At the Top An interview with Jens Stoltenberg It´s not such a bad place to sit. From the fifteenth floor office, you command a grand view of Oslo, maybe one of the ugliest capitals in Europe, but not the least pleasant. The highlight of the view is that you don´t see the building you´re actually in, a brutalist late sixties concrete version of the thing from 2001. It was added to some fifteen years ago, but not, as I´ve always believed, to include a main office inspired by Chaplin´s The Great Dictator. Though a lot tidier, Jens Stoltenberg´s office is not much bigger than my own. The proverbial compact capital, the main axis of power in Oslo can be covered in a seven minute walk from here down Akersgata. First, you pass the Ministry of Finance and the Supreme Court. Then Norway´s three main newspapers, two blocks of ordinary commerce and then Parliament. Further on, there´s some street prostitution before you reach a medieval castle and then the Fjord. Incredibly, this itty-bitty metropolis is the third most expensive city in the world. As an accomplished economist and previous lecturer in social economy, Norway´s 41-year old Prime Minister has no problem explaining this fact: — We have a high standard of living. A waiter makes more money in this town than anywhere else. There are differences in income, but consider this: In Norway, we´ve tripled our income since 1970. In the rest of western Europe, income has «merely» doubled. The main reason, of course, is that large deposits of oil and gas were found along the coast in the 1960´s. Today, that wealth is pouring into the Norwegian economy at a potentially dangerous rate. While conditions in health care and the school system are widely described as «scandalous», Stoltenberg´s real job is to be tight with the money. — It´s a special challenge to explain to the people why we can´t use all this wealth, he says. — We´re in a historically unique position. Remember the Spanish economy was destroyed by the gold and riches imported from the New World. We´re the first country in the world who has a great surplus — 10 percent annually — without using it. Instead, it goes into the bank. This is an unique project. But hardly one that makes the PM very popular? — Getting popular is never easy, certainly not when you show a deficit either. I didn´t take this job to become popular. I don´t think I´m in a position to complain. Jens Stoltenberg has just said one of the most interesting things about himself. He is intensely charismatic, and arguably the most handsome person to hold this job in any country at the moment. When most females in Norway talk about Jens, there´s that certain sense of swooning in the air. He´s even more charming in person than on television, but Jens Stoltenberg is not a populist. Very far from it. His predecessor in this office (Kjell Magne Bondevik) used to pose with a football to convince people he was one of them, but Jens doesn´t even know the offside rules, his friends say, and is not very likely to learn. He´s a thoroughbred political animal. — I don´t like the term «animal», he says, — but I´m definitely a political person. I became one at an early age, maybe at twelve or thirteen. It was connected to the problems in places like Vietnam, Mozambique and Angola. They came to our house. I mean literally — representatives from FNL, MPLA or FRELIMO came to have dinner at our house. They told their stories, and I listened. This was how I got started. It was always international questions, and this remains my main concern. I didn´t think one second about balancing a national budget until after my education, many years later. These people mainly came to visit his father Thorvald, who is a diplomat, former Foreign Secretary and former High Commissioner of Refugees for the UN. Their large central Oslo apartment always had an activity resembling Grand Central Station. In fact, most people I know woke up in that house with a hangover, once or twice. What does Jens feel is the most important thing he learned from his father? — The value of being preoccupied with justice, to care for the world´s unfortunate. Nobody else in this country ever talked as much about that subject. Thorvald constantly reminded me that every problem in Norway will always be minimal. 