Trond Giske (born 7 November 1966) is a
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
former
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
who served as deputy leader of the
Labour Party from 2015 until his resignation in 2018 as a result of the so-called Giske affair. He announced his permanent withdrawal from politics in 2020 following accusations of widespread
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
and
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
against multiple women.
[Trond Giske vil trekke seg fra rikspolitikken, refser pressen](_blank)
Medier 24
Giske was elected into the
Norwegian parliament
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years base ...
for
Sør-Trøndelag
Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...
county in 1997, and served as Minister of Education, Research and Church Affairs in the
first cabinet of
Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...
from 2000 to 2001, as Minister of Culture and Church Affairs in
Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet
Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet was the Government of Norway from 17 October 2005 to 16 October 2013. It was a coalition between the Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party, known as the Red–Green Coalition. On 9 September ...
from 2005 to 2009 and as Minister of Trade and Industry from 2009 to 2013. As a cabinet member he several times faced accusations of
cronyism
Cronyism is the spoils system practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs when appointin ...
by having appointed little-qualified close friends to well paid government jobs, which also led to formal inquiries into his actions in the
Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs.
In December 2017 and during the
Me Too controversy triggered by the allegations against
Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...
, Giske was accused of an extensive pattern of
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
and
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
of young women, leading to the so-called Giske affair, which dominated Norwegian media for several weeks. After admitting to some of the accusations against him, Giske was asked to permanently resign by party leader
Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre (; born 25 August 1960) is a Norwegian politician who has served as the prime minister of Norway since 2021 and has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2014. He served under Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as Minister of For ...
on 1 January 2018,
[Støre: – Dokumentasjonen underbygger varslernes historier](_blank)
''Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...
'' which he subsequently did on 7 January 2018 shortly before the party executive committee were to debate the matter and shortly before Støre was about to state publicly that Giske needed to resign.
On 25 January 2018 the Labour Party ruled that Giske had violated the party's rules against sexual harassment and that his behaviour disqualified him from holding offices or positions of trust in the party.
In response Giske sought legal assistance against his own party.
He faced intense criticism when seeking election as chairman of a local party branch in 2020, and as a result announced his withdrawal from politics.
Early life and education
Born in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
, Sør-Trøndelag, he is the son of engineer Bjørn Giske (1938–) and associate professor Norunn Illevold (1935–). He attended the
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...
and the
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
, receiving a
cand.mag.
Candidatus magisterii (male), or candidata magisterii (female), abbreviated as cand.mag., is an academic degree currently awarded in Denmark. The degree is officially translated into English as Master of Arts and currently requires 5 years of stud ...
degree in 1997.
Giske was an honorary member of the fraternity "Kjeller" during his studies.
Political career
Active in the
Workers' Youth League from an early age, Giske became the leader of its Trondheim branch in 1988, before becoming the leader of its Sør-Trøndelag branch the following year. In 1992 Giske was elected head of the Workers Youth League as a whole. He served until 1996, the following year he was elected to the parliament, the ''
Storting
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
'' for the first time, he has since been reelected on three occasions. In March 2000 Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg appointed Giske as the new Minister of Education and Church affairs. He would serve in this capacity until the minority Labour government fell in the
2001 elections. 4 years later, the
2005 elections again swept the Labour party to power as a part of the
Red-green coalition and Trond Giske was then appointed Minister of Culture. He would remain in this position until October 2009, when as a part of a cabinet reshuffle he was appointed Minister of Trade and Industry, succeeding
Sylvia Brustad.
Minister of Trade and Industry
In January 2012, Giske received widespread attention for his opposition to the sale of
TV 2 to a Danish company. Giske spoke out against the transfer of 100% of TV 2's shares to the
Egmont Group
The Egmont Group (formerly The Gutenberghus Group) is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise mass me ...
, at a price of 2.1 billion
NOK
Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site.
Archaeology
The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, of which these ...
