Young Ambassadors visit the Norwegian Parliament

January 19, 2012

President of the Storting, Dag Terje Andersn (Ap) talked about democracy and political participation.

MP Line Henriette Hjemdal (Krf) gave the Young Ambassadors a guided tour of the Storting.

By Young Ambassador Erlend

The Young Ambassadors Program has had a tremendous start this year. After last week’s inspiring trip to the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, we had finished the cultural part of the program, which was described by fellow participant Emma Moberg as something that had: “expanded the cultural horizon of the Young Ambassadors”. Tom Remlov, the Managing Director, emphasized the democratic aspects of the Opera and Ballet, which made this week’s visit to the Norwegian Parliament a natural transition.

We were met by MP Line Henriette Hjemdal (KrF) who gave us an interesting tour of the building. We walked through the “Vandrehall” where the press was still interviewing politicians after the hearing of Minister Trond Giske in the Telenor/TV2 case. She introduced us to the “trias politica” or the theory of separation of powers coined by Montesquieu, and the guided tour peaked when we arrived in the Storting Chamber where we were told that unlike the French Parliament, the Norwegian Parliament’s Chamber hemicycle is divided regionally by counties and not by political parties.

The President of the Parliament and the man sitting literary face-to-face with the king (from his office he can see straight up to the palace), Dag Terje Andersen (Ap), was the first person to give us a lecture. He talked about democracy and political participation with a clear focus on history. He reminded us of Johan Sverdrup’s words by quoting: “All power in this hall”. I think he enlightened most of us with his informative speech, and he encouraged us to keep fighting for our democratic rights even though most of us take it for granted. Democracy has to be created every single day, as Vaclav Havel once said.

Our next presenter was Truls Wickholm (Ap) who introduced us to the interesting process of political influencing, or more often called lobbying. He talked about when and how it is best to approach and communicate with the MPs in order to get your message heard.

Last on the agenda was to introduce the right and left side of Norwegian politics. Andrè Oktay Dahl (H) came to talk about the so-called right wing. He started off by telling us that in one way all the major parties in Norway can be viewed as social democratic parties, and that they all basically share the same values. As the famous Norwegian political scientist Stein Rokkan, Dahl emphasized the fact that there are several political differences and not only the typical economic cleavage we tend to focus on.

Lars Martin Mediaas, the leader of the think tank Progressiv, followed. He started by defining politics and political ideas, and continued talking about the Norwegian left-wing which in many ways has defined the Norwegian political environment. He shared the idea of an egalitarian society and recommended the book The Spirit Level written by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.(Richard Wilkinson has also given a very interesting talk on ted.com). Finally he encouraged us to take part in the democracy by reminding us of the original meaning of the Greek word idiot.

This has been yet another inspiring and educational evening with the Young Ambassadors program. Thank you to Mads Andreas Danielsen, who arranged the seminar, the speakers and the Norwegian Parliament for hosting us.