OSLO: Norway’s populist Progress Party said on Monday it was leaving the right-wing coalition government over the repatriation of a suspected member of the militant Islamic State group and her two children last week.

“We don’t compromise with people who have voluntarily joined terror organisations. That was the last straw,” party leader Siv Jensen told reporters in Oslo.

Without the Progress Party, the coalition, headed by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, loses its majority in parliament, but she will still remain in charge.

As she announced her party’s exit, Jensen said it was “natural” that Solberg would remain prime minister.

The 29-year-old Norwegian woman, who is of Pakistani origin, was married to two different IS fighters.

She was brought back to Norway with her two children on humanitarian grounds, as her five-year-old son was allegedly very ill. The Progress Party had been in favour of bringing back the children but opposed her return.

However, the other three parties making up the coalition government ignored the objections and approved the mother’s return as she refused to leave her children.

The woman is accused of having been a member of both the Al-Nusra Front and the IS and was arrested on Friday night when she returned home to Norway with her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, born to different jihadist fighters.

She was formally remanded in custody on Monday, but was temporarily staying with her children, who have been hospitalised.

The woman has rejected charges and said she was held in Syria against her will.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2020