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Norway's new Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
Photo:
Ole Berg-Rusten / AP
The social democrat Jonas Gahr Støre took office on a day on which Norway was shaken by the deadly attack with a bow and arrow in Kongsberg.
Støre succeeds the Conservative Erna Solberg, who was Norwegian Prime Minister for eight years, as head of government.
The Social Democrats won the elections in September.
The Social Democratic Labor Party forms a minority government together with the Center Party.
This means that it relies on the support of other parties in parliament for both the budget and legislative proposals.
Center Party leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum becomes Minister of Finance.
The Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Labor and Integration are occupied by two women who already held ministerial posts in the government of the former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg: Anniken Huitfeldt and Hadia Tajik.
In total, Støre's cabinet consists of eight ministers and ten women ministers.
The average age is 46 years.
Two of the ministers survived the 2011 terrorist attack on Utøya.
Government wants to hold on to oil production
On Wednesday Støre presented the government program for the next four years.
These include free childcare for first graders, tax cuts for low wage earners and the reversal of the enforced communal union in the north of the country.
Greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 55 percent by 2030.
The new government will also hold on to oil production.
The left opposition parties and environmental groups are missing a green profile in the government program.
"The climate and natural crisis cannot be solved with good rhetoric and good wishes," said Audun Lysbakken from the Socialist Venstre party, with which the minority government is seeking cooperation.
anr / dpa