(274 million
euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s), despite Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg stating his government would have no opinion on the case.
It was reported that Giske threatened the head of the
Telenor Group
Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...
,
Harald Norvik
Harald Norvik (born 21 June 1946 in Vadsø) is a former chairman, president, and chief executive of Norwegian oil firm Statoil, a former chairman of telecommunications company Telenor and a director of ConocoPhillips.
Norvik received his Master o ...
, with the loss of his position if the sale went through.
[
One of the policies championed during Giskes tenure as minister has been the so-called "salary moderation". The idea is that the leaders of state owned companies or companies where the Norwegian government was majority shareholder should not earn more in salary than their counterparts in the ]private sector
The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government.
Employment
The ...
. Giske called on board members and CEO's to adhere to this policy or risk being replaced.
Media appearances
As a well known Labour politician in Norway, Giske has had numerous appearances in the media. He displays an interest in culturally related subjects such as film, literature and especially football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
. He is also well known for his personal friendship with members of the Royal family, namely Princess Märtha Louise of Norway
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway (born 22 September 1971) is a member of the Norwegian royal family, a businesswoman and a self-described clairvoyant.
The only daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, she is fourth in the line of success ...
and her previous husband, the author Ari Behn
Ari Mikael Behn (; , or ; 30 September 1972 – 25 December 2019) was a Norwegian author, playwright, and visual artist.
Known as Mikael Bjørshol until 1996, Behn achieved early literary success with his 1999 short story collection ''Trist so ...
. He is also known for being a big supporter of his home town football club Rosenborg.
Controversy
Allegations of cronyism
Giske has several times faced accusations of cronyism
Cronyism is the spoils system practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs when appointin ...
by having appointed little-qualified close friends to well paid government jobs, which also led to formal inquiries into his actions in the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs.
;Entra
In October 2012 Trond Giske's long-time friend and Labour party colleague Rune Olsø
Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
was appointed CEO of Entra Eiendom
Entra ASA is a Norwegian real estate company, headquartered in Oslo, Norway and is as of 22.06.2020 19.25% state owned.
Operations
The company was founded in 2000 when all commercial real estate owned by the state through Statsbygg was transfe ...
, a company wholly owned by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Olsø was to receive NOK 4.2 million in salary, which was perceived by some to be in violation of Giske's own policy of moderation. Later it was revealed that the chairman and vice-chairman of the board opposed the appointment of Olsø, but lost the vote due to pressure from members who had personal or political ties to Giske. In the wake of the affair, prime minister Jens Stoltenberg appointed Bård Vegar Solhjell to handle the matter, as Giske had recused himself. Solhjell responded by firing three board members, including two who were largely seen as having close ties to Giske. Ten days after the story broke, Rune Olsø resigned as CEO of Entra.
;Telenor
In October 2012 several media reported that Giske had demanded that his close friend and colleague Tore O. Sandvik be appointed to the board of directors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
of The Telenor Group, even though the board had stated that Sandvik "was not even close to being qualified", the board also objected due to the fact that Sandvik was considered one of Giske's closest friends. According to the media reports Giske eventually relented, but only after the board accepted another friend, Hallvard Bakke
Hallvard Bakke (born 4 February 1943 in Flesberg) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He was Minister of Trade and Shipping 1976–1979, and Minister of Culture 1986–1989. From 2006 to 2010, he was the chairman of the Norwegian B ...
, instead; Bakke himself stated that he had no knowledge about the telecommunications industry. Giske vehemently denied ever having made the demand, claiming it might have been a mere proposal.
On 25 October it emerged that Giske in 2009, when he was Minister of Culture, had personally appointed Tore O. Sandvik's wife and former party colleague Trine Brænden to the board of directors at the prestigious Trondheim Symphony Orchestra
The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera ( Norwegian: ''Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera'') is a Norwegian orchestra based in Trondheim, Norway. Its principal concert venue is the Olavshallen. The orchestra is organised as a trust and receives p ...
