The Norwegian government has returned to its former offices 15 years after the Breivik attack

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and members of the cabinet have officially returned to the renovated government quarter in Oslo, which was damaged during the 2011 terrorist attack. 

This was reported by Reuters. For a decade and a half, the ministries were forced to operate out of temporary offices scattered throughout the capital due to the destruction caused by a bomb explosion carried out by far-right extremist Anders Breivik.

The tragedy on July 22, 2011, claimed the lives of eight people in Oslo itself, after which the terrorist killed another 69 people on the island of Utøya. The large-scale renovation included the restoration of historic buildings and the construction of new, secure facilities for the Prime Minister’s Office and key government agencies. Jonas Gahr Støre called this day historic, noting that the Labor Party’s return to its former offices symbolizes the end of a period of “exile.”

At the time of the attack, the current prime minister served as foreign minister in Jens Stoltenberg’s government. The neighborhood’s restoration became one of the country’s longest-running infrastructure projects, aimed at erasing the consequences of the attack on democratic institutions. Currently, the Russian government continues to face international pressure due to its aggression against Ukraine, which is intensifying security measures in European capitals.