Marte Mjøs Persen

Marte Mjøs Persen
Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion
In office 7 March 2022 – 16 October 2023
Prime Minister	Jonas Gahr Støre
Preceded by	Hadia Tajik
Succeeded by	Tonje Brenna
Minister of Petroleum and Energy
In office 14 October 2021 – 7 March 2022
Prime Minister	Jonas Gahr Støre
Preceded by	Tina Bru
Succeeded by	Terje Aasland
Member of the Storting
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2021
Deputy	Lubna Jaffery Benjamin Jakobsen
Constituency	Hordaland
Mayor of Bergen
In office 28 October 2015 – 22 September 2021
Deputy	Marita Moltu Rune Bakervik
Chief Commissioner	Harald Schjelderup Roger Valhammer
Preceded by	Trude Drevland
Succeeded by	Rune Bakervik
Personal details
Born	(1975-04-24) 24 April 1975 (age 49) Bergen, Hordaland, Norway
Political party	Labour
Other political affiliations	Red Electoral Alliance (until 2007) Red Party (2007–2008)
Domestic partner	Nils-Olav Nøss
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Bergen[1]
Occupation	Politician

Marte Mjøs Persen (born 24 April 1975) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. She served as minister of labour and social inclusion from 2022 to 2023, and minister of petroleum and energy from 2021 to 2022. She served as the mayor of Bergen from 2015 until being elected to the Storting in 2021.

Political career

Local politics

Persen is a former member of the Red Electoral Alliance, and served as deputy chairman from 2003 to 2007, when the alliance merged to form the Red Party. She left the Red Party in 2008 after internal disagreements.^[2] She has been elected member of the city council in Bergen since 2003, first representing the Red Electoral Alliance, and from 2008 the Labour Party. In 2015 she was elected mayor in Bergen, and reelected in 2019.^[1][3]

In 2018, she was elected leader of the Hordaland Labour Party.^[4] She was re-elected in 2023, with Helge Robert Midtbø and Torgeir Toppe as deputy leaders.^[5]

Parliament

She was elected representative to the Storting from the constituency of Hordaland for the period 2021–2025, for the Labour Party.^[6] While being part of the Støre Cabinet from 2021, Lubna Jaffery met in the Storting in her place,^[7] and in 2023 Benjamin Jakobsen met.^[8] Upon returning to parliament, she became a member of the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications and the Election Committee.^[7]

At her local chapter's nomination convention in November 2024, ahead of the 2025 election, Persen announced that she wouldn't seek re-election and endorsed Jaffery for the top position, which was later approved.^[9]

Minister of Petroleum and Energy

On 14 October 2021, Mjøs Persen was appointed minister of petroleum and energy in Støre's Cabinet.^[10]

2021

As the new minister of energy Persen faced a delicate problem. The wind farms of Storheia [no] (80 mills) and Roan [no] (71 mills) are situated within Fosen Reindeer District (Norwegian: Fosen reinbeitedistrikt), and they are built in spite of loud protests from the Sami People. A recent ruling in the Supreme Court ruled that the windmills were set up in violation of the rights of the indigenous people, thus illegally, and the license granted by the ministry in 2013 was illegal.^[11]

Regarding the electricity price crisis, Persen promised measures to give people a lower price. She stated that the government would take a look at both short- and long-term solutions.^[12]

In the Storting question time on 27 October, Persen acknowledged that electrification of the Norwegian shelf would require an increased use of power on land in the short term up until 2030.^[13]

Person met the lawyers representing the Sami people in the issue of the wind farms within the Fosen area, on 2 November. She didn't offer a solution to the matter as the issue stood, but emphasised that she prioritised the state's duty for the people and for the Sami population. She also said she would be meeting the Sami people effected face to face, as soon as possible.^[14]

In December, she and fellow ministers Anniken Huitfeldt and Jan Christian Vestre, and Crown Prince Haakon visited the United States to promote Norwegian interests notably regarding "War, the Arctic, offshore wind, contemporary art and Christmas trees". Persen notably cited that they were going to visit Equinor's recently opened Brooklyn office in relation to the ongoing offshore wind projects outside of New York.^[15] Persen decided to travel home after only a day out of the four scheduled days to spend in the U. S, citing to compensate for a state secretary with a child who had to be home due to a COVID-19 closed kindergarten. Her chief of communication, Arvid Samland, denied that her return home was due to Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug's criticism of Persen's visit.^[16]

