The center-left coalition government’s decision to refuse a NATO request for Norwegian troops in southern Afghanistan surprised and infuriated the leaders of the Conservatives, the Progress Party and other non-socialist parties represented in Parliament (Storting).
Last week, at the peak of their anger, the opposition party leaders said they'd consider putting forward a motion of their own to send troops. They likely wouldn't have won support, but it would have sent a strong signal of displeasure to the sitting government.
Newspaper Aftenposten reported Tuesday that the opposition, however, didn't manage to agree on the wording of such a proposal, so it was dropped. That didn't stop them from putting tough questions to Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Defense Minister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen.
Mostly, they wanted a clear answer as to why the Labour Party-led government coalition decided to rebuff NATO, something they'd said they wouldn't do. "Was it a lack of money? Or a lack of troops? Shall they be sent to other places?" asked Erna Solberg, leader of the Conservatives (Høyre).
She claimed the government wouldn't answer. "What we see is a government bowing to (its coalition partner) SV (the Socialist Left), which is critical of NATO," Solberg said. "That's exactly what Labour, during the election campaign, said it would never do."
Progress Party leader Siv Jensen, who also vented her fury at government ministers last week, agreed with Solberg. She said the decision against sending troops "came like lightning from a clear sky," and the reason was "clearly domestic politics."
Jensen echoed other political observers' conclusions that since Labour had prevailed on another heated issue with the government coalition, the construction of a gas-fired power plant at Mongstad, it had to let partner SV prevail on the Afghanistan issue.
"SV couldn't send new soldiers to fight in Afghanistan just days after losing its fight on the Mongstad issue," said Jensen.
