The Strife Hardens
The strife which had started as a practical political reform had now turned into a political debacle which would have to change the checks and balances between the legislative and the executive branch. This had definitely become Sverdrup's goal. "All power must be gathered in the halls of the Storting" became his political program. In 1879 his party in the making made a coup by promulgating the new change in the constitution. This took the Council by surprise that the grand old man of the Council, Prime Minister Frederik Stang, resigned. The new Prime Minister, Christian Selmer, was not such a leader and force in the Council, and Sverdrup was ready for the next move, which should constitutionally have been taken in 1881. But Sverdrup's majority was not great enough to be certain of a victory in the forthcoming impeachment of the Council.
In the 1882 general elections Sverdrup's party won a convincing majority. They were able to fill the 25% of the Storting who were, together with the Supreme Court, the judges of the court, with only members of the leftist party in formation. A word must be said about the names of the two original political parties which formed during the trial, venstre, the Norwegian word for left and høyre, the Norwegian word for right. Venstre was Sverdrup's and Jaabæk's party, a liberal and radical party but definitely a party with no socialist affiliations. Høyre, the Council's and the minority party, was considered to be conservative.
In the fall 1883 the judges convened, and the trials took several months and resulted in loss of position without honor for most of the ministers and huge fines. The king appointed a new Council led by Christian Schweigaard, but was a rather lame move, since Sverdrup immediately threatened with a new impeachment trial. The new Council was named the April Ministry, which says something about how long the king's struggle to find a solution to the total crisis that had occurred, which he could deem acceptable.
It turned out there was no other choice than to appoint Johan Sverdrup as Prime Minister. In Norwegian tradition the transition from Montesquieu's ideal of checks and balances to a parliamentary system took place when he became Prime Minister. This is an exaggeration, clearly. There is evidence that Sverdrup himself never really understood the consequences of a parliamentary system. Hence his five years in power with a vast majority in support, was no triumph march, but a row of defeats in Parliament. It is not far from a personal tragedy, and his resignation in 1889 was the only possible finale to a rather unworthy drama that took place in the almost almighty venstre.
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Famous quotes containing the words strife and/or hardens:
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