The Norwegian Parliament - Stortinget

There are 169 seats or members of the Storting, and general elections are held every four years. The Storting cannot be dissolved, and there is no opportunity to call for new elections within the four year-term. There are no by-elections.

This is where the Storting gathers for meetings. You have to sign up for a tour ahead of time, and we ended up with a private tour. Nobody else was signed up.

 
The painting above the President of the Stortinget's seat is from when the first Norwegian Constitution was written in 1814. The Norwegian Constitution is the second one written down in history - after the US Constitution. The French and the British constitutions were is use for many, many years, but formally written down at a later time.

In the Storting, the delegates can only vote no or yes; they can not refrain from voting. That's where you see the green and the red button. We were not allowed to sit on any of the chairs in Stortinget. The President of Stortinget has a direct view toward the Royal Castle, so that person and the King/Queen can look at each other..

Today in Norway there are two smaller chambers that take care of certain cases. One is Lagtinget which consists of 42 of the Parliament's members. Lagtinget processes new law proposals in addition to being the Constitutional Court of the Realm, taking care of impeachment cases against members of parliament, ministers and supreme court judges.

The photo above is from on of the speaker's stands in Lagtinget.

Veronica is trying out one of the member's chair. We were allowed to try out these seats.

This is our private tour guide, Tonje. Lagtinget (together with another Chamber, Odelstinget) will be merged with the Stortinget in the fall of 2009. Look at Storting under Wikipedia for much, much more information about the Norwegian Goverment. Also, see Stortinget.no for even more information.

The Lion is the symbol of Norwegian power (funny, huh? - Why not a moose or a polar beer?) and the hill in front of the Parliament is call 'The Lion's Hill".