Hello!
We just had Parlamentary elections here in Norway.
And we got a new government.
More than twenty different political parties were campaigning, and
seven got enough votes to get represented in the new Parliament.
Labour is still the largest party, this time with 35% of the votes.
But a coalision of three political parties that call themselves "The
Center Alternative", and who combined got 26% of the votes, has
formed the new governement.
One of the three political parties in government is "Christian
Peoples Party", and they got the Prime minister. His name is Kjell
Magne Bondevik. The most important issue for them is "Cash support" -
"Kontantstoette" - to parents with children who are not in
kindergarten. Every child in kindergarten gets about $400 per months
in support from the governement. "Christian Peoples Party" wants that
children who are not in kindergarten shall too get four hundred US
dollars per month as an extra cash support. This is now going to
happen, because so many political parties have said that they will
support this proposal that it is going to get a majority in the
Parliament. This does not mean that kindergartens are getting less
support. This is new money, and they are not being taxed. This comes
in addition to other benefits, like childrens benefits - about $150
per month per child (the double for single parents) - and
"birthmoney" - which on average is $15.000 per child - or for working
women 80% of a years salary, but for women who do not work only
between 4000 and 5000 US dollars.
I guess there are three main reasons for this new support to
children:
One is that there has been much writing about growing poverty in
Norway, and research show that of the poorest 60.000 persons in
Norway 20.000 are children. I guess this new support will reach those
children.
The second is fairness and equality: When one group of children -
those in kindregarten - is given all this support from the government
it is fair to give those who do not have a place in kindergarten the
same support.
And third: I guess this is an important part of the anti-abortion
policy of the "Christian Peoples Party". "Christian Peoples Party" is
anti abortion, but there are free abortion in Norway, and that is not
going to be changed. "Christian Peoples Party"'s policy is to try to
make it such a fine thing to raise a child that nobody will consider
abortion, and one way to do it is to poor money upon everybody that
has got to do with children, parents, schools, kindergartens etc.
It is a quite nice policy, I think.
Tor Forde
