New triumph for Erna Solberg, but trouble ahead

Prime Minister Erna Solberg.Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

New triumph for Erna Solberg, but trouble ahead

Prime Minister Erna Solberg is re-elected and is written into the conservatives party history with gold letters. But now, difficult conversations are waiting on the bourgeois side.

 

– We have received support for four new years because we have delivered results on what we promised, said Erna Solberg, when speaking to the campaign members just after midnight.

This means that Kåre Willoch is no longer alone to be re-elected as Prime Minister from the Conservatives after WW II – Solberg has also achieved that feat.

But the election win has a downside for Solberg: She is now dependent on support from both the Liberals and the Christian Democrats to get a majority in the Parliament. And neither of the two parties wants the Progress Party to continue in Government.

Solberg informs that the four bourgeois parties will have talks about further cooperation.

– Our Government has always worked on the basis that we should manage four parties and their voters. This is my ambition too achieve, Solberg said in the party leader debate in the Parliament at 1 am night before Tuesday.

When 95 percent of the votes were counted, the mandate distribution showed that the four civilians receive 89 mandates in the Parliament, while the red-green total receives 79 mandates, while the MDG gets a mandate.

Liberals and Christian Democrats

Thus, the searchlight will again be on the Liberals and Christian Democrats. Both parties were clearly diminished in the election, but still contribute to a bourgeois majority.

Christian Democrat leader Knut Arild Hareide once again emphasized in the party leader debate that he prefers a center-conservative Government and that Christian Democrats have no plans to be a “support party” for the Government.

– Erna Solberg has invited the parties who have pointed at her to have talks regarding that kind of questions, without having to process those conversations. We want a center-conservative Government, so let’s see what’s going to happen, he says.

Liberal leader Trine Skei Grande also wants a “blue-green Government”.

Christian Democrats and Liberals appear to get eight mandates each in Parliament.

Progress Party leader Siv Jensen made sure that the four parties first sums up a bit, then talk together and find good solutions for the four parties.

– We have shown the voters that we can manage the country well, she says.

Disaster election for Labour

For the Labour Party’s leader Jonas Gahr Støre, the election was a solid downturn. The other red-green parties made very good elections, but Labour’s collapse meant that there was no change in Government.

– We did not succeed. This election is a big disappointment for the Labour Party, Støre declared when he spoke to the party’s campaign members.

Questions were asked about his position, but Støre several times during the election night rejected that he would withdraw as a party leader.

Labour seems to get 27.4 percent of the votes – the second worst result in over 90 years. The result is characterized as “a sensationally bad election” by state scientist Svein Erik Tuastad.

Centre Party is the election winner

The center party appears to be the big winner of the election and almost doubles its group. The party is expected to gain a progress of almost 5 percentage points and 18 mandates.

Also the Socialist Party goes to have a very good election. The party seems to be reach 6 per cent. But everything indicates that the two parties do not get much more influence over the policy in the Parliament than they have today – unless the Christian Democrats or Liberals turn to the Conservatives and the Progress Party down.

Neither the Red nor the Green Party managed to cross the barrier limit and get one representative each, namely Bjørnar Moxnes from Red and Une Bastholm from MDG. This means that MDG’s front figure Rasmus Hansson is out of the Parliament.

 

Party Votes Per cent 17-13 17-15 Mand
A 789 618 27,2 % -3.4 -6.2 49 (-6)
SV 171 767 5,9 % +1.9 +1.9 11 (+4)
RØDT 68 906 2,4 % +1.3 +0.2 1 (+1)
SP 297 339 10,3 % +4.8 +2.3 18 (+8)
KRF 120 938 4,2 % -1.4 -1.4 8 (-2)
MDG 91 468 3,2 % +0.4 -1.9 1 (-)
V 124 236 4,3 % -0.9 -0.7 8 (-1)
H 723 525 25,0 % -1.7 +1.7 45 (-3)
FRP 439 907 15,2 % -1.1 +5.0 28 (-1)
ALLI 3 265 0.1 +0.1 +0.1 0 (-)
DEMN 3 788 0.1 +0.1 -0.1 0 (-)
HELSE 10 196 0.4 +0.4 +0.4 0 (-)
KRISTNE 8 580 0.3 -0.3 -0.2 0 (-)
KYST 2 417 0.1 +0.0 -0.1 0 (-)
LIBS 5 468 0.2 +0.2 +0.2 0 (-)
NKP 305 0.0 +0.0 +0.0 0 (-)
PIR 3 276 0.1 -0.2 -0.2 0 (-)
PP 12 802 0.4 +0.0 -0.5 0 (-)
SAMFS 104 0.0 +0.0 +0.0 0 (-)
Others 20 884
Sum 2 898 789

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today