Trond Giske

Trond Giske (born 7 November 1966) is a Norwegian former politician who served as deputy leader of the Labour Party from 2015 until his resignation in 2018 as a result of the so-called Giske affair. He announced his permanent withdrawal from politics in 2020 following accusations of widespread sexual harassment and sexual assault against multiple women.Giske was elected into the Norwegian parliament for Sør-Trøndelag county in 1997, and served as Minister of Education, Research and Church Affairs in the first cabinet of Jens Stoltenberg from 2000 to 2001, as Minister of Culture and Church Affairs in Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet from 2005 to 2009 and as Minister of Trade and Industry from 2009 to 2013. As a cabinet member he several times faced accusations of cronyism by having appointed little-qualified close friends to well paid government jobs, which also led to formal inquiries into his actions in the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs.In December 2017 and during the Me Too controversy triggered by the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, Giske was accused of an extensive pattern of sexual harassment and sexual assault of young women, leading to the so-called Giske affair, which dominated Norwegian media for several weeks. After admitting to some of the accusations against him, Giske was asked to permanently resign by party leader Jonas Gahr Støre on 1 January 2018, which he subsequently did on 7 January 2018 shortly before the party executive committee were to debate the matter and shortly before Støre was about to state publicly that Giske needed to resign. On 25 January 2018 the Labour Party ruled that Giske had violated the party's rules against sexual harassment and that his behaviour disqualified him from holding offices or positions of trust in the party. In response Giske sought legal assistance against his own party. He faced intense criticism when seeking election as chairman of a local party branch in 2020, and as a result announced his withdrawal from politics. In 2023 Dagens Næringsliv reported that Giske had threatened the Labour Party with a lawsuit, resulting in a settlement where the party paid his legal expenses and wrote a letter as demanded by Giske which said that the party leadership couldn't rule out the possibility of a comeback.