There is one rule for ordinary people and another for the elite.
A Norwegian ambassador has been charged with gross corruption. The spouse has been charged with complicity. A former Prime Minister and central figure in European politics has been charged in the same case.
These are among the most serious offences in criminal law. Nevertheless, there is one circumstance that burns itself into the minds of many: The State continues to pay full salary to a person who is relieved of the duty to work. Over NOK 1.5 million per year. Without work tasks, without a role, without responsibility.
Try saying the number out loud: 1,500,000 kroner. For nothing.
Try explaining it to a single mother sitting at the kitchen table worrying about the electricity bill. Try explaining it to a disability benefit recipient who must document every single attachment in dealings with Nav in order to receive a few thousand kroner. Try explaining it to health personnel who work themselves ill in a system that lacks both staff and resources.
It is here that trust begins to crack.
Not because people do not understand legal safeguards. Not because people want prejudgment. But because people register that consequences appear to strike differently – depending on where in the system you find yourself.
When ordinary employees become involved in serious criminal cases, they lose their job. They lose their income. They lose their security. The consequences come immediately – often before a legally binding judgment. When people at the bottom of the system make mistakes, the system is swift and merciless.
When people at the top of the system make a mess of it, they receive relief from the duty to work with full salary.
Two realities. Two regimes of justice.
It is this experience of inequality that is dangerous. Not only for a government, but for the entire political system. For trust is not a natural resource. It must be managed. It must be earned. And it presupposes that the rules are perceived as equal for all.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has repeatedly emphasised how important institutional trust and orderly processes are. But it is on his watch that support for the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) has fallen dramatically.
The party that historically has represented working people is experienced by an increasing number as the party of the system – for the civil service, for the inner circle of power, for those who always land softly when the wind blows.
No one disputes the right to salary during certain legal processes. No one disputes the presumption of innocence. But politics is also about signals. About the sense of justice. About what kind of society we wish to be.
When the difference between people and elite is experienced as structural, not incidental, the glue of democracy weakens. It is not envy that drives the reactions. It is the experience of double standards. And once it takes hold, it is difficult to repair.