Cabinet, consisting of the Conservatives, Progress Party and Liberals. Hareide led the Labour-favoured campaign, and had it been successful, it would have led to Jonas Gahr Støre becoming prime minister. On the opposing side who favoured to enter the current cabinet, was Kjell Ingolf Ropstad and Olaug Bollestad. On the party conference on 2 November, the party voted to enter the Solberg cabinet. Negotiations eventually started to enter the cabinet, led by Ropstad himself. Hareide resigned as party leader in January 2019 and subsequently as parliamentary leader twelve days later. He was succeeded by Ropstad at the party conference in April the same year. In October 2019, he announced that he didn’t want to seek re-election to Parliament in the 2021 election. Return as minister In January 2020, about a year after the Christian Democrats entered the Solberg cabinet, the Progress Party chose to withdraw after disagreements after a family was brought home from Syria with a sick child, which had been against their wishes. Hareide returned from a committee travel, presumed to be because of the changes in the government, something he didn't confirm or deny upon his arrival at Oslo Gardermoen Airport. By 23 January, rumours circulated that he might be appointed as minister, which was confirmed the day after, to be the position of Transport Minister. This marked the first time since Bondevik's second cabinet that Hareide held a ministerial post. His appointment was criticized by the Progress Party, who saw it as a taunt given his opposition to enter the Solberg Cabinet in 2018. Minister of Transport and Communications After Widerøe announced in February 2020, that they would be cutting 15 percent of their short haul routes, Hareide criticised the move and called it “dramatic”. He stressed that the airline’s services were crucial for the districts and regions, and warned that it would impact citizens all over the country. The Labour Party blamed the airline’s decision on the government for a lack of district policies. In June 2020, Hareide announced that COVID-19 restrictions on airlines, notably SAS, Norwegian Air Shuttle and Widerøe, would be lifted, and that they would be able to fly with full seats. Hareide stated it was a wish from the airlines, and that the government thought it was defendable based on infection control. Following controversy regarding the Hungarian low-cost airline Wizzair possibly breaching Norwegian laws, Hareide, alongside trade minister Iselin Nybø, met