Storting President Eva Kristin Hansen resigns – VG

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Oslo State Attorneys have in fact ordered the Oslo Police District to investigate Storting politicians have committed fraud or other offenses in connection with the receipt of commuter flats from the Storting.

Self if they have not ordered the police to investigate named persons, Eva Kristin Hansen refers to the investigation when she justifies the decision to withdraw:

– I think it is unsustainable for the Storting to have a Storting president who is under police investigation. I have therefore contacted my party leader and parliamentary leader and informed that I will resign as Speaker of the Storting, she further states.

• Background – this has happened: Adresseavisen revealed that the President of the Storting had a free commuter apartment in Oslo for several years, at the same time as she and her husband lived in Nordre Follo municipality, only 29 kilometers from the Storting. The limit for getting a commuter home is 40 kilometers. The revelation was extra special because the Storting president this autumn announced a clean-up of the Storting’s arrangements for commuter housing, following Aftenposten’s revelations about several other politicians. And then she herself had also broken the regulations.

According to VG’s information, the Storting’s presidency must have been convened for an emergency meeting on Thursday afternoon. At this meeting, they are said to have been informed that the public prosecutor had ordered an investigation, and that a press release on this would be issued shortly. VG is informed that no name of who will possibly be investigated was given at the meeting.

Acknowledges that she should inform the Storting

Hansen has previously said that she thought it was “inside” with commuter housing because she also had a lease on a home in Trondheim, where she was registered. In her statement to the Storting, she admits to breaking the rules:

– I acknowledge that I should have informed about my purchase of the home in Nordre Follo. Today I see that it was a misjudgment that I can only regret, she writes.

It was FrP’s parliamentary leader Sylvi Listhaug as Hansen to report on the matter to the Storting. Here you can see how Listhaug reacts to the departure:

When Hansen found out about the investigation, the written statement to the Storting was ready, and about to be sent out.

– I have not had any idea that I have broken rules before this week, Hansen writes in the statement to the Storting.

And this is how she explains why she did not address her own breach of the rules when she promised clean-up in the Storting’s scheme for commuter housing earlier this autumn:

– Only when the case came up early this week, I became aware that I could have been wrong. This is an acknowledgment I have received with shock because I had not thought of the idea that I could have broken the rules. When I was elected President of the Storting, I was sure that I did not have my own mistakes of this type in the past. Therefore, I have not felt the need to do anything about my own case after other representatives’ cases have appeared in the media, she continues.

The President of the Storting is the second highest ranked in Norway, after the king.

– I would like to apologize for the situation that has arisen in that I have misinterpreted the regulations on commuter housing and thus violated the regulations. It is particularly unpleasant because I, as the Storting’s chief shop steward, have a special responsibility to keep my own affairs in order. This is painful because it affects the Storting and everyone who works here, Hansen writes.

Here you can hear what Hansen said about earlier today:

This is how she explains the violation

• Got free housing: The Storting owns a number of homes in Oslo, which will cover the housing needs of Storting representatives who are registered or actually live more than 40 km in driving distance from the Storting. From 2005 to 2017, Hansen had such a free home.
• Bought a house in 2014: Since 2011, she has rented a home in Trondheim, where she says that she lived when she was in Trondheim and has paid rent. This is where she was registered when she in 2014 she bought into her husband’s house in Ski.
• The house is located under 40 kilometers from Oslo, but still she was still registered in Trondheim and had free commuter housing in Oslo. In her statement to the Storting, she maintains that she did not fully move into Ski in 2014.

– I continued to stay in the commuter apartment and in Trondheim. This is the reason why I did not think of reporting a move to Nordre Follo at that time, Hansen writes to the Storting.

• She says that she was not familiar with the Storting’s administration since 2009 and has practiced the rule that not commuter housing is provided if housing is available within 40 kilometers.
• Terminated the free home in 2017: Only in 2017, when she announced her move to Ski, did she cancel her commuter home. In the statement to the Storting, she writes that the decision was not made because she suspected that she had broken rules.

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