Your Majesties, 

 

Your Royal Highness, 

 

Fellow Members of the Storting,

 

The opening of the 167th Storting takes place at a time of great concern for the citizens of Norway and Europe.

 

We convene once again for a new session in the national assembly after a dramatic summer and autumn in the world.

 

For the older generation, the builders of Norway’s welfare state, the memories of a harsh post-war era are still there.

 

My generation, a generation which has grown up since the fall of the Berlin Wall, has seen little but prosperous times for most of our lives. Until now.

 

Common to us all is that we live in turbulent times.

 

The political questions and tasks that await us are challenging.

 

How we as a national assembly elect to solve these questions will define the future. It is an onerous and important responsibility.

 

Fellow Members,

 

There is war on our own continent.

 

King Haakon invited Prime Minister Churchill to Norway after the War, and in 1948 he spoke in this Chamber.

 

The message of his speech was that Europe should learn; that it should never happen again.

It is happening again.

 

People are being tortured and killed, and their homes are being laid to waste.

 

It is happening in our own neighbourhood. It’s only around 140 more kilometres from Oslo to Kyiv than from Oslo to Vardø.

 

Our neighbours are at war.

 

The victims of the war in a Ukraine under attack need our help. Innocent people are once again being forced to flee through Europe. Women and children who have left behind everything, including a father, a husband or a son who remain at the front.

 

They sorely need us to take our share of the responsibility to help. 

 

Fellow Members, 

 

The winter ahead might be cold in several ways. We are aware that the energy shortage will have a severe impact on people all over Europe.

 

There are many in our own country who are concerned about their personal finances, and scared about their own security and that of their loved ones. I fear that the autumn and winter will be hard for many.

 

Our welfare state must and can meet that challenge.

 

It is our duty to find the solutions that will make everyday life for the Norwegian people as good as possible.

 

Democracy and trust are fundamental building blocks in our welfare state and our society. But they are far from eternal god-given gifts.

 

Behind each and every one of us are citizens who expect and need us to do our utmost in the months ahead. We must prove ourselves worthy of that trust.

 

Fellow Members, 

 

Our constitution is the world’s second oldest. Those gathered at Eidsvoll in 1814 certainly didn’t agree about everything. And since 1814, our nation has continued to build democracy on representation, participation and community.

 

Yet the culture of Norwegian democracy has prevailed ever since Eidsvoll. The tradition of looking for common solutions, laying needless disputes to one side, and coming together to solve the tasks that the people in Norway have set us.

 

Fellow Members,

 

Not all of us were born in the land of freedom which is Norway.

 

Not all of us were born into democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

 

Some of us live with the daily reminder that fighting for these values would cost you your life if, right now, you lived in the country you were born in.

 

But not in our Norway.

 

As representatives of the people, we are grateful for a nation founded on democracy. A state which respects fundamental human rights. Democracy and liberty. These are values we must safeguard at home and fight for internationally.

 

Fellow Members,

 

The deliberations in the committee rooms and debates here in the Storting will be long and hard. Everyone sitting here in this Chamber wishes to find the best solutions.

 

The Storting is once again convened to perform its solemn duties. We meet in the full knowledge of the major responsibilities that await us and the obligations we have undertaken.

 

With these words, let us rise and unite in the traditional words:

 

“God save the King and the Fatherland!”