Noruega

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (R) and Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store leave at the end of a press conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on 7 April 2025. Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images.

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Norway is facing a similar challenge to its long-term policy of remaining outside the EU as Finland and Sweden did with their stance on NATO membership three years ago.

Finland and Sweden’s foreign and security policies were for decades based on the idea that the Russian threat was manageable. But Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 posed a massive challenge to Finland and Sweden’s policy of remaining outside NATO.

From a Finnish and Swedish perspective, the fact that Ukraine was not a NATO member was an important factor. Helsinki especially saw clearly that any self-imposed restrictions for the sake of good relations with Russia would not be respected and thus not guarantee safety.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El gobierno de Noruega se ha convertido realmente en un especulador de la guerra, sosteníamos en un comentario en diciembre. Es una opinión compartida por varios políticos europeos y por los medios de comunicación europeos y noruegos. Pero en lugar de prestar atención, el gobierno noruego se pone a la defensiva.

Los hechos básicos no están en debate. Después de que el estallido de la guerra de Ucrania provocara una fuerte alza de los precios del gas natural en Europa, Noruega cosechó beneficios inesperados por alrededor de 108.000 millones de euros (113.000 millones de dólares), según el Ministerio de Finanzas noruego.…  Seguir leyendo »

Noruega se beneficia de la guerra de Ucrania

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Cuando el presidente ruso, Vladimir Putin, dio la orden de invadir Ucrania en febrero de 2022, seguramente no esperaba que uno de los vecinos de Rusia fuera el principal beneficiario de su guerra. Sin embargo, cuando las exportaciones rusas de hidrocarburos a Europa se desplomaron tras la invasión, Noruega se convirtió en el mayor proveedor del continente.

Debido al fuerte aumento de los precios del gas y del petróleo que siguió al estallido de la guerra, Noruega acabó beneficiándose con una enorme ganancia inesperada. En 2022 y 2023, cosechó casi 1,3 billones de coronas noruegas (111.000 millones de dólares) en ganancias adicionales procedentes de las exportaciones de gas, según estimaciones recientes del Ministerio de Finanzas.…  Seguir leyendo »

Lavvo - traditional dwellings of the Sami people - set up in front of the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, in October 2023, to protest against windfarms installed on herding areas for their reindeer. Photo: © Gorm Kallestad / NTB / AFP

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In Oslo, on Eidsvoll square outside of the Norwegian Storting, the Parliament of Norway, a Lavvo – a traditional temporary Sami dwelling – was put up on November 12, 2024. An unusual gesture by the Storting, which signified an opening to dialogue. During the day, the space was visited by indigenous and minority representatives, members of the Storting, and people passing by.

Meanwhile inside the Storting, parliamentarians were debating how to follow up on the report and recommendations for reconciliation delivered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on June 1, 2023. And it was in conclusion of this debate that the Storting issued a formal apology to the Sámi, Kven, Norwegian Finns and Forrest Finns:

“With this the Storting apologizes for the active role that previous Stortings have taken in the Norwegianization politics, and recognizes its responsibility for the consequences which these policies have had for groups as well as individuals”, Svein Harberg (Høyre/The Conservative Party) said on behalf of the Storting.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian fishing boats are moored in the harbor of Kirkenes, Norway, on July 4, 2023. James Brooks/AFP via Getty Images

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It’s back to the good old days of globalization in Norway—at least for some. A small town needs an investor for a major piece of infrastructure, and in certain foreign nations there are investors with deep pockets to be found. Local politicians energetically court the investor, who has money to spare and is keen to spread it around the world. Hooray! There’s hope for the town’s future!

This, alas, is 2024, and the piece of infrastructure concerned is the port in Kirkenes, Norway—which also happens to be the NATO port closest to Russia. The magnanimous investor: China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO.…  Seguir leyendo »

In Norway, the majority population has little or no knowledge of the language, culture and history of indigenous peoples and national minorities, according to the report by the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. © Olivier Morin / AFP

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At midday on June 1, Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chairman Dagfinn Høybråten handed over the final report to Norwegian parliament president Masud Gharahkhani at an official ceremony in Stortinget, Oslo. An hour later, only a few 100 metres away, leader of Kvääniteatteri (the Kven Theatre) Frank Jørstad took stage at the National Theatre to give the first reading aloud of the full TRC report, nearly 700-pages long. This reading took more than 35 hours and could be followed live on the national broadcaster NRK and listening posts around the country.

