What was All that About?

It's been a weird 24 hours in Norwegian politics. First, there was a reclassification of the virus from deadly to largely harmless. Then there was a grand victory lap by politicians. The media was suddenly full of smiling faces, as if some great war had come to an end.

It happened so suddenly, as if someone behind the scene had slipped someone a note calling the whole thing off. But why? If all of Scandinavia suddenly goes full victory lap, how are politicians in other countries going to keep up the pressure? If anybody called, it was certainly not the UN or the Biden administration.

One possibility is that this was all about politics local to Norway. The current administration was defeated in the election that took place earlier this month, and have for this reason decided to declare victory over the virus as a final act of glory before handing the reins over to their adversaries. This will deny the new administration the chance to do this themselves, and it will make it difficult for them to reinstate the sort of draconian measures that the current administration indulged in.

Another possibility is that Norway was pushed by Sweden and Denmark who have already declared victory themselves. With such close neighbors returning to the old normal, Norway couldn't very well remain on their path towards a new normal.

But such local explanations presumes a level of autonomy that we haven't seen much of lately. Every developed nation, with the lone exception of Sweden, have slavishly followed orders coming out of the UN. Why is this no longer the case?

Navigating a storm

By maybe Allan C. Green or George Schutze or maybe Alexander Harper Turner - This image is available from the Our Collections of the State Library of Victoria under the Accession Number:, Public Domain, Link