Norway's Opposition Wins Election, Early Results Show

[bemildred]

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- An alliance headed by Norwegian opposition Labor Party leader Jens Stoltenberg won power in today's general election after promising higher spending on health care and welfare, early results showed.

Labor and its allies, the Socialist Left and Center parties, are set to win 85 of the 169 seats in parliament, with 50.5 percent of the vote counted, according to the Norwegian government's results Web site. It gave Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's tax-cutting government of Conservatives, Christian Democrats, Liberals and their Progress Party supporters 83 seats.

A government led by Stoltenberg, 46, will go further than Bondevik's coalition in increasing spending in Norway, the world's third-largest oil exporter. It plans tax increases, as well as greater use of government coffers that have been swelled by a 51 percent rise in the oil price over the past 12 months.

``There's a trend to increased spending because of the high oil price,'' said Elisabeth Holvik, an economist at SEB Merchant Banking in Oslo and a former adviser for the Norwegian central bank, in a telephone interview before the exit polls were published. The Labor coalition ``has signaled it wants a shift in expenditure to increased public spending and hiring.''

Bloomberg

[texpatriot2004]

1. Good for them, it seems there election is going well...wish we

had elections that went that well here in America home of the free.

[spud]

9. They may have

without a paper trail we will never know.

[sonicx]

2. This is good news but...

the bad news is that the racist far-right Progress Party is doing better than the more moderate center-right ones.

[oasis]

3. Norway is moving along nicely. (eom)

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. 85 to 83 sounds like a knife edge to me

(plus there's one more - the speaker, perhaps?) Stay tuned for more results ...

[Lautremont]

6. It looks like those 83 are divided up between four different parties

unless I misread.

[sonicx]

7. it's 88 to 81 now with 90% counted

i think it'll be fine.

[sonicx]

8. 97% counted, still 88 to 81 for leftist bloc

done deal.

[Hardrada]

5. A far right party in Norway

would be like the Green Party here.

[Pinko]

10. Not quite

The differences between the European and American political landscapes have been greatly exaggerated. Generally, Europe may be slightly more inclined toward the left than the US, but they're not *that* dissimilar overall.
If I were to compare the political spectra of Norway and the United States, I'd say the Progress Party and the Christian Democrats would agree most with the Republicans, the Liberals and Labour (they've moderated their politics over the years) would fit the Democrats, the Conservatives would feel most at home with the Libertarians, and the Socialists would probably be Greens.
Sorry if I seem a little rambling or long winded, but I've been staying up watching the election coverage all night, so I'm a little tired right now.

[sonicx]

11. you're right, but...

the great thing about norway and some other countries is that there are multiply parties in play. Your Libertarian and Green parties actually have power in the national government. In American, It's only Dems and Republicans.

Plus from what i've read about this election, it's mostly being fought on economic issues, not "values" stuff like in America. And if the center right won again, they probably couldn't undo social progress (gay and women's rights) even if they wanted to, because the libertarians, i imagine, wouldn't go for it (neither would most of the population).

[Nordic65]

12. Yes, it was in essence a referendum on wealth distribution

Norway has a huge (relative speaking) surplus economy, and in a macro perspective you would be hard pressed to spot the differences between the two main political blocks.

Everybody agrees on the principle of a fully founded welfare-state. The basic question facing voters on monday was whether to modestly increase spending on schools, roads, pensions etc. or to keep spending at todays level and thus enabling an equally modest tax-cut. Those who favored more public spending won.

And you're also correct about the "values" stuff. Hardly anyone are wasting their energy or political capital on those issues. The present secretary of finance is openly gay, living in a civil union and he's from the conservative party. It's simply not a political question of any significance.

Having said that. All the the problems of the world are present in Norway too, but on a minute scale compared to just about other country.

[AX10]

13. True. Aside from the hard right nut cases, 80% of the....

political parties (memebers) agree that a REAL safety net is in everyone's interests. That's where a center-right party in Scandinavia in tolerable.