(Bloomberg) -- Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg named one of her top lieutenants to the key position of finance minister as her new minority government prepares to navigate a hostile parliament.

Solberg’s Conservative Party is reclaiming important portfolios, including finance and energy, after the populist Progress Party decided earlier this week to leave the government, robbing the coalition of its majority.

Education and Integration Minister Jan Tore Sanner, 54, who’s also the first deputy leader of the Conservatives, was named finance minister to replace Progress leader Siv Jensen, while lawmaker Tina Bru, 33, becomes petroleum and energy minister.

Solberg this week signaled few policy changes, saying her new government would continue to abide by a political platform struck in 2019 -- but Progress said it would now disregard that deal and push its own views at the expense of what Jensen called “gray, dull compromises.” The new cabinet, which also includes two smaller centrist parties, now faces a harder task governing, even though minority governments are a normal facet of Norwegian politics.

In power since 2013, Solberg has overseen a steady rise in oil-wealth spending to plug budget deficits and smooth over disagreements among her allies. Striking compromises to pass the budget will be one of the main tasks facing Sanner, whose ministry also oversees the country’s $1.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest.

Different Rhetoric

The Conservative Party is a traditional ally of the oil industry, but the rhetoric emanating from the petroleum ministry may have a slightly different tone after the departure of Progress, which has sought to position itself as the industry’s staunchest defender. Bru last year said she wanted oil operations in Norway to become carbon neutral by 2035 -- a more ambitious goal than was subsequently announced by the industry itself this month.

The Liberal Party’s Iselin Nybo was made trade and industry minister, replacing Conservative Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, who will now head the ministry of labor and social affairs. Liberal Sveinung Rotevatn, currently state secretary for climate and the environment, becomes the government’s youngest minister at 32 with a promotion to the top job in the same ministry.

The appointments also marked the comeback for Knut Arild Hareide, who stepped down as Christian Democrats leader after his party joined the government last year against his wishes. He will be transport minister.

(Updates with confirmation from first paragraph)

To contact the reporter on this story: Mikael Holter in Oslo at mholter2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, Stephen Treloar

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