But other than these two events, the Norwegian TRC has rarely made national headlines in the nearly five years it has been working.…  Seguir leyendo »

The president of the Sámi parliament speaks on March 2, 2022 in Oslo to demonstrators from this indigenous Norwegian people who came to protest against the non-application of a Supreme Court decision concerning a wind farm built on traditional reindeer herding land. © Olivier Morin / AFP

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On March 6th, the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) conducted a larger hearing in the Norwegian Parliament with representatives of various parts of Indigenous peoples and national minorities, the Sami, Kven, Forest Finns and Norwegian Finns. The hearing coincides with intense protests that took place in Oslo last week, when Sami activists protested against outspoken inertia in the Norwegian state administration to act upon the verdict reached by the Norwegian Supreme Court in a case about a windfarms project in a Sami reindeer herding area. Sami activists called it a crisis of trust. A crisis which was also among the key concerns voiced in the TRC hearing.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Los recientes acontecimientos en Noruega podrían tener implicaciones trascendentales para los compromisos relacionados con el clima en la conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el cambio climático (COP26) que se celebrará en Glasgow el próximo mes de noviembre.

En agosto, un comité designado por el gobierno recomendó que Noruega dirigiera su fondo soberano de riqueza (SWF) en camino al logro de cero emisiones netas de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) hasta el año 2050, y que las actividades del fondo se tornaran consistentes con los compromisos de Noruega en virtud de los acuerdos internacionales sobre el clima. Poco después, el candidato del Partido Laborista noruego a primer ministro, Jonas Gahr Støre, confirmó que, de ser elegido, introduciría un objetivo de cero emisiones netas para el fondo.…  Seguir leyendo »

A memorial in Sundvollen overlooking Utøya island near Oslo, Norway, a few days after the 22 July 2011 assault. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

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Any visitor to the island of Utøya, some 38 kilometres from Oslo, is immediately struck by the smallness of it. It measures no more than 26 acres. It was here that, 10 years ago this month, Anders Behring Breivik massacred 69 people attending a Norwegian Labour party youth camp. As one walks along the island’s tiny, winding paths, it is not difficult to imagine the sheer horror of it all, as teenagers, full of life, joy and laughter, suddenly realised that the shots being fired in the distance were not firecrackers, that the visitor dressed in a fake police uniform was a murderer, and that the island had all too few places in which to hide.…  Seguir leyendo »

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La respuesta a la emergencia climática es difícil para todos, pero en particular para los países cuyas economías dependen de la extracción o producción de petróleo. La descarbonización es una oportunidad de iniciar una revolución industrial verde, pero conforme más y más naciones se sumen a este camino hacia la prosperidad futura, los activos, las tecnologías y las capacidades que dependen de los combustibles fósiles irán perdiendo valor, y eso pondrá en riesgo el empleo, las exportaciones y la innovación industrial en las economías dominadas por el petróleo.

Una de estas economías, Noruega (tercer mayor exportador de gas natural del mundo) hoy enfrenta un desafío singular.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Norway’s Conservative party prime minister Erna Solberg has cultivated a calculated ambiguity when confronted with the anti-Muslim rhetoric of her Progress party allies.’ Photograph: Marit Hommedal/EPA

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“Never again,” Norwegian politicians pledged, after the terrorist attacks perpetrated by rightwing extremist Anders Breivik on July 22 2011, the worst in the nation’s history. Yet just last month, an armed 21-year-old Norwegian, Philip Manshaus, stormed into a mosque in Bærum outside Oslo and opened fire, his actions inspired apparently by Breivik as well as recent terror incidents in New Zealand and El Paso.

Norway is generally portrayed in the international media as a haven of peace, prosperity, happiness and equality. So why has it produced so much violent rightwing extremism in the past decade?

In order to understand the phenomenon, we need to return to the many unacknowledged faultlines in the political and popular response to the terror of July 2011.…  Seguir leyendo »

Women shopping at a market in Herat, Afghanistan. Photograph: Jalil Rezayee/EPA

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My life story might be summed up like this: I’ve travelled from one of the worst countries in the world for women to one of the best countries. I am an Afghan refugee in Norway. Adaptation is a process, and comparing these two countries would be totally unfair but I would like to share my insights into what it feels like to be an independent woman in both countries.

As I write, I find myself on the shores of the Skagerrak strait in southern Norway. I’m on a typical cabin holiday, sitting by the water and feeling the fresh breeze playing with my curly, crazy hair at six in the morning.…  Seguir leyendo »

A hiker on Besseggen ridge. Koimages/iStock, via Getty Images Plus

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The Besseggen ridge juts from the earth as a curved spine of sharp, dark-gray stone and carves its way between two blue lakes in Jotunheimen, one of Norway’s many spectacular, wild national parks. “Jotunheimen” translates as “home of the giants”, and everything here is oversize, including the lakes. They are separated only by a narrow slice of the ridge yet have very distinct colors: Gjende is a long sweep of aquamarine; Bessvatnet is a dark royal blue.

