Norway Police Fines Their PM Rs 1.75 Lakh For Flouting COVID-19 Norms To Celebrate Her Birthday

Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg has been fined for breaking COVID-19 social distancing norms when she organised a family gathering to celebrate her birthday, police confirmed on Friday.

According to Reuters, she was slapped with a fine of 20,000 Norwegian crowns (Rs 1.75 lakh).

Reuters

The prime minister had issued an apology last month for organising an event to ring in her 60th birthday with 13 family members attending the celebrations in late February, despite a government ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.

The police have said that would not have issued a fine in most such cases, but given the fact that prime minister has been at the forefront of the government's work to impose restrictions, they are simply following protocol.

"Though the law is the same for all, all are not equal in front of the law," police chief Ole Saeverud said, justifying the fine.

"It is therefore correct to issue a fine in order to uphold the general public's trust in the rules on social restrictions," he told the news conference.

Reuters

Police said Solberg and her husband, Sindre Finnes, made the decision together to hold a celebration and picked the restaurant, with Finnes taking care of the practical arrangements.

Though police said he had broken the law as well, he was not fined. The restaurant where the celebration took place was also found to have violated the law but it was not fined.

Solberg has issued another apology after the police made the news of the fine public.

¡°I¡¯d like to say again that I¡¯m sorry for breaking the coronavirus rules,¡± she told Norway¡¯s TV2 News.

Solberg, who faces elections for parliament in September, has championed strict rules to curb the spread of the coronavirus, resulting in some of Europe's lowest rates of infection and deaths.

But the country saw a rapid rise in infections in the first quarter of 2021, led by more contagious variants of the virus, forcing the government to tighten restrictions in late March, Reuters reported.