2022

In a written response to the Progress Party's Marius Arion Nilsen on 4 January 2022, Persen revealed that the electricity prices would be around 13,000 NOK in Southern Norway for the first quarter. The usual cost is around 7,000 NOK. In her response, she said: "I would like to emphasize that these estimates are average calculations made by NVE based on various assumptions. Actual electricity bill will vary from household to household".^[17]

Persen received criticism by the media and the Socialist Left Party for not participating at Storting sessions when asked to do so. She responded by saying that it was the Prime Minister's Office who was responsible to call a minister in to attend sessions, and insisted that she had participated whenever asked to. Stavanger Aftenblad encouraged Støre to reconsider her position.^[18]

During a minor reshuffle on 7 March 2022, she was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion.^[19]

Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion

Following Hadia Tajik's resignation after controversy regarding the use of a government apartment and fringe benefit; Persen was appointed her successor on 7 March 2022.^[19]

2022

Shortly after assuming office, Persen announced that the government would make an amendment to the Working Environment Act, defining sexual harassment more clearly and making it illegal. She expressed hope for the amendment to make it easier for vulnerable people to report harassment, and add contribution to sanctions where sexual harassment is occurring. The amendment was sent out on a hearing in the Storting on 8 March.^[20]

At a press conference on 29 April, the government announced that temporary changes to laws in order to include Ukrainian refugees. Mjøs Persen stated: "We must ensure that Ukrainian refugees have a safe and predictable everyday life as possible. At the same time, we know that the situation can be demanding for the municipalities, which already have many statutory tasks. Therefore, it is important that our bills address both of these considerations. The government is also proposing a temporary legal basis that allows for this. Among other things, it may be relevant to expand the target group for training in reception if the waiting time before settlement becomes long. All changes must be temporary and repealed no later than 1 July 2023. If there is a need to continue certain proposals, this will be considered and consulted again".^[21]

With the AAP scheme having been temporarily abolished since 1 February, Mjøs Persen suggested on 11 May that the scheme should be permanently abolished. The background being that the scheme would not take effect before a waiting period of a year had a person not yet been cleared. This has been in effect since 2018. Mjøs Persen stated: "We want to end the anti-social waiting year. No one gets healed from being thrown out of a scheme".^[22]

On 17 June, Mjøs Persen announced that the government would be focusing on giving full time workers a priority in working life with new legislation that full time should be the "main rule". She stated: "It is important to make the best possible use of the opportunities in the workforce, especially now that so many Norwegian companies are reporting a shortage of qualified labour. If many of those who work part-time can work more, it will make a significant contribution".^[23]

After aircraft engineers went on strike on 18 June, the negotiating parts were unable to reach an agreed settlement. On 28 June, Mjøs Persen announced that the strike had ended after she had called for a compulsory wage arbitration. Following the announcement, she stated: "I am not happy that the responsibility for the consequences of the conflict has been shifted to the government in this way". As the strike also effected ambulance aircraft, causing mass delays in hospital appointments, she commented: "Strikes and lockouts have major consequences for many. Many of the consequences that we see are unfortunately something we have to live with when the social partners use legal means, but it is also the parties' responsibility and choice to reach an agreement and avoid the strike having consequences for third parties more than what is affordable to have, and consequences for life and health are something that should definitely be avoided. You as a party have the opportunity to avoid it, both by taking strikes and using dispositions, but unfortunately the parties did not".^[24]

Mjøs Persen again put forward a compulsory wage arbitration in order to prevent a strike in the petroleum industry, where an increasing number of oil workers had signalled a strike, effective from 9 July. Persen presented the compulsory wage arbitration on 5 July, effectively ending the strike before it even began. She reasoned that it was "unreasonable to go on strike due to the current situation in Europe" and called it "indefensible to shut down the gas production".^[25][26]

