The careers of two of Norway’s most powerful female politicians are hanging in the balance after their husbands were found to be secretly trading in shares.
In two separate cases, the country’s foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, of the Labour party, and the Conservative party leader and former prime minister Erna Solberg, are facing calls to resign. They both deny having knowledge of what their husbands were doing.
Among those calling for resignations was Rasmus Hansson, a Green party politician, who said the two women were damaging the reputation of Norwegian politics. “Walk now. Please,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that if they refused to go their parties should remove them.
During Solberg’s two terms in office, from 2013 to 2021, her husband, Sindre Finnes, allegedly made more than 3,600 share deals, many of which would have disqualified her from the role.
“I mean very clearly that I have responsibility, and I have explained why: I thought I had fulfilled my responsibility,” Solberg, 62, said on Thursday. “I had no reason to believe that Sindre was deceiving me.”
She said that if she were to become prime minister again – she is hoping to be the lead conservative candidate in the 2025 election – her husband “cannot engage in share trading”.
On Thursday, she said she was willing to continue as party leader but that she would leave the decision to her party.
Finnes has issued a statement through his lawyer, admitting that he lied to his wife about his trading but said that he never acted on inside information, which would have been a criminal offence.
Finnes’ trading was revealed after Huitfeldt admitted that her husband, Ola Flem, had traded shares in companies that her decisions could have affected.
Huitfeldt, 53, was reprimanded by her government’s legal department for failing to get to grips with her partner’s financial activities. She should, she said, have “asked my husband what shares he owned”.
But since she did not know about the conflicts of interest, she said her decisions were sill valid, and she has been backed by the prime minister, her party leader, Jonas Gahr Støre.
Berit Aalborg, the political editor of the newspaper Vårt Land, said sexism plays a role in how the husbands of powerful wives are treated.
“That would not have happened if it was the other way around. These men are being made fun of because they are men with powerful wives,” she said.
“We like to think we have a high degree of gender equality in Norway. But this is a kind of sexism.”
• This article was amended on 22 September 2023 to clarify the context of a quote to an agency provided by Berit Aalborg.
