About Thorbjørn Jagland
Thorbjørn Jagland (né Johansen;; born 5 November 1950) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. He served as the prime minister of Norway from 1996 to 1997, as the minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2001, as the president of the Storting from 2005 to 2009, as chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 2009 to 2015 and as secretary general of the Council of Europe from 2009 to 2019. He maintained a close association with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In 2026, he was charged with gross corruption over his links to Epstein. Jagland studied economics at the University of Oslo at introductory level, but did not graduate. He started his political career in the Workers' Youth League, which he led from 1977 to 1981. He was party secretary from 1986 to 1992 and party leader from 1992 to 2002. Jagland's cabinet, albeit short-lived, was marked by controversies, with two ministers being forced to withdraw following personal scandals. Jagland, who was much ridiculed in the media for his quotes and statements and frequently portrayed as incompetent, resigned following the 1997 election, as a consequence of his much-ridiculed 36.9 ultimatum, even though his party won the most votes. In 2010, a group of forty prominent historians ranked Jagland as the weakest Norwegian prime minister since the end of the Second World War; two years before, his predecessor Gro Harlem Brundtland had criticized his premiership in harsh terms and described Jagland as "stupid". His term as Foreign Minister was marked by controversies due to his perceived lack of qualification for the office and quotes and statements that were considered inappropriate. Jagland was widely perceived to have been passed over when Jens Stoltenberg formed his second cabinet in 2005. In 2009, Jagland was elected as the secretary-general of the Council of Europe. In 2014 he was reelected for an additional five years. His tenure as secretary-general has been controversial, and he has been accused of inaction against corruption, of association with Jeffrey Epstein, and of servility towards Vladimir Putin's Russia. Jagland was a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and left in 2020; he formerly served as its chairman from 2009 to 2015. On 12 February 2026, Jagland was charged by the National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime in Norway (Økokrim) of aggravated corruption, in light of information from the Epstein files. Several of his homes in Oslo, Risør and Rauland, were searched. They also announced that he would be brought in for a police interrogation. Økokrim previously announced they would investigate whether gifts, travel, and loans were received in connection with his positions as chair of the Nobel Committee and Secretary General of the Council of Europe during the period covered by the released documents. After he was charged with corruption, Norwegian media reported that Jagland had been committed to a mental hospital as a suicide candidate, with his lawyer confirming it was related to the criminal prosecution of him. During his first term, Jagland was a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, and also served as the fractional leader for the parliamentary group of the party. He resigned following the 1997 election even though his party won the most votes.
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