OSLO: The populist Progress Party pulled out of Norway’s center-right governing coalition on Monday over the decision to repatriate an Islamic State group-linked woman and her two children from a detention camp in Syria. “We don’t compromise with people who have voluntarily joined terror organisations. That was the last straw,” party leader Siv Jensen told reporters in Oslo.
Without the Progress Party, the coalition, headed by PM Erna Solberg, loses its majority in parliament. Solberg said she will continue with a minority government comprised of three coalition partners.
The 29-year-old Norwegian woman, who is of Pakistani origin, was married to two different IS fighters. She was brought back to Norway with her two children on humanitarian grounds, as her five-year-old son was allegedly very ill. The Progress Party had been in favour of bringing back the children but opposed her return. However, the other three parties ignored the objections and approved the mother’s return.
The woman is accused of having been a member of both the Al-Nusra Front and the IS and was arrested on Friday when she returned to Norway with her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. She was remanded in custody on Monday. She has rejected charges and said she was held in Syria against her will.
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