The betrayal of Norwegian democracy, popular rule, and self-determination.
5 December 2023 marks a dark chapter in Norwegian democratic history.
With a massive majority, the Storting adopted an amendment to Section 2 of the EEA Act (EØS-loven), a change which in practice “walls up the door” to national sovereignty.
– Ap, Høyre, FrP, Venstre, MDG, SV and
Only Rødt and a few breakaways stood on the barricades for the Norwegian people!
81 votes to 19.
By enshrining in law that EU law shall have unrestricted supremacy over Norwegian law in the event of conflict, our elected representatives have removed the last legal emergency brake Norway formally possessed, thereby confirming that the duty of loyalty to the EU has always been decisive.
For over 30 years, successive governments and the Storting have spoken warmly of “national room for manoeuvre” and the “right of reservation”, as if Norway can decide for itself and opt out of what it does not like from EU requirements.
This legislative amendment reveals that this has merely been a performance for the gallery.
By describing a fundamental shift of power as a “technical clarification”, one has once again deliberately avoided a genuine debate on the Constitution (Grunnloven) and the transfer of sovereignty.
By allowing Section 2 of the EEA Act to override everything else, the Constitution is degraded from being the people’s shield to becoming a historical document without practical supremacy in the most important areas of society (the economy, energy, working life).
It is a mockery of popular rule that such a far-reaching change is smuggled through as office work, without any discussion in the public sphere. One cannot be “a little” sovereign, just as one cannot be “a little” pregnant.
Either the Norwegian people possess supreme authority in their own country, or they do not.
Popular rule presupposes that those we elect actually have the power to change course.
Now that the door has been “walled up”, the course is locked by a foreign power.
Perhaps most striking for most people is the participation of the Centre Party (Senterpartiet). By voting to strengthen the supremacy of EU law, they confirm my suspicion that they have merely functioned as a “managed opposition” since 1992.
The Centre Party builds its support on opposition to the union during election campaigns, but in office they choose system loyalty to Brussels over their own party programme and their electoral promises to the people.
The Storting’s vote shows that loyalty to the EEA system overrides loyalty to those voters who want a free and independent country, and who on two occasions have voted in accordance with Section 1 of the Constitution.
The legislative amendment confirms that we have moved from popular rule to foreign rule.