A handout photo provided by the Norwegian Labour Party shows an undated June 2013 videograb of camera footage taken inside a taxi cab in Oslo, which is driven by Stoltenberg.

DPA/Oslo

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has spent a few hours working as a taxi driver in an election stunt aimed at luring support for his Labour Party, which is lagging behind the Conservatives before an election next month.
“It is important for me to hear what people really say,” Stoltenberg, who has been in power for eight years, told the newspaper VG in remarks published on Monday. “One place where people really speak their minds is in a taxi.”
The 54-year-old wore a taxi driver’s uniform with an orange tie and sun glasses, but was recognised by several passengers.
Two young women burst out in laughter when they realised who was driving them.
An elderly man said: “You look like Stoltenberg when I see you in profile.”
An elderly woman said she felt “really lucky as she had planned to write a letter to the premier” to raise her concern about high salaries awarded to business executives.
The latest poll puts support for Stoltenberg’s Labour Party at 27.5% compared with 31.9% for the opposition Conservatives.
“After two terms in office, it is quite common you get the blame for people’s problems. Many are tired of Stoltenberg,” Karl Fredrik Tangen of the Oslo School of Management told the newspaper Dagbladet.
Public relations expert Hans Geelmuyden told the newspaper Aftenposten that while it showed a different side of Stoltenberg, who is often quite grave in public, he doubted its impact on the campaign.
Stoltenberg’s election campaign team have posted clips of the stunt, filmed with hidden cameras in June, on YouTube and Facebook, and plan to show it in cinemas before the September election.
Since Stoltenberg does not have a permit to drive a taxi, the passengers did not have to pay for their rides, which were bumpy at times given Stoltenberg is used to being chauffeured.
His party admitted, however, that some of the passengers were paid to take part.
Yesterday VG revealed that five of the 14 passengers filmed with hidden cameras fitted in the cab were in fact chosen during a casting call.
“They’re five ordinary people who were asked if they wanted to take part in a video for the Labour Party and who knew nothing else, except that they were going to be picked up in a taxi,” party spokeswoman Pia Gulbrandsen said.
“Their spontaneity was real when they realised that the driver was the prime minister,” she added.
Each of the five received 500 kroner (65 euros, $85) “as a thank you”, the Labour Party said.
The owner of the public relations firm that made the video, Kjetil Try – a friend of the prime minister’s – told VG that the casting call was necessary to ensure that passengers were available at the right time and that they represented a broad diversity.
The video was on the whole well-received for its humorous aspects, though several commentators remarked that it focused more on the passengers’ surprise than on the voter issues Stoltenberg said he wanted to explore.
The premier said he had no plans to switch jobs.
Stoltenberg told VG: “I think the country and the Norwegian taxi passengers are best served if I’m the prime minister and not a taxi driver.”