office. In July the same year, Hareide received further criticism as the number of licenses to kill large carnivores allegedly was not only at a record high (12 brown bears, 10 grey wolves, 22 wolverines and 13 lynx), but also contradictory to the parliamentary policy on the matter. According to Hareide, the actions were in line with the parliamentary stance on the issue. In April 2005 he was criticized for an issue connected to monetary support of environmental projects and organizations. The Ministry approved a $90,000 project support for the Church of Norway, while the pressure group Bellona faced a cut of the same amount. Hareide, being a devout Christian and a member of the Church of Norway, was accused of putting his own religious interests ahead of environmental considerations. The case became a curiosity in the Norwegian media as some of the money was channelled into the church internet site, which, among other things, contained a set of prayers for earthworms – described in such odd terms as "the blind subterranean workers", "small sisters and brothers in the compost" and "members of the subterranean congregation". Hareide responded to the criticism by describing the overall project as "exciting". One of Hareide's last actions in office was to approve the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the Hatteberg watershed in Kvinnherad, a protected natural area. Most of the criticism went to his successor, Helen Bjørnøy, who neglected to roll back the decision when assuming office. She eventually resigned halfway into her term. During his time as Minister of the Environment, Hareide was parodied in the television comedy program Tre brødre som ikke er brødre. The character Knut Arild Hareide, played by Harald Eia, was portrayed in several sketches as a physically weak person. These parodies were criticized by the authors in a 2005 book about different forms of mobbing; this stirred a minor debate in the Norwegian media. Nonetheless, Hareide himself showed a video clip of one of the parodies when publicly announcing his stepdown from national politics at the 2007 party congress. In a poll taken in December 2013, Hareide received a 99 percent approval rating among Christian Democratic voters. Resignation from party leadership In September 2018, Hareide made an ultimatum to his own party, that they should either join the Labour Party and Centre Party to form a government, thereby toppling the Solberg Cabinet, or entering the Solberg