Norway’s government announced a cabinet reshuffle on Friday, 11 September 2026, in the government led by Jonas Gahr Støre. The Office of the Prime Minister said the King made the changes in the Council of State and that the new lineup in the affected ministries applies from 12:00 the same day. This is not the formation of a new government: Støre remains prime minister, and the changes concern four portfolios inside the existing cabinet.

Three people are joining the government. Kamzy Gunaratnam was appointed Minister of Transport. Eileen Fugelsnes was appointed Minister of Research and Higher Education. Torgeir Micaelsen was appointed Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance. The fourth change of leadership concerns Sigrun Aasland, already a cabinet member, who moves from Research and Higher Education to Climate and Environment.

The distinction matters. The reshuffle brings in three new ministers, not four. Aasland is changing portfolio; she is not a fourth newcomer. The official notice also states that Jon-Ivar Nygård has been honourably discharged as Minister of Transport, Karianne Oldernes Tung as Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance, and Andreas Bjelland Eriksen as Minister of Climate and Environment. The announcement does not give further reasons for those discharges.

Gunaratnam takes a ministry responsible for the transport of people and goods, including infrastructure and postal services, according to the ministry’s official page. She has both local and national political experience: she served as deputy mayor of Oslo and has been a member of the Storting, Norway’s parliament, since 2021. The appointment was made in the Council of State on Friday; it is not a nomination waiting for later confirmation.

Fugelsnes takes the ministry Aasland held until Friday. The portfolio covers research and higher education, including universities, research policy and skills. Before the appointment, official 2026 government lists recorded her as state secretary to Aasland. Her entry into the cabinet completes the change at Research and Higher Education; it does not add a fourth new member beyond Gunaratnam and Micaelsen.

Micaelsen returns to a ministerial role at Digitalisation and Public Governance. The ministry’s brief includes digitalisation of the public sector and the organisation of public administration. In recent months he appeared on official lists as a state secretary to Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg. The change replaces the leadership of that ministry, not the government as a whole.

Aasland remains in Støre’s cabinet with a different brief. She had been Minister of Research and Higher Education; from 12:00 on Friday the official list names her Minister of Climate and Environment. That is an internal reassignment, not a fourth person joining the government. The cabinet continues to consist of members of the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet), according to the same Prime Minister’s Office notice.

Jonas Gahr Støre has been prime minister since October 2021. His cabinet has been adjusted before during this term; the 11 September 2026 announcement is the latest personnel change, not a change of government. Under Norway’s system, such appointments are made in the Council of State and take effect at the time stated in the notice, rather than after a later parliamentary confirmation of an entirely new government.

The four appointments therefore put new leadership in charge of transport, research and higher education, digitalisation of public administration, and climate and environmental policy. Those files remain with the existing cabinet, not with a government formed from scratch.

Source consulted: Changes in the Government | Office of the Prime Minister

Image credit: Torbjørn Kjosvold / Office of the Prime Minister (SMK), CC BY 4.0. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre at the opening of the new government quarter in Oslo, 13 April 2026. This is not a group photograph of the 11 September 2026 reshuffle. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/statsministerenskontor/55205561919/