Norwegian Minister of Justice and Public Security Tor Mikkel Wara on Thursday resigned after his partner was formally suspected of staging attacks against the couple to give the impression they were living under threat.
“This has been a difficult affair that I would gladly have done without,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a news conference. “I am honestly saddened that things have come to this. We will miss his contribution to the government.”
Wara, 53, had taken temporary leave from his position two weeks ago after it emerged that the Norwegian security service PST was investigating his partner, Laila Anita Bertheussen.
She was formally named a suspect on Thursday.
“The past few weeks have been hard on me and my family. The decision [to resign] was entirely my own,” said Wara of the right-wing populist Progress Party, who had held the job just under a year.
Late last year, Bertheussen filed a complaint against a theater troupe for showing pictures of the homes of several politicians — including theirs — as part of a play aimed at demonstrating who was profiting from a more segregated and racist Norway.
After that a series of attacks began against the couple.
Among other things, the couple’s home was vandalized in December last year when a swastika and the word “racist” were drawn on their house and vehicle, and their vehicle was set ablaze outside their home earlier this month.
In an op-ed piece written in Verdens Gang, Bertheussen claimed the production was an invasion of her privacy. Solberg had also criticized the theater troupe.
Wara’s party colleague Jon Georg Dale is to take over as interim minister of justice and public security until a permanent replacement is appointed.
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