Støre’s coup: Norway secretly joins French nuclear strategy

Jonas Gahr Støre is on the verge of carrying out a coup in the best Obama style: If public opinion stands in the way, one goes behind its back. Støre has now placed Norway under the French nuclear umbrella. That French Rafale aircraft will be able to land at Norwegian airports armed with nuclear weapons will alter our relationship with Russia.

The concept of the Eastern Front acquires a new meaning.

Norway has embraced an entirely new concept in which war against Russia is in active mode. This concerns a long-term strategy. Our relationship with the Americans will also change, for they have good reason not to trust the French.

What was supposed to provide us with security will create the opposite. France is a country in decline, merely a shadow of itself, with enormous internal problems.

Not least, Støre’s methods reveal a politician who behaves like a thief in the night. He sneaks off to Paris and presents Norway with a fait accompli.

Janne Haaland Matlary spoke on Helgemorgen as though the French nuclear umbrella were a done deal. We pricked up our ears. Did she know something we did not know? Evidently. Macron was solid and level-headed, she claimed. Now Europe was to rearm and Germany had the money. In what world does she live?

What we are witnessing increasingly resembles the prelude to the First World War.

Macron issued the invitation in March 2026. Two months pass, and Støre is hooked. This is precisely what he has been waiting for. He enters into an agreement behind the back of the nation like the coward he is, instead of playing with open cards. Presumably he does not dare. Norway does not wish to end up at war with its great neighbour in the east, and certainly not in a nuclear war.

This has been a cornerstone of Norwegian security policy throughout the entire post-war period. Now that line has been broken by a government originating from the Labour Party, but it does not appear that this makes any impression on Støre. He is little concerned with tradition. For him, the labour movement has been an instrument of governance. This was his historical task: to enrol Norway in Europe, to complete the work Gro began.

That is the essence of his policy: He knows best, he belongs on the parquet floor in Brussels, and the Norwegian people are most graciously permitted to stand outside and look in.

We are back in the feudal age. It is not even an enlightened absolutism, for this regime does not like enlightenment. It thrives best in closed rooms, and emerges only to brief the press.

That it is a social democratic prime minister who is betraying Norway for a great-power game in Europe will leave lasting marks, if we survive.

Støre floated a trial balloon on Tuesday when he issued an appeal for total mobilisation. We were to be permitted to serve as cannon fodder in a new war. There is a slight taste of Goebbels — Wollen sie den totalen Krieg — and of Mussolini’s Italy in these tones.

New agreement to ensure the right people in the right place during national crises

The cooperation agreement is intended to ensure rapid mobilisation during national crises. On Tuesday, the parties in working life and the government signed a new declaration of cooperation.

– If we are to safeguard Norway’s security, the whole of society must step forward. Public authorities, the parties in working life, voluntary organisations, and the business sector, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labour Party).

– Working people are the first line of preparedness, and the parties know where the shoe pinches and which measures actually work. We must have people at work, and in the right place, in order for critical social functions to operate, Støre continues.

The agreement between the government, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) is intended to ensure clearer coordination and better utilisation of resources during national crises. In order to ensure the deepest possible democratic anchoring, the parties in working life are to be involved as far down as possible, the agreement states. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on trust and openness, flexibility, and proximity.

The agreement is to be upheld by placing preparedness on the agenda during the annual meetings of the government’s contact committee.

– The goal is for critical services to be maintained and for the consequences for the population during a crisis to be reduced, says Minister of Labour and Inclusion Kjersti Stenseng (Labour Party). (NTB)

Does Støre also suffer from a Napoleon complex? Total mobilisation? Things are proceeding at furious speed here.

Earlier on Wednesday came the message that Labour, the Conservatives, the Green Party (MDG), and the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) support allowing the ESA to fine Norwegian companies directly, instead of proceeding through Norwegian authorities. The EU gains yet another foothold within Norway. But the majority say never mind. After all, they already have it. The EU will take the whole hand sooner or later anyway.

Labour, the Conservatives, the Green Party (MDG), and the Christian Democratic Party (KrF) give the thumbs-up to the EU regulation on state aid. It grants the supervisory body ESA more power.

This emerges from a recommendation from the Storting’s Standing Committee on Business and Industry, which was presented on Tuesday. The matter is to be formally voted on next Tuesday.

A yes to the revised EU regulation entails that the EFTA Surveillance Authority ESA is granted authority to obtain information directly from Norwegian companies.

In the event of breaches of the duty to provide information, ESA may also impose fines and coercive fines directly upon the companies, the recommendation states.

This entails a certain transfer of authority, since until now it has only been the state that could impose such fines. (NTB)

Støre does not need to hold any referendum on the EU. He manoeuvres the ship in such a way that we sail into EU waters and dock at the quay. Then he ensures that we are bound hand and foot with so many regulations that it becomes impossible to break free.

The strategy is easy to see through.

But will anyone protest? Will they understand the gravity?

Is there anything left of the spirit of ’72 and ’94?

Time will tell.

Opinion

Støre’s coup: Norway secretly joins French nuclear strategy