OSLO, Jan 20 — Norway’s Finance Minister Siv Jensen and her right-wing Progress Party will resign from the government over a decision to bring home from Syria a woman suspected of Islamic State affiliation, Jensen said on Monday.
The resignation robs Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg of her parliamentary majority and could make the country more difficult to govern, but Solberg is still expected to remain in office as head of a minority coalition.
“I brought us into government, and I’m now bringing the party out,” Jensen told a news conference.
Jensen’s departure was triggered by a cabinet decision, announced last week, that the woman and her two children would receive help to return to Norway so that one of the children could receive medical treatment.
The woman, who left Norway in 2013, was arrested upon her return on suspicion of being a member of the Islamist militant group that briefly controlled a territory the size of Great Britain across Iraq and Syria.
While Progress had offered to help the children, the populist party sought to deny any government assistance for adults seeking to return home after joining Islamist groups abroad or marrying foreign fighters. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
