MANAGER
Ecocrime must go into its own accord after the handling of the Huitfeldt case.
NOT BEING INVESTIGATED: Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt during a press conference on the competency assessment that the legal department in the Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness carried out in connection with her husband’s stock trading. Photo: Annika Byrde / NTB Show more
Editor: This is an editorial from Dagbladet, and expresses the newspaper’s view. Dagbladet’s political editor is responsible for the editorial.
Published on Friday 08 September 2023 – 22:37
Thursday afternoon at 16.15 came the press release from Økokrim stating that was no basis for investigating Anniken Huitfeldt. Then the discussion about a possible insider position had been going on for over a week, after it became known that her husband had been active on the stock exchange while she had been foreign minister.
Politicians must of course come to terms with being investigated in the same way as other people. That is why it is also extremely important that the police and prosecution can work independently of political influence. We can truly establish that Økokrim has done this in this case.
Despite this, have they contributed to a large extent themselves to the fact that they have become a political factor at the end of the election campaign. First they stated that this was no matter for them, then Ecocrime chief Pål Lønseth declared himself incompetent. This week they have left the whole matter hanging in the air again. It ended with them making statements on Wednesday that a decision would be made “on Thursday or Friday”. So it arrived on Thursday afternoon.
In the meantime, a vacuum arose, which to a certain extent has paralyzed both the government, Huitfeldt and the election campaign itself. Because it is inconceivable that Huitfeldt could continue in government if she was put under investigation. A departure at the very end of the last week of the election campaign would overshadow all other politics. Also the closing party leader debate on Friday evening, which was initially the prime minister’s most important task that day, would have become a parenthesis.
In 2021 had to Eva Kristin Hansen (Ap) resigns as president of the Storting after the state attorney ordered an investigation into her in the commuter housing case. She was later completely cleansed, but it was of little help. In reality, it was the state attorney who deposed Hansen. Those who remember all the way back to the US presidential election campaign in 2016 may remember that FBI Director James Comey announced a week before the election that he would reopen the investigation into presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. This may have contributed to Donald Trump’s election victory.
It is not taken here position on whether Økokrim’s decision in the Huitfeldt case was wrong or right. That debate is in full swing and Huitfeldt’s political position has not been decided anyway. It would also have been objectionable if Økokrim postponed the decision until after the election. The question, on the other hand, is whether, with the history from other cases in mind, they could have handled the Huitfeldt case in a way that led to less risk of Økocrim becoming the biggest theme of the election campaign.
2023-09-08 20:42:04
#Økokrims #election #campaign
