This is a story about the political struggles in the Norwegian media and parliament, and about how its always the cover up that gets you. Still, above all, this is a story about a fat chick banging a drunk 17-year old in a barley field, and then proceding to call him a retard.

(Sort of) Required reading: Norway's Political Parties

Here is a short briefing on the political parties involved, with their political affiliation in parenthesis.

The two main parties involved this ordeal are Venstre - the Left Party(center right) and Senterpartiet - the Center Party (center). There are two things you need to know about these parties to fully appreciate this story:

One: Quite ironically name-vice, the Left Party is in a coalition government with Høyre - the Right Party (right). The third party in this coalition is FrP - the Progress Party(conservative right), but they are, quite out of character, not involved in this particular scandal (more on them later if you're interested). Here is a picture of the three party leaders, with our gal on the right.

Two: the Center Party is basically a party for hicks, farmers and old people (I've voted for them twice, sadly not because of the radical centrism, but because of the hick part). They are currently the country's 4th largest party, and in opposition of the current government.

[I'll also briefly mention Arbeiderpartiet - the Workers Party (center-left) they and the Right Party switch between being Norway's largest party. They are only relevant to the backdrop of this story.]

Backdrop

The #metoo movement hit Norwegian politics hard, with numerous cases surfacing in a short period of time. First the deputy leader of the Workers Party was forced to resign after allegation of unwanted sexual advances on a number of youth party members. Then the number two of the parliamentarian group of the Progress Party resigned after it was discovered that he was sending hardcore porn to underage boys, and that he had invited some of them to threesomes. Finally, the leader of the Rights youth party was forced to resign after numerous reports of inappropriate behavior, including one incident that led to a police investigation into the rape of a 16-year old unconscious girl. For those interested, here's a quick recap of theses stories.

In early January this had dominated the news cycle for two months or so, and two things were becoming apparent: The political parties had a problem with their party culture (the kind with booze), and that our political leaders like them young.

Obviously, with Norway being a land of equality, some felt women were being left behind. Thus a story from the newly founded alternative news site Resett.no began circulating in social media.

Norwegian Media

Norwegian media has an independent commission (PFU) which serves as a watchdog ensuring ethical journalism. They can issue fines or criticism if a news organization print a story which is considered slanderous and not news worthy, or if it is in violation of their other rules for press ethics. Hence you won't see stories about a politician doing something embarrassing or creepy in their private life, if it's unrelated to their public role. This is even true for gossip magazines when things get serious.

It should be noted that PFU has no real juridical power, and most news organizations only adhere to their rules for ethical reasons and to solidify their credibility. Coincidently these are two of the things that which Resett and their readers don't really hold in high regard.

The Wedding

The Resett story gaining traction in social media was about an event taking place back in 2008, at the wedding party of the soon to become deputy leader of the Center Party, Ola Borten Moe. The then 38-year old Trine Skei Grande, the current leader of the Left Party, was attending the wedding as a guest.

The wedding took place at the grooms family farm and lasted for two days. Following the custom of Norwegian hick weddings Skei Grande got shit-faced. As the evening progressed she allegedly began shouting “I want a man!”, and started grabbing at the crotches of random men in her vicinity. She is reported to have grabbed up to ten men in the groin area, including a 21-year old man who rebuffed her advances. As the evening progressed this man got a worrying suspicion when he couldn’t find his 17-year old brother anywhere. He called him and allegedly interrupted him and Skei Grande going at it in a nearby barley field. The boy was embarrassed, ended the act, and went back to the party slightly shaken. The other wedding guests were reportedly shocked by the high profile politicians behavior. The age of consent is 16 in Norway, but big age differences are still frowned upon.

When the story began gaining significant traction in early 2018, Skei Grande issued a statement that the act was consensual and that she had disclosed the event with the prime minister. What she didn’t say was that when disclosing it she had claimed that the boy instigated the act by practically pulling her into the barley field.

After this was reported, and being offered 400 000kr ($50 000) to sell his story to Resett, the now 26-year old man contacted a more reputable newspaper to set the record straight. He told them that while the act was consensual, he didn’t agree with the description of him forcefully instigating it. He also contacted the prime minister and told her his side of the story. Following this he and Skei Grande allegedly agreed to not further discuss the event in the media, as neither of the wanted the attention.

The traditional media soon after dropped the story, and it faded from the public eye. There were still some questions as to who the sponsor behind the big cash reward was, and to what kind of political motivation there was behind it. Still, in the following months only Resett bothered to keep writing about it. That was until yesterday.

The Retardation of Ahab

This easter Ola Borten Moe, the groom of the wedding, and the deputy leader of the Center Party posted a long Facebook post about the incident, where he criticized Skei Grande for how she had characterized the boy, and talked about the strain this had caused him and his family. It turns out that he and they boy are closely related.

Just this morning a story breaks in Norway's biggest newspaper about what caused this Facebook post. A political advisor from the Left Party, have been telling political partners, and journalists that the reason they aren’t talking about the wedding incident on the record is that the boy is slow-minded and unemployed. The boy took offense to this since he since is not mentally challenged or jobless, he’s a mechanical engineer currently employed as a project leader.

Now this begs the question, why did someone in the Left Party’s political apparatus think the optics would be better if the party leader had sex with a drunk and slow minded 17-year old, instead of a regular horny one? While the age of consent in Norway is pretty low, having a sexual relationship with someone who is mentally challenged is in many cases illegal, and will at least be considered morally reprehensible. And if he thought he was telling the truth, who but Skei Grande herself could have convinced him of this?

It remains to be seen if these question will be answered, and if the Left Party leader will face some repercussions in the spirit of the #metoo movement. Most likely this will all blow over, not changing most of the publics view that Ahab hunted the great white whale.