Norway’s Labour-Center government has launched a war on crime, after what it calls a “brutal” summer marked by stabbings, shootings and gang wars, much of it tied to drugs. Recent arrests of the crown princess’ own son indicates the violence and lack of regard for the law extends far beyond troubled urban neighbourhoods, but that’s where three government ministers chose to present their own assault, funded by billions of taxpayers’ funds.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of the Labour Party likened criminal gangs to “poison against the common good” when he and the Center Party’s Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl and Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum offered leaks from their own state budget for 2025 at Mortensrud in Oslo on Monday. The troubled southern district of the Norwegian capital has long been plagued by social unrest and gangs, but crime linked to gangs and especially drug-dealing has spread nationwide.
Youth crime has soared in recent years. Norway’s state police directorate reported earlier this year that the number of crimes committed by children and youth rose by 28 percent from 2022 to 2023. Violent crimes have increased even more, especially among children under the age of 15.
Støre thus followed up his anti-crime crusade at his party’s national board meeting on Tuesday. He spoke of how four boys as young as 12 were recently arrested on a Saturday afternoon in the upscale area at Majorstuen in the heart of Oslo. All four were suspected of four robberies and attempted robberies. Støre also mentioned robberies in Drammen and Lillestrøm, an attack on a gay couple at posh Tjuvholmen in Oslo, and the arrests of two teenagers in Trøndelag suspected of as many as 80 criminal acts in Malvik, Stjørdal and Steinkjer.
Even though Norway is still widely viewed as a safe country, with Oslo as one of the world’s most secure capitals, Støre claimed, “it does something to us when youngsters threaten people with knives and then spread videos of it to show off their acts, or when they organize brawls, or sell drugs to children.” He thinks Norway’s summer of crime was both “brutal and ruthless.”
The crime wave hit a climax of sorts last month with the arrest of Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby, after he’d assaulted a girlfriend and vandalized her apartment in Oslo’s fashionable Frogner district. Høiby himself blamed his actions on a combination of alcohol and cocaine, and stated that he’s struggled with drugs for several years. He was arrested and briefly jailed again last weekend, and police ransacked the mountain cabin where he was staying, after he’d violated a restraining order. Cocaine use has become widespread in Norway in recent years, as rising affluence created a market for the addictive white powder.
Støre, a personal friend of the crown couple, didn’t mention Høiby in his remarks this week but vowed to get tough against all aspects of Norway’s crime wave, not least the drug trade. He claimed his government views the crime problem much more broadly than his political rivals on the conservative side of Norwegian politics, through its efforts to prevent crime and recruitment to criminal gangs.
The Labour-Center government intends to fund its efforts with an extra NOK 2.8 billion (USD 280 million), of which NOK 2.4 billion will be earmarked for the police to cover the costs of boosting personnel and having far more police out on the streets. In what’s called its “Gang Package II,” the government effort will also boost funding for prosecutors, the courts, prison staff, child welfare services, schools and local governments. The latter will be expected to use the extra funding for more preventative measures to keep kids away from gang recruiters.
At the same time, Støre stressed at his party meeting, reaction to criminal acts “will come faster,” and punishment will be aimed at bringing defendants “to a life without crime.” Police and the legal response to crime will be put on a new fast track of sorts for young defendants. There will also be a doubling of capacity at juvenile detention centers.
Støre defended the program, claiming that he wasn’t resorting to measures proposed by conservative rivals. He told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) after his address to the Labour Party’s national board that battling insecurity in society is at the core of his party’s social democratic principles.
Opposition politicians from the Conservative and Progress parties retorted that much of the Støre government’s proposals are rehashed from their own. The Progress Party also wants to lower the age at which Norwegians can be held liable for crimes, lengthen jail terms, double the punishment when gangs are involved, arm police at all times and set up special locked institutions for young criminal gang members.
Labour has voted against similar proposals in the past, which Støre excused by saying the time has only now come for them. He claimed his government also stresses preventative measures instead of reactive, especially in efforts to keep kids away from drugs and the gangs. Those measures can include employing youth counselors instead of police to meet with teenagers where they tend to hang out, working with families in troubled areas and recruiting youngsters to after-school sports programs, all of which would need firm funding commitments for years ahead.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
