Both Today’s business and TV 2 learns on Friday afternoon that the Støre government has appointed Anniken Huitfeldt to the prestigious post of new ambassador to the USA.
Only formalities remain before the former foreign minister is formally appointed. When the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs has processed the application and forwarded it to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, only the formal decision remains with the King in Council.
From 2013 to 2021, Anniken Huitfeldt was head of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Storting. From 2021, Huitfeldt Støres was foreign minister until October last year when she was stripped of the post in favor of Espen Barth Eide.
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Anniken out, Anniken in
Today’s US ambassador Anniken Krutnes will resign as ambassador in August and the government has worked to find a successor. The post of ambassador to the United States is considered one of the most important diplomatic positions one can hold in the Norwegian state apparatus.
But not everyone is equally happy that Huitfeldt has been chosen as the new US ambassador. The fact that she has been a current candidate has long been speculated about, something professor and former state secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Janne Haaland Matlary has wondered about.
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Professor Steiler: – Unacceptable
She believes that the post of ambassador should not be awarded to a politician, when the position is more professional.
– It is unacceptable that politicians are appointed to positions in the administration. Should a retired fisheries minister be offered the position of head of expedition in the Ministry of Fisheries? Politicization of the state administration is very unfortunate and destructive, because the distinction between subjects and politics is blurred. This weakens democracy and promotes populism when politics penetrates all sectors, says Matlary to DN.
Matlary was State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for KRF in Bondevik’s government at the end of the 90s, and has since become a professor of international politics at the University of Oslo.
– Professionalism is put aside to provide a “leg” for a resigned politician. Because diplomacy is a subject that requires experience and education. Therefore, a diplomat only becomes an ambassador in top places such as DC after at least 20-30 years in the service and with demonstrated skill and suitability, she tells the newspaper, adding:
– Acting as a diplomat is something completely different from being a politician: finesse, interpretation of what is said, communicating in small letters, thinking strategically – “discipline” that is not learned overnight, Matlary continues.
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– Gufs from the old Ap
Not only Matlary has problems with the fact that Huitfeldt has now been singled out as the new US ambassador. The same has Høyre’s Bård Ludvig Thorheim. In an interview with VG, he is not gracious in his description of the decision.
– The impression many people are left with – including me – is that this is a hoax from the old Labor Party that hands out positions to its own for faithful service, Thorheim tells the newspaper.
He adds that everyone knows the way Støre fired Huitfeldt as foreign minister and that it now looks like he is giving Huitfeldt the ambassadorship as a reward for going quietly in the door afterwards.
– You are not qualified for such a job by having been foreign minister. This is about qualities you must have, and that you have a heavy background as a diplomat. And there are many better qualified for this position than her, he continues to tell the newspaper.
2024-01-12 14:18:55
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