A new political landscape in Norway

Labour Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre.Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB scanpix

The big parties are the big losers – in favor of green and radical parties on the left. The election leaves a new political landscape, researchers believe.

The election results seem to form the basis for a new, radical and green political landscape, according to election researcher Peter Egge Langsæther at NTNU.

“In Europe, we have seen that green parties and the radical left are strengthening, while traditional parties are weakening. What we are seeing in Norway now is part of a European trend,” he tells NTB.

With 99.5 % of the votes counted by Tuesday morning, Ap (Labour Party) gets a turnout of just under 25 % nationwide. Thus, Ap has its worst local election in the party’s history. The previous bottom listing was set at 27 % in 2003. The election’s winners were the MDG (Green Party), og Senterpartiet (Centre Party).  


Ap and H election losers
“Our weak electoral result fits into what we see in other countries – wing parties and one-issue parties have had buoyancy, and management parties like us have had headwinds,” said Ap leader Jonas Gahr Støre as he spoke to the electoral watch.

He admitted after the speech that the election result gives cause for concern, but declined to call it a “disaster.”

The other party that stands out in terms of lost support is Høyre (H), which got 20 % nationwide after a 3 percentage point decline from the municipal and county council elections four years ago. The Høyre leader and Prime Minister Erna Solberg would go no further than to say that the election result was “disappointing” and that she would like to “see that more cities and towns were capable of blue control.”

“In Norway and Scandinavia, the Social Democratic parties have done reasonably well compared to sister parties further south in Europe, but the long-term development that has been seen in Europe is also seen here,” says election researcher Johannes Bergh at the Department of Social Research.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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