Besseggen, a worthy destination for its otherworldly beauty alone, is also immortalized in national lore. Norway’s tourism board claims that Thor, the ill-tempered Norse warrior king, forged it by slamming his hammer into the earth.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Mon départ en Norvège n’avait pas seulement pour objectif de contribuer, comme chercheur, à une grande aventure scientifique. Je voulais aussi comprendre comment une nation a délibérément su orienter ses choix pour devenir un modèle environnemental. En chargeant la voiture, dans la chaleur (anormalement) écrasante du mois d’août, j’étais obsédé par cette question qui me hante et mobilise mes journées. Comme beaucoup de scientifiques, je vis dans cette urgence : s’arc-bouter pour limiter l’emballement de la machine climatique. Ne pas semer l’enfer dans lequel nos petits-enfants devront grandir.

Une jeunesse au creux des montagnes ardéchoises a probablement tissé cette fibre et cette sensibilité.…  Seguir leyendo »

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, left, listens as Jonas Gahr Store, leader of Norway’s Labor Party, speaks during a televised political debate Sept. 6. Norwegians head to the polls Sept. 11 to elect a new government. (Kyrre Lien/Bloomberg)

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Norway’s parliamentary election on Sept. 11 looks tight, with neither the Labor nor Conservative parties capable of winning an outright majority. The Center Party, a potential coalition kingmaker, has pulled ahead of the pack of smaller parties with a curious, anti-Oslo populist approach focusing on Norway’s center-periphery divide.

After the 2013 election, the center-right Conservatives and the anti-immigration Progress Party formed a minority government, with support from the Liberals and Christian Democrats. This government has survived the full parliamentary cycle, but polling since 2013 has shown considerable fluctuation in voter support (see Figure 1).

Here are four things to know:

1) The Center Party is on the rise, by being anti-center. …  Seguir leyendo »

People prepare for a swim in the Oslo fjord. Photograph: Aas, Erlend/AFP/Getty Images

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It’s always strange to live in a country that is listed as being one of the very best. When you have everything outwardly, it can make you look inwards. That’s when you sit down and think: “I wonder what Ryan Gosling is doing right now.” People in Syria do not worry about that stuff, for them happiness is something as simple as peace. But if you’re from safe little Norway, you’ve got loads of time to imagine what Ryan is up to. He’s probably eating lunch with Eminem and Benicio Del Toro. You know, just catching up with two old friends.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Sweden’s message to migrants in Europe is clear: Don’t come here. “Even we have our limits, and now they have been reached,” a defeated-sounding migration minister, Morgan Johansson, explained during a press conference on Nov. 5. “Those who come to our borders may be told that we cannot guarantee them housing.”

That message, nailed down this week when the government announced that Sweden was reintroducing border controls, was a sudden shift from an administration that had claimed there were “no limits” to the number of refugees it could accept. The reversal testifies not only to intensifying challenges Sweden faces abroad, but also to the dysfunctional nature of its immigration debate at home.…  Seguir leyendo »

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According to the worldview of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, the town of Kirkenes, Norway, is an illusion. To Mr. Putin, there is only east and west, two separate spheres split by a straight north-south line through Europe. But the place does actually exist: in Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county, just a few miles away from the Russian border and farther east than Sweden, Finland and the Baltic countries.

In geopolitical terms, one can see incredible things here. Huge fishing vessels with Cyrillic nameplates unload tons of king crab and cod at Kirkenes harbor, destined for the European market. Farther down the road, at the shopping mall — labeled in Cyrillic — Russian families from across the border come to purchase yogurt, cheese, winter coats and perfumes.…  Seguir leyendo »

Sedki Alimam fled Syria in 2011 and came to Sweden in January 2014. A graphic designer, he lives in a small apartment in Uppsala, and is looking for work. Martin Edstrom for The New York Times

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The narrow victory of the left-leaning Social Democratic Party in Sweden’s elections last Sunday marked a broad shift in its politics. But a new coalition government is unlikely to reconsider one of the country’s most challenging policies: its response to the Syrian civil war. Sweden has taken an open-door approach to people fleeing the conflict, accepting more Syrians than any other European country.

Never mind that Sweden has double-digit youth unemployment. That there have been riots in immigrant neighborhoods in Stockholm. That there is a severe housing shortage for new arrivals. Or that the Swedish Migration Board, which handles asylum seekers, needs a drastic budget increase — almost $7 billion — to cover soaring costs over the next few years.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Some 50 years ago, Njord, the mythological Norsk god of wealth, smiled on the hardworking fishermen and lumberjacks, and presented Norway with the gift of oil. In financial terms, this was a handsome gift indeed, currently translated into a natural bounty worth $740 billion.

Successive Norwegian governments pledged to save this wealth for the welfare of future generations. Yet, half a century after this windfall began, questions increasingly arise of whether Norway’s handling of its oil wealth has even withstood the test of the past, much less the future.

The country’s 2013 election campaign spawned a debate about the government’s management of the massive Norwegian Oil Fund.…  Seguir leyendo »