The domestic political situation is changing in Norway, and this also means other tasks for King Harald and Crown Prince Haakon. Following last week’s parliamentary elections in Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg has informed the King that she would resign in October. She recommends that the monarch prepare to ask the leader of the Labour Party to form a new government in Norway. The King still had to make changes in the Norwegian government as early as Monday after a minor crisis at the very end of the Conservative government’s eight-year rule.
It was revealed by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten” that the Minister for Children and Families in Norway, Kjell Ingolf Ropstad, is suspected of avoiding paying taxes of more than 600,000 Norwegian crowns (about 60,000 USD or 50,394 GPB). He admitted to the matter, even though he believes that the Norwegian tax authorities gave him the wrong advice. On Saturday, it became known that Ropstad wanted to resign both as leader of the Christian Democratic Party, the Conservatives’ support party, and as a minister in Erna Solberg’s government.
This happened only a few weeks before he had to resign as a result of a new government. It is the Minister of Agriculture and Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Party who will take over both Ropstad’s role as leader of the party and his position as Minister of Children and Families until the new government is ready. His Majesty King Harald accepted the rapid changes in an Extraordinary Council of State at the Royal Palace in Oslo on Monday, 20 September.
The Council of State in Norway consists of the most senior members of the government. They are chosen by the country’s Prime Minister. It usually meets once a week, on Fridays, at the Royal Palace in Oslo with the Norwegian monarch present.
