The Ministry of Culture Minister Anette Trettebergstuen (Ap) owns the Opera. In June, her friend Renate Larsen was appointed to the board of directors of the Opera.

Trettebergstuen resigned as minister on Friday. She then admitted having violated the rules of jurisdiction.

Aftenposten wrote earlier today that on June 13, Trettebergstuen appointed his close friend, Renate Larsen, to the Opera’s board of directors.

The Norwegian Opera and Ballet are fully state-owned and subordinate to the Ministry of Culture. The Minister of Culture is therefore responsible for the composition of this council.

Larsen is no stranger to Trettebergstuen. On the contrary.

In a photo from 2019, Anette Trettebergstuen can be seen wearing a swimming cap in a hot tub. Sitting with her, among others, is Larsen himself. “Tight five, currently wearing a swimming cap,” Trettebergstuen herself wrote when she posted the photo on social media.

IN a newspaper article about the group, Trettebergstuen describes them as “a tight group of friends”.

Renate Larsen has experience in several management and board positions. She has been president of Helse nord since 2018, in addition to being president and founder of Oceanfood AS.

The management of Den Norske Opera & Ballett is paid NOK 86,300 per year. This shows the minutes of the general meeting in June.

“Close group of friends”

As well as Larsen and Trettebergstuen, the group of friends in the photo is made up of MP Cecilie Myrseth (Ap), former Mayor of Tromsø Kristin Røymo (Ap) and Secretary of State Anne Marit Bjørnflaten (Ap).

Østlendingen’s article on friendship is precisely about the concentration of power. The five friends in the photo are together in the hot tub of former Tromsø mayor Kristin Røymo. Røymo himself remarks that it’s no secret that they are a group of friends and “there are no sinister plots in the hot tub”.

Trettebergstuen and Larsen appear together in several photos on social media. Trettebergstuen herself and other members of the group of friends share photos where the two are photographed, among other things, during visits to the theater and on trips with friends at home and abroad.

In a comment in Subjekt, Trettebergstuen writes that she spent the night with Larsen on a trip to Tromsø. She writes that “on Saturday morning, I was lying in bed in the guest room of Renate Larsen’s house…”.

The comment describes how Trettebergstuen was cheated on by several people as part of their “bachelor party.” Larsen is also involved in this. “For a long time we insisted that if I wasn’t married at 40, I would still have a bachelor party.”

Aftenposten contacted Renate Larsen on Thursday, but she has not yet commented on the matter.

Aftenposten contacted Trettebergstuen and the Ministry of Culture several times on Thursday for a response as to whether Trettebergstuen had his competence assessed. Inquiries went unanswered, but the ministry called a news conference about it on Friday.

– We went through everything thoroughly, and I want to explain the mistakes I made, Trettebergstuen said at the press conference.

She admitted that Renate Larsen is a good friend, but she considers the friendship not of such a nature that she is incompetent.

– This is a bad evaluation of the skill.

There she also admitted that it was her responsibility that her close friend Bård Nylund had twice been given paid positions by the Ministry of Culture. He was appointed as a board member of the Norwegian Folk Museum and a member of the Equality and Diversity Committee. She also registered him as a member of the men’s committee.

The two have, among other things, published the book “Homo” together.

Trettebergstuen also proposed Tina Stiegler for a position on the board of Den Nationale Scene. The two are close friends. Trettebergstuen is godfather to Stiegler’s children.

Trettebergstuen took responsibility for his mistakes and resigned as minister.

Pay attention to skill

On Tuesday morning, it was learned that Education Minister Tonje Brenna (A) had given a position on the board to a close friend. She also declared herself incompetent to Utøya AS, which indirectly receives money from the Ministry of Education through the Wergeland Centre.

On Wednesday, Nettavisen mentioned that Trettebergstuen gave board positions to former party comrades. The posts were at Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto.