK that everyone “needs some rest before we continue.”

Budget negotiations have continued in overtime before, and no action on the budget is expected before Friday December 5. Now the talks will rise to the party leader level, although there was still lots of disagreement among all of them during a nationally televised debate on NRK Thursday night.

Greens leader Arild Hermstad was triumphant on election night in September, but walked out of state budget talks on Saturday. PHOTO: Morten Brakestad / Stortinget

Greens leader Hermstad complained at a press conference Saturday afternoon that Labour Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre may well “throw the country into a government crisis” by refusing to go along with some of the Greens’ proposals. “He has not taken the opportunity to make a budget that takes care of the globe for those who come after us,” Hermstad said. “We couldn’t approve and vote for a budget that weakens climate policy in Norway.” If Støre should change his mind, Hermstad added, “he has my telephone number.”

Election analyst Bergh doesn’t think Støre, after just winning a second term in office, will step down over the budget and turn government power over to the conservative side. That could propel Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug into the prime minister’s office, since Progress emerged as the biggest party on the conservative side, and all five parties would want to avoid that.

“You can say that the red-green (left-center) parties are doomed to succeed,” another election researcher, Bernt Aardal, told newspaper Dagsavisen. “They have to agree in the end, because there’s way too much at stake for all of them.”

NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund