The May 17 committee in Oslo held an extraordinary meeting on Friday morning, convened to resolve a deadlock over speaker appointments for Constitution Day events. The Progress Party's selection of Asle Toje as speaker at the War Sailors' Monument on Bygdøy has created debate, leading to the committee's failure to appoint speakers at its regular meeting earlier in the week. The result was that Toje is accepted as a May 17 speaker, but the process revealed deep political divisions, with the Progress Party's Ingeborg Bjørnevik announcing that she would withdraw from the committee if the selection of Toje did not go through.
Asle Toje is a researcher, author, and public debater, and also deputy chair of the Nobel Committee. He has faced criticism in recent months due to an op-ed in Aftenposten and email contact with convicted Holocaust denier David Irving in 2003. Asle Toje is also mentioned in the Epstein documents.
Political opposition to Toje's selection was significant, with the Center Party, the Labor Party, the Socialist Left Party, the Green Party, and the Red Party voting against it. Several representatives reacted that Toje will give a speech at a monument honoring war sailors from World War II, considering his contact with David Irving. Several other parties expressed that in a liberal society, speakers with controversial opinions must be accepted.
It would be ironic if the majority in the committee wants to 'put a lid on freedom of speech' on Constitution Day.
The committee deadlock was resolved procedurally when the vote ended in a tie, but the committee chair voted to accept Toje and had a double vote when the committee was split. In Friday's meeting, it became clear that the other parties had been given a gag order regarding the conflict. The committee chair, Hilde Helland of the Conservative Party, said the parties had agreed not to actively go after controversial speakers.
The committee chair emphasized that the party that selected the speaker is responsible for the speaker and must defend its choice in the media. This is not the first time the selection of May 17 speakers has created controversy. In 2024, there was debate about two of the speakers: Subjekt editor and author Danby Choi, selected by the Conservative Party, and former board member and co-owner of the immigration-critical online newspaper Resett, Christian Mikkel Dobloug, invited by the Progress Party.
One of the committee's tasks is to appoint the official speakers at the locations where wreaths are laid on Constitution Day.