Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt addresses participants of a Council of the Baltic Sea States foreign ministers in Wismar, northern Germany on June 2, 2023. – Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on October 16, 2023 sacked Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt following a share-purchasing scandal and as part of a broader reshuffle of his centre-left government.
Huitfeldt, long considered Store’s protege, admitted on August 30 that her husband had bought shares “in much bigger volumes than previously believed” after she became foreign minister in 2021. “I apologise deeply for having made mistakes linked to my impartiality,” the 53-year-old Labour minister said.
“The issue of share purchases and sales is among the reasons for her departure but it is not the only one,” Store told reporters, saying it had been a “difficult decision”.