Designed to mitigate the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, this temporary piece of legislation was tabled by the Government after it saw the need to act swiftly in the ongoing situation. The Corona Act was adopted by a unanimous Storting in late March.

Rights of the minority

Under the provisions of the Corona Act, the Storting gave the Government the authority to pass regulations that would “add to or depart from” a limited number of laws. It also extended the rights of the minority in the Storting, obliging the Government to revoke a regulation or part of a regulation if at least 57 MPs sent a written declaration to the Storting’s Presidium stating that they did not support it.

In such cases, the Presidium would have to send immediate notice of this to the Government. If declarations on behalf of a sufficient minority were submitted within 24 hours of the regulation being sent to the Storting, the regulation as a whole, or the provisions in question would not come into force.

32 regulations

The Government submitted 32 regulations in accordance with the Corona Act. The first few of these were sent to the Storting on 27th March. In total, elements of five of the 32 were shelved after a sufficient minority had gone through the process above.

Repealed

Initially, the Corona Act was adopted for the duration of one month, that is, until 27th April. However, on 21st April the Storting received a proposal to extend the legislation by another month. There have been no proposals to prolong it further.