Aftenposten revealed in June that the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority allowed a cabin company to not get fined for 800,000kr over dangerous working conditions in the work place. At the time, Persen expressed shock over the revelations.^[27] Three months later, she was open to a change in the law, however she didn't want to take said action immediately, and rather allow for new measures to be in effect for some time before reconsidering the labour law. The Red Party criticised the government for lack of action in the case.^[28] During July, Red Party MP Mímir Kristjánsson sent several questions to Persen as a follow-up to the aforementioned Aftenposten revelations, but Persen ignored the last question entirely. When she received the questions, she asked the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority for inputs, while her ministry gave NRK a redacted version of the Authority's letter to Persen. She would later clarify that it wasn't natural for her to summarise all the companies that either might have or did break the law and that there was no need for company names in order to formulate policies.^[29] On 24 September, Persen made a list of companies who have broken the labour law public, which also listed the ones that the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority have fined since 2017. She did however note that one shouldn't consider all of those companies "criminals".^[30]

On 27 September, Persen announced a compulsory wage arbitration against a teacher's strike, which had escalated over the last month, affecting primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools in Western Norway, Eastern Norway (with the exception of Oslo) and Trøndelag. The strike had been caused due to protests against low salaries for teachers.^[31]

On 27 October, she attended an informal meeting with her Nordic counterparts to discuss integration in the Nordics.^[32]

On 17 November, Persen and Labour MP Tuva Moflag admitted that the party should have sent someone to Debatten to discuss the increasing prices two days prior. The party's rejection to participate had originally been due to the ongoing budget negotiations. Persen added that it had been a collective decision to not participate, but that it overall had been her own responsibility to not participate.^[33]

On 7 December, she informed the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs that she would not be declassifying the NAV report from the previous government, despite their being a majority in parliament in favour of the report becoming declassified. She argued that it was due to the report being involved in an ongoing court case and that it was an internal document. The Socialist Left and Red parties criticised the move, with the latter vowing to follow-up the case further.^[34]

2023

In March 2023, she announced a forced wage board against to put an end to the aid ambulance strike, which had put NHO Luftfart and Parat against each other. The latter of which argued that a forced wage board would not help solve the issue, while Mjøs Persen called it "unfortunate" that the two parties had not been able to reach an agreement.^[35]

In June, Mjøs Persen confirmed in parliament in response to a question from the Red Party that the government would not change the rules for the allocation of care money to be given to people without previous employment income.^[36]

As part of the state budget for 2024, Mjøs Persen announced that the government would spend 20 million NOK to strengthen efforts to combat work crime, social dumping and frivolity in working life.^[37]

On 16 October, Persen was succeeded by Tonje Brenna in a cabinet reshuffle.^[38]

Personal life

Persen was born in Bergen on 24 April 1975,^[1] a daughter of Svein Persen and Eli Hedvig Mjøs,^[7] and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Culture and Social Studies from the University of Bergen.^[1] She lives with her partner, Nils-Olav Nøss and has four children, notably triplets and one adult son.^[39]

