The Norwegian elite is beginning to go bananas in relation to the United States. The rhetoric that has been cultivated for four years against Russia is now being transferred to Trump’s America. That will entail costs for Norway internationally. Oslo’s Finance Councillor, Hallstein Bjercke (Liberal Party), says that the United States is “governed by a madman surrounded by tech oligarchs”.

The statement was made at a seminar in Lillestrøm on security in the public sector. American tech companies are now being assessed as a threat.

First came monetisation, the notion that Google and Facebook were a threat to the profitability of the media. They ran off with the money. Then came privacy concerns and indirect surveillance and control. But Apple, Google and Meta no longer dance to the Democrats’ tune. They are co-operating with the Trump administration to make the United States successful. They will emerge as winners. Especially in AI.

It is this hegemony that the EU and Norway are challenging. An order has gone out that the public is to be prepared for the United States being the enemy.

Defence and the government have their headquarters in Oslo. They receive electricity and water from the municipality, like everyone else, and many of our other functions are also critical to society, says Bjercke.

At the same time, it is not primarily Microsoft that worries Bjercke.

– We have great respect for Microsoft. We have been their customer for a long time and are one of their largest customers in Norway. But we have an ambition to become less and less dependent on them going forward.

The major concern is the American authorities.

– The United States is now governed by a madman who surrounds himself with tech oligarchs, says Bjercke.

He is pleased that Minister for Digitalisation Karianne Tung said the same thing in an interview with VG in April.

Aftenposten points out that the police in the state of Schleswig-Holstein have switched to Linux.

Bjercke advocates open-source solutions.

Europe has begun to realise that we must step up, says Bjercke.

He wants the marketplace of the Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management (DFØ) to offer European “open source”-based platforms and solutions. In addition, he wants DFØ to ensure that all national cloud initiatives are also made available to the municipalities.

This appears to be a political idea without grounding in reality. How secure are open-source platforms against hacking? Infiltration?

The shift appears politically driven. The goal is separation from the United States.

That could prove expensive.