(TSO). Giske stated that they were not close friends.
Sexual assault and harassment and resignation
In December 2017, in what became known as the Giske affair, Giske was accused by multiple younger women of sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
and sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
. The accusations came in the context of the international Me Too debate in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations, and dominated Norwegian media for several weeks. Giske admitted to some of the allegations of sexual misconduct, although he denied some of the accusations.
On 1 January 2018 he was relieved of his duty as deputy leader for the Labour Party for an indefinite period as a result of the allegations.
On 7 January 2018 he permanently resigned as deputy leader of the Labour Party stating that it was impossible for himself and his family to withstand the pressure of the picture that was painted of him by the media. Labour Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre (; born 25 August 1960) is a Norwegian politician who has served as the prime minister of Norway since 2021 and has been Leader of the Labour Party since 2014. He served under Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg as Minister of For ...
stated that he had asked Giske to permanently resign a week earlier. Giske's final resignation came shortly before the party executive committee were to debate the Giske affair. According to ''Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...
'', Giske's resignation came only hours before party leader Støre was about to state publicly that Giske did not have his confidence and needed to resign. On 25 January 2018 the Labour Party ruled that Giske had violated the party's rules against sexual harassment and that his behaviour disqualified him from having offices in the party.[Seksuell trakassering felte Giske](_blank)
VG In response Giske sought legal assistance against his own party.
In 2020 Giske faced intense criticism and renewed allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault when he sought election as chairman of the local Trøndelag
Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denmar ...
party branch; as a result he withdrew his candidacy and announced his complete and permanent withdrawal from politics.
Personal life
Giske was in a relationship with Anne Grethe Moe until they separated amicably in 2006. They have one daughter, Una, together. Since 2014, he has been in a relationship with singer and television host Haddy N'jie
Haddy Jatou Njie (formerly N'jie; born 25 June 1979 in Oslo) is a Norwegian singer, songwriter, writer and journalist. Her father is Gambian and her mother is Norwegian. She grew up in Kolbotn near Oslo and is the eldest of five siblings. Her yo ...
and the couple had a daughter in 2016.[Maiken Svensen (1 April 2016]
Haddy N'Jie og Trond Giske har fått barn
VG. His nephew, Johannes Dalen Giske, was in Utøya
Utøya () is an island in the Tyrifjorden lake in Hole municipality, in the county of Viken, Norway. The island is , situated off the shore, by the E16 road, about driving distance south of Hønefoss, and northwest of Oslo city centre.
Ove ...
during the 2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks, referred to in Norway as 22 July ( no, 22. juli) or as 22/7, were two domestic terrorist attacks by neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik against the government, the civilian population, and a Workers' Youth League (AUF) ...
.
Bibliography
*2009: ''Mangfold eller enfold: 21 stemmer om kultur i vår tid'', Aschehoug
*2009: ''"Hvem snakker for Bob Kåre?,"'' Aschehoug (with Hadia Tajik
Hadia Tajik (born 18 July 1983) is a Pakistani-Norwegian jurist, journalist and politician from the Labour Party. She served as Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion from 2021 to 2022. She previously served as Minister of Culture from 2012 ...
)
See also
*Workers' Youth League affair
The Workers' Youth League affair was a political affair, where leaders of the Workers' Youth League (Norway), Workers' Youth League (AUF) were charged with deliberately inflating membership numbers to receive increased government funding. Two form ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giske, Trond
1966 births
Living people
Norwegian economists
Norwegian University of Science and Technology alumni
University of Oslo alumni
Politicians from Trondheim
Labour Party (Norway) politicians
Members of the Storting
Government ministers of Norway
Ministers of Culture of Norway
21st-century Norwegian politicians
20th-century Norwegian politicians
Ministers of Education of Norway
Ministers of Trade and Shipping of Norway