Tuesday, April 5, 2005NORWAY; Kristiansand: In the weekend between the 11. and 13. of March the Norwegian Centre Party held its annual National Conference in Kristiansand. The conference was clearly inspired by the prospects of a majority in the parliament together with the Norwegian Socialist Left- and Labour Party, according to all polls.

In this conference the leader, Åslaug Haga, was re-elected against one vote and to great applaus from the 187 other voters.

Compromise on oil drilling in the Barents Sea The matter of greatest anticipation before the convention was a question if the environmentalist Centre Party would open for oil drilling in the Barents Sea. The Centre Youth had clearly announced its opposition to the suggestion at an earlier point.

After a long debate with both very young and very old committed debaters the coalition of the hardest environmentalists, the leader and the Centre Youth surprisingly lost the voting. The Centre Party opened for a compromise proposed by one of the two second leaders, Lars Peder Brekk, on accepting oil drilling with untraditionally strong demands for environmental safety.

Focus on decentralization The leader, Åslaug Haga, and most of the debaters in the conference made it clear that the Centre Party was sharpening it decentralization-knives. In the conference Haga was joined by several other active members in underlining the Centre Partys role as the most dedicated decentralizationing-party in Norway.

It was clear from the debaters that the main role of the party in a possibly upcoming majority-government (majority in parliament) with the Labour and Socialist Left Party mainly was to make the government focus on turning around the sentralization of Norway and to hinder the Labour Party and the Conservative Party from cooperating on sending a new application for membership in the European Union.Kurtber 07:42, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)