Norwegian justice minister resigns ahead of confidence vote

Stockholm (dpa) - Norway‘s justice minister announced her resignation Tuesday shortly before a vote of confidence that had threatened the centre-right minority government.Silvi Listhaug said she could "not allow" her Progress Party to lose influence and power as the government considered resigning should she be ousted, she wrote on Facebook.Listhaug wrote that she resigned "voluntarily".Listhaug of the right-wing populist Progress Party was under fire over a March 9 Facebook post in which she claimed that the opposition Labour Party was more interested in protecting the rights of terrorists than in Norway‘s security.The reference to the Labour Party was considered controversial in light of the 2011 attack on a Labour Party youth wing camp which claimed 69 lives. The assailant was Norwegian right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik.Listhaug apologized to parliament on Thursday and removed the entry, but critics questioned whether she was sincere.Parliament censored her the same day, but the small leftist Red Party then called for a confidence vote against Listhaug.Other opposition parties, including the Labour Party, supported the move.The centrist Christian Democrats had the swing vote, but it was not known how they intended to vote.Prime Minister Erna Solberg had reportedly planned to tender the government‘s resignation rather than accept the vote against Listhaug.The Norwegian constitution does not have a provision to dissolve the 169-seat legislature between elections, so the parties would have had to find a new combination to form a government.Elections are not due until 2021.