IMAGINE jumping in a taxi and finding the Prime Minister at the wheel. This is what several Norwegians discovered when their country's leader, Jens Stoltenberg, went undercover as a taxi driver.
In a bid to find out the real concerns of voters ahead of Norway's general election on 9 September, Stoltenberg wore an Oslo Taxi uniform for an afternoon and picked up passengers in a black Mercedes.
"It's important for me to hear what people really think. If there's one place where people say what they think, it's in the taxi," Stoltenberg said in a video posted on YouTube.
The stunt, which was carried out in June, was filmed by a hidden camera to record reactions from the passengers, including one who remarked: "From this angle, you really look like the Prime Minister."
Passengers, who were not charged for their journeys, discussed issues ranging from education and oil policy to the state of Stoltenberg's driving skills.
One passenger said the "driving is not exactly the best I've seen" after the Prime Minister, who had not driven in eight years, brought the automatic car to a sudden halt.
Asked by the tabloid Verdens Gang if he would become a taxi driver if he lost the elections, Stoltenberg said: "I think that the country and Norwegian taxi passengers are better served if I were a Prime Minister and not a taxi driver."
According to the latest opinion polls, Stoltenberg's ruling centre-left coalition appears likely to lose. But he did steer one voter in his party's direction. While climbing out of the taxi, an elderly male passenger told him: "This has been nice ... I will vote Labour Party."
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/europe/54571/norways-prime-minister-works-secret-taxi-driver-video#ixzz2boiYRq5d
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