Norway’s fifth-largest city of Drammen has decided to accept only Ukrainian refugees, sparking outrage from all parties. Despite earlier warnings from the Oslo government, the Drammen city council in the south of the country voted on Tuesday to only accept Ukrainian refugees in the future.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Störe, who leads a center-left government, spoke of an overreach of authority. “This is not something that cities can decide,” he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK. Drammen is only 40 kilometers from the capital Oslo and has 120,000 inhabitants. The mayor belongs to the conservative party and in the city council the majority consists of members of the conservative party, a right-wing anti-immigrant party, the Christian Democrats and a small pensioners’ party.
Prime Minister: “Not legal”
Prime Minister Störe described the city’s decision to NRK on Wednesday as “not legal”. It is a “fundamental value to guarantee the equal treatment of people on the move”. Erna Solberg, leader of the conservative party, also expressed criticism. No municipality can decide ‘to only accept refugees from a certain country’, she told the NTB news agency. But it is also not “unusual” to have preferences when it comes to countries of origin.
Report of “institutional racism”
A member of the Norwegian Center Party, which is part of the governing coalition in Oslo, immediately filed a report with the city council for ‘institutional racism’.
Source: Krone
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