References

1. Garvik, Olav. "Marte Mjøs Persen". In Bolstad, Erik (ed.). Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Norsk nettleksikon. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
2. Horn, Anders; Sjøli, Hans Petter (12 February 2008). "Generasjonsopprør i Rødt". Klassekampen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 19 October 2021.
3. "Marte Mjøs Persen held fram som ordførar i Bergen" (in Norwegian Nynorsk). NRK Vestland. 28 October 2019. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
4. "Marte Mjøs Persen er ny leder i Hordaland Ap" (in Norwegian). Bergensavisen. 18 March 2018. Retrieved 15 December 2023.
5. "Marte Mjøs Persen ny leiar av Vestland Ap" (in Norwegian). NRK Vestland. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
6. Tvedt, Knut Are. "Stortingsrepresentantene 2021–2025". In Bolstad, Erik (ed.). Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Norsk nettleksikon. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
7. "Persen, Marte Mjøs (1975-)". stortinget.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 19 October 2021.
8. Tvedt, Knut Are. "Benjamin Jakobsen". In Bolstad, Erik (ed.). Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Oslo: Norsk nettleksikon. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
9. Kronheim, Erica Hvedding; Dyrdal, Benjamin (30 November 2024). "Marte Mjøs Persen gir seg i politikken" (in Norwegian Bokmål). NRK Vestland. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
10. "Norge har fått ny regjering" (in Norwegian). NRK. 14 October 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
11. Børstad, Johannes; Måsø, Jan Rune; Kringstad, Kirsti; Mølster, Elisabeth Strand (11 October 2021). "Hun blir statsråd og får vindkraftsaken i fanget etter knusende dom". nrk.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 19 October 2021.
12. "Håper regjeringen kutter elavgift og moms på strøm" (in Norwegian). NRK. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
13. "Ap og Sp krevde mer havvind - nå kommer ny statsråd med innrømmelse" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. 27 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
14. "Reindriftssamene på Fosen får foreløpig ingen svar fra regjeringen" (in Norwegian). ABC Nyheter. 2 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
15. "Tre statsråder på plass i USA: − Vi har veldig mye å tilby amerikanerne" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
16. "Sylvi Listhaug raser etter USA-besøk: - Ikke til å tro" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. 6 December 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
17. "Kan bli nær doblet strømregning i Sør-Norge" (in Norwegian). ABC Nyheter. 4 January 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
18. "SV reagerer på manglende oppmøte i spørretimen fra olje- og energiministeren" (in Norwegian). ABC Nyheter. 8 February 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
19. "Marte Mjøs Persen er Norges nye arbeidsminister" (in Norwegian). NRK. 7 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
20. "Ønsker strengere lov om seksuell trakassering på arbeidsplasser" (in Norwegian). NRK. 8 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
21. "Vil endre lover for å inkludere ukrainske flyktninger" (in Norwegian). TV2. 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
22. "Karensåret i AAP-ordningen kan bli fjernet" (in Norwegian). ABC Nyheter. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
23. "Vil styrke retten til heltidsjobb" (in Norwegian). government.no. 17 June 2022. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
24. "Tvungen lønnsnemnd i flyteknikerstreiken" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
25. "Bruker tvungen lønsnemnd i oljestreiken" (in Norwegian Nynorsk). NRK. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
26. "Compulsory wage arbitration in the industrial dispute between the Norwegian Organisation of Managers and Executives and Norwegian Oil and Gas". government.no. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
27. "For bedriften var jeg bare et verktøy som gikk i stykker. Ikke et menneske som ble skadet" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 3 June 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
28. "Arbeidsministeren åpner for lovendringer etter Aftenposten-avsløringer" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 3 September 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
29. "Nekter å gi Stortinget liste over serie-lovbrytere" (in Norwegian). NRK. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
30. "Historisk grep: Offentliggjør alle lovbrytere Arbeidstilsynet har tatt siden 2017" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 24 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
31. "Lærerstreiken avsluttet av regjeringen: – Alvorlige konsekvenser" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. 27 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
32. "Erfaringer i en krevende tid" (in Norwegian). government.no. 27 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
33. "Arbeiderpartiet innrømmer at de burde stilt i Debatten" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
34. "Stoppes: - Svært skuffet" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. 7 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
35. "Regjeringen avslutter luftambulansestreiken" (in Norwegian). Børsen Dagbladet. 19 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
36. "Regjeringen vil ikke endre reglene for tildeling av pleiepenger" (in Norwegian). Adresseavisen. 24 June 2023. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
37. "Vil styrke det seriøse arbeidslivet med 20 millionar kroner" (in Norwegian). government.no. 6 October 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
38. "Her er Støre sine nye statsrådar" (in Norwegian Nynorsk). NRK. 16 October 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
39. "Trillingmor fra Flaktveit blir byens nye ordfører" (in Norwegian). Bergensavisen. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2021.

Political offices
Preceded by Hadia Tajik	Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion 2022–2023	Succeeded by Tonje Brenna
Preceded by Tina Bru	Minister of Petroleum and Energy 2021–2022	Succeeded by Terje Aasland
Preceded by Trude Drevland	Mayor of Bergen 2015–2021	Succeeded by Rune Bakervik
Party political offices
Preceded by N/A	Leader of the Vestland Labour Party 2018–present	Incumbent