Newly crowned Storting President Masud Gharahkhani (Labor Party) dropped the last parliamentary session before Christmas.
At this meeting, the President of the Storting – with solemnity in his voice – tends to wish all the representatives a Merry Christmas. But this year the meeting was chaired by the 1st Vice President of Løvebakken, Svein Harberg (H).
The reason for the absence is that Gharahkhani has gone on Christmas vacation abroad, Dagbladet is told.
Erlend Wiborg (Frp) shakes his head.
– He is the new president, and he has said that the most important thing is to restore confidence in the Storting. Then he starts traveling on holiday from the Storting a couple of days before the Christmas holiday in the Storting begins, Wiborg tells Dagbladet.
Horror numbers
Serious moment
– The country is in a serious situation where cases related to the electricity crisis and the pandemic are being dealt with urgently. They try to save jobs and avoid layoffs, and then the president goes on holiday in the middle of this, Wiborg adds.
The FRP reminds that “ordinary people” must be able to spend Christmas holidays within the framework of the holiday, and that the President of the Storting should do the same.
– We are taking time off now, and will not meet again until 5 January. It is far longer than for ordinary people. I think this is an incredibly bad signal effect of a President of the Storting who has come out of the jump edge very skewed, says Wiborg.
Politicians’ unknown perks
Took over abruptly
Gharahkhani took over as Speaker of the Storting after Eva Kristin Hansen (Labor Party) resigned as a result of controversy surrounding a commuter home. Hansen got a commuter home from the Storting because she was registered at a dormitory she rented from Trond Giske in Trondheim.
At the same time she owned a house in Ski, just outside Oslo.
As Dagbladet recently wrote, Hansen has also used the Storting’s private drivers very diligently.
Will remove double holiday pay
Hansen abruptly resigned, and Gharahkhani suddenly became the new president of the Storting. The Labor Party top tells Dagbladet that the holiday was booked long before he got one of the country’s most prestigious jobs in his lap.
– The family’s holiday together was clarified long before it became relevant for me to become President of the Storting. During the holidays we will also meet family we have not seen in three years as a result of the pandemic. I briefed my colleagues in the presidency on this early after taking office. Svein Harberg has been an excellent acting president in my absence. Wish everyone a peaceful Christmas, says Gharahkhani in an e-mail to Dagbladet.
CRITICAL: Erlend Wiborg in Frp believes that the President of the Storting can go on holiday when there is no meeting in the Storting. Photo: Henning Lillegård / Dagbladet.
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Signal effect
He has been presented with all the statements from Erlend Wiborg.
– It’s not illegal to go on holiday, Wiborg?
– The signal effect is incredibly bad. It is not illegal, but as president he should at least make sure not to travel when the Storting meets. I have been sitting in the Storting for a few years, and I have never experienced that the president is not present in the rush in that way. It is not that there is a lack of non-meeting days in the Storting. Everyone else manages to take a holiday when there are no meetings, says the FRP profile.
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