Dispute Over EC Destroys Norway’s Ruling Coalition

Norway’s year-old center-right government collapsed today after a dispute over how deeply to link Norway’s economy with the European Community, but Prime Minister Jan P. Syse said he wants to form a minority Conservative government.

“I find . . . it is right to try to form a Conservative government now,” Syse said in a speech to be delivered to the Conservative Party tonight. The Conservatives hold 37 of 165 seats in Parliament.

But such a government, stripped of the formal support of two centrist parties that were members of Syse’s failed coalition, might have to make a series of hefty compromises.

Another option was for the Labor Party, with 63 seats, to form a government under former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland. The Norwegian constitution limits elections to one every four years, with the next in 1993.

But Brundtland said the non-socialist parties, with a majority in Parliament, would initially have to try to resolve the crisis, describing herself as a spectator for the moment.

“It’s not clear what type of government will be set up. It depends on parties other than Labor,” Brundtland said.

The Center Party, the smallest party in the coalition, had not yet decided whether it would support Labor or the Conservative Party. Talks were due to go on late into the night.

The Center Party triggered the dispute over the EC, and its 11 votes in Parliament could be decisive in handing power to either Syse or Brundtland.

Norwegian membership in the EC has long been a difficult issue for both politicians and the electorate. In a bitterly divisive 1972 referendum, voters narrowly rejected membership. Less than a year earlier the issue caused the collapse of the government in power at the time.

The EC could also create problems for a possible minority Labor government, should Brundtland come to power, as Labor has not yet clarified its EC policies.