Norway’s Nobel peace prize committee has demoted its chairman, Thorbjørn Jagland. The committee said the former Norwegian prime minister would remain as a committee member and gave no reason for its decision.
Former Labor party politician and prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland announced the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize since he became chairman of the Nobel Committee in 2009. He has been a controversial leader.
Critics point to his dual role as head of both the European Council and the Nobel Committee. He has also fronted controversial Prize awards to the EU, the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and US President Barack Obama.
The committee has elected the longstanding Conservative profile Kaci Kullman Five in place of Jagland. It was an expected replacement and it is speculated that the change is not independent from the current bourgeois government.
Thorbjorn Jagland has been head of the Nobel Committee since 2009, while Kaci Kullmann Five has been a member since 2003. The 63-year-old former Conservative leader was parliamentary representative from 1981 to 1997 and served as Minister of Trade and Shipping from 1989 to 1990.
