NORWEGIAN PRIME minister Jens Stoltenberg has expressed confidence that the legacy of last Friday’s twin attacks will be greater political participation.
Days after the attacks, political organisations have reported a surge in applications to join their parties after a united response to the attacks from political leaders.
But, in a sign of lingering nervousness yesterday, police evacuated Oslo’s main train station after a report of an abandoned suitcase. It was later found to be harmless.
“I believe the result of this will be more participation in different kinds of political groups,” said Mr Stoltenberg at a press conference in Oslo yesterday.
“That would be the strongest response, and an example that we are not being dictated to or frightened by the use of violence.”
Norwegians are planning to form a million-man human chain tomorrow across the country to express their solidarity with the victims.
On Friday afternoon, 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik shot dead 68 teenagers and organisers of a summer camp run by the ruling Labour Party. Two hours earlier, he had detonated a powerful bomb in the capital’s government quarter.
The first cabinet member, administration and church minister Rigmor Aaserud, made a symbolic return to her own, largely unscathed, ministry yesterday, opposite the blast site.
“It’s important to stay active and show that we can continue to do our work,” she said, gazing out over a scene from a warzone.
Mr Stoltenberg conceded yesterday that it would take a long time before government activity would return to the city centre.
Several ministries had their windows blown out by the blast and, as police continue their hunt for body parts of the eight blast victims, engineers on cranes are assessing whether the damaged buildings can be renovated or should be torn down.
Mr Stoltenberg is working from the defence ministry; civil servants have transferred their offices to other ministry buildings; and cabinet meetings will be held in the nearby Akershus Fortress. Asked whether his government would approve tighter security in Norway’s remarkably open capital, Mr Stoltenberg said such talk was premature. “There will be a time for going through all the experiences, learning from what happened and then draw the conclusions regarding, for instance, security measures,” he said. “I think it’s very wrong to not distinguish between naivety and openness. It is absolutely possible to have an open, democratic and inclusive society and, at the same time, have security measures and not be naive. Our challenge is to find how we can recognise those two things.”
Police said yesterday they are ready to conduct a second interrogation of self-confessed perpetrator Mr Breivik. They hope to garner further details on his nine-year preparations for Friday’s attacks and clarify confusion over possible accomplices.
After handing himself over to police, he said he acted alone, before telling a remand judge on Monday he was part of a network of cells. Investigators in Norway say they doubt these claims.
“So far we have no indication that he has any accomplices or that there are more cells,” said Norway’s intelligence head Janne Kristiansen to Reuters. “When we have finished this stage of investigation, we have to sit down, police and security services all over the world, and consider what we can do differently and what we can do to avoid these lone wolves.”
Meanwhile the Progress Party, Norway’s second-largest political party, has insisted it did not play a role in radicalising Mr Breivik, a member for a decade until 2007.
It describes itself as a classic liberal party, while critics accuse it of pursuing populist policies on issues like immigration. “The issue of immigration became an obsession for Breivik but, for us, it’s only ever been one issue,” said Morten Hoerglund, foreign policy spokesman of the party. “We are, in a sense, quite a normal party engaging on all issues.”