1 billion people live in absolute poverty throughout the world. This is a moral problem, and one that is very convenient to forget. Whenever raw poverty is shown on TV, people turn it off, and then the channels stop broadcasting that sort of thing. — In fact, there was more discussion about poverty thirty years ago than we have today. This is a very scary development. The signs are highly visible in this country as well — we get increasingly complacent. I believe this is the real divide in today´s politics, the difference between national egotism and international solidarity. That stone you threw at the American Embassy in the early seventies — how big was it? — There were actually more than one. About this size, he says, indicating something close to a cigarette lighter. We´re expecting a kind of Bill Clinton evasive maneouver («Yes, I threw a stone, but I didn´t hit anything»), but Jens seems rather proud of what he did. The question in hand, of course, was Vietnam. Have you excused yourself to the US ambassador later? — I´ve mentioned it, but you see, I´m afraid I didn´t break any window. They had shockproof glass installed already. When someone from your home town, and of the same age, assumes the highest office, of course stories abound. This one is true and verifiable. In the late seventies, the experimental school that I attended (with Jens´ older sister, by coincidence) was scheduled to be demolished. Jens Stoltenberg was among the young radicals who squatted in the building, and in the end was carried forcibly out by cops. He wasn´t even a pupil! (Myself, I was home studying. Which explains how some people become cynical writers and others politicians, I guess.) Then he went soft. At least in quotation marks. In the mid-eighties, Jens was head of a commission appointed to explore the role of the male in modern society. Out of this work came the revolutionary idea of paid leave for dads. In Norway, a father gets 4 weeks after childbirth, and if he doesn´t use this right, the mother loses 4 weeks as well. This reform coincided with his own private life, and Jens pioneered by taking some highly publicized leave to push the pram. — I´m really proud of that work, he says today. — It´s one of the most important sexual equality reforms in this country. All stories about Jens are not true. When he was getting closer to political power, as Minister of Energy and later Finance in the last decade, rumours started that he in fact was gay, had left his wife and was living with some other closet gay celebrity (various persons were named). These stories went on until he finally decided to speak out on the subject in Norway´s largest daily newspaper. — Really, I have nothing against gay people. Some of my best friends ... But this was harmful. The stories were circulating at my kids´ school, my wife was confronted with them and so on. And it was all ridiculous and untrue. Did you ever suspect that political enemies were behind the rumours? — Never. I might be naive, but I never had a reason to speculate in that direction. Somehow, «naive» is not the term most people use to deride Jens Stoltenberg. He´s known to be absent-minded and forgetful, but also not to do anything without being meticulously prepared. Never content to rely on charm and charisma alone, this man makes his secretaries work. The people in his office gives the impression of being the busy mechanics behind a winning Formula One race car driver. Jens is the first person in his office to exploit the benefits of digital information technology, they say. Which maybe is why he doesn´t talk about it all the time, as his predecessors used to do. No, when people need to say something bad about the new PM, they point at his «arrogance». — I know, he says. — I wish of all my heart that they wouldn´t, and that I wouldn´t appear that way. But I know a bit about how people get that impression, and it´s mainly the way I have a tendency to lecture people. You see, I´ve been a teacher for some time. When somebody asks me about anything important, I start explaining: «Point one, point two» and so on. I need 45 minutes to explain a subject. I also do it in conversation, and I guess that can be pretty irritating. I don´t think I´ll ever change, though. One of Jens´ most appealing traits, I think, is the way he misspeaks and then corrects himself. In public, and always accompanied by a tiny smile. That smile is the only remnant of what was once a hard personal struggle. As a child, he had a stutter, and was plagued by learning disabilities, mainly in reading and writing. — It was tough, but it was a temporary thing, connected to a life on the move. Before I was five, I had lived in San Francisco and Belgrade. At five, we moved back, and I had to change from speaking English and Serbian to Norwegian. It went all wrong. The stuttering started, and I couldn´t figure out how to read or write. You went to an «alternative» school teaching by Rudolf Steiner principles. Could you ever have been in this office if it weren´t for that school? — Maybe not. But is also has a lot to do with finding the right teacher. This man was patience itself. I do think that the differences are smaller today — in the public school system, they don´t dismiss kids with learning problems as «stupid», the way they used to. The story of Jens´ ascent to power tells something about how Norway changed from a poor country on the outskirts of Europe to the region´s most solid economy, in his own lifetime. His party Arbeiderpartiet (The Social Democratic party) has been Norway´s largest since the 1930´s, and more often in power than not. They were identified with progress. Today, people identify Arbeiderpartiet just as much with staggering bureaucracy and the arrogance of power, and the party has been dwindling, both in membership and at elections. After the relatively stable period of Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway´s first female PM, today head of the World Health Organization), the party resigned from power in 1997, following a highly controversial decision: Unless Arbeiderpartiet got the same result as in the previous election (36.9 percent), or better, they would resign. And so it went. The party leader, Torbjørn Jagland, received a barrage of critisism, centered on his maybe not perfect communication skills. People started clamoring for Stoltenberg, who had been leader of the party´s youth organization in the eighties, and later Minister of Finance in Jagland´s short-lived cabinet. In the second month of the millennium, the change came. Power was split. Just a few weeks later, Jens formed his new cabinet, following the Central Coalition´s resignation over parlamentarian defeat in an energy issue. Jagland is still party leader, and Foreign Secretary in Jens´ administration. One might claim he´s the first Prime Minister in this country to be nominated by popular demand, or by good TV ratings. — I don´t approve of that description. And I also hope it´s not true. I´ve been working seriously with politics since I was a teenager, always far from populism. Also, I happen to think that pure populism is not viable. Political substance will prevail at the end of the day. Is it even possible to distinguish politics from show business anymore? — I see the tendencies you´re talking about, but there´s still a difference. At least here and in the other Scandinavian countries. The voters expect more than someone who does great television. Not all of them, but many enough. But it has been pointed out that communication is your greatest strength? — Yes. I mean, of course you should be able to communicate the message. That doesn´t mean you don´t need one. From your first months in office, one gets the impression that you´re rather trying to avoid exposure? — I think politicians has been fooled into believing they have to participate in everything, media-wise. You have to draw the line somewhere. For me personally, I draw the line at my family (he has two children aged 8 and 11, and is married to a career diplomat). I don´t drag them into anything if I can avoid it. Also, I draw the line at anything I feel is silly or stupid. But I don´t have to talk politics, even if I usually do. So when the Swedish media swoon over you and label you a «Greek god», what do you feel? He laughs. — It tells me there´s a long way from Oslo to Stockholm. Back home, I´m a regular guy. Regular enough, his friends say, to root desperately for a quiet beer with the boys, or some safe, adult rock music like the Stones or Tina Turner. Beer calls are regrettably scarce these days, though Jens is no party-pooper, and displays a terrific sense of humour as soon as the notebook is safely stashed away. He enjoys the theatre as well, and has done some amateur acting. At 41, Jens Stoltenberg is the youngest to occupy this office, and the youngest PM in Europe. At an average age of 43, his cabinet is the youngest in Norwegian history. Interesting enough, his administration symbolizes that the baby-boomer generation, the most politically aware in recent history, is already out of power. Blindingly fast. — Well, I never considered the age of the members of my cabinet. I primarily went for skill. This government is basically about renewal («renewal» is Stoltenberg´s catch phrase), but you don´t need to be young to be a renewer. Some of the best of my people aren´t exactly young. And then, you should not underestimate the power of the baby-boomers. My German collegue, German Schröder, is a powerful representative of that time and those ideals. Coincidentally, Berlin was chosen for Jens´ first visit as head of state, then Brussels. Schröder repaid with a short visit in May. Jens never minces words about his goal; to get Norway as firmly connected to the EU as possible (the people have nayed membership twice, in 1972 and 1994). Do you think we will become members in our lifetime? — None of us can tell. But in a lot of practical areas, we act as if we already were. We have no choice in that respect. Some say we´re on the train, but locked inside the bathroom? — Not a metaphor I would use. Not at all, says Jens Stoltenberg with a brilliant smile. Power in Norway is so nice, it´s almost scary. --- Torgrim Eggen (born 1958) is an author and journalist born and based in Oslo. Apart from the view, he wouldn´t want Mr. Stoltenberg´s office. However, he believes he woke up in Jens´ childhood home with a hangover, once.