Norwegian local elections, 2015

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I should have specified: The options are either across Bryggen, or in a tunnel through some rather unstable soil that passes under some old historic buildings. No good options here, really.

Yeah, but I still hope they do the tunnel anyway. Across is assured destruction of historical buildings, around is taking a risk, but potentially saving it all.

There are studies which have shown that it would be safe. It's not going to cut through the Hanseatic houses, after all.

Brilliant pictures of Drevland, by the way.

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Summary of the biggest municipalities:

Oslo: A massive loss for the center-right. Ap will now be the biggest party in the capital. They are not guaranteed to take power, however, as MDG is negotiating with both "blocks". The real winners here are MDG (who went from 1 to 4 seats) and Rødt (who went from 1 to 2). MDGs Shohaib Sultan may become mayor (a ceremonial position in Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø), and is already under fire for some allegedly homophobic comments he made years ago, plus of course many people are not entirely comfortable with making a Muslim the mayor.

Bergen: An even more dramatic change here, due to the scandals discussed above. Ap will be the biggest party in Bergen for the first time in forever, and have a majority with their coalition partners. KrF will likely get the mayorship, while Ap will chair the city government. Høyre lose 9 of their 24 seats. Ap, SV and MDG have made huge gains.

Trondheim: The capital of Central Norway was the largest city where the center-left governed before the election, and this will not change. Rita Ottervik (Ap) will stay on as mayor, with Ap taking 41% of the vote. With these gains, she can also narrow down the coalition to only including Ap, SV and MDG if she wants, ditching KrF and Sp.

Stavanger: What a mess. Both the major parties lost seats in a city that is feeling the effects of the falling oil price. A local party opposed to more road tolls, and *sigh* MDG made the biggest gains. The center-right will remain in control, however.

Bærum: In my home municipality, a suburb of Oslo, Høyre have lost their absolute majority, but needs the support of only one other party to govern. That will either be FrP or Venstre.

Kristiansand: The largest city in the far south did not see much in the way of changes. Six parties on the center-right have announced that they will rule in what must be an incredibly unwieldy coalition.

Fredrikstad: FrP used to hold this as one of their showcase municipalities. They lost power in 2011, and this time around, Ap are one seat short of an absolute majority. They will obviously find the support needed to govern.

Tromsø: The center-right will lose power in the largest city in the north. Headaches are on the way for Ap, though, who will have to get Rødts support to govern. Rødt may very well end up with the mayor. Also a huge loss for Høyre, who go from 16 to 9 seats out of 43.

Sandnes: Sandnes is perhaps the largest city where...unusual coalitions are the norm. Høyre had a disastrous election, and Ap will stay in power with support from FrP, SV and Sp.

Drammen: Høyre made a splash here and dropped from an absolute majority to 18/49 seats. However, they will continue to govern with support from FrP and either V or KrF.

On a final note, rumor has it that MDG in Bodø has been instructed to seek a coalition with the center-right, so that the party can still claim that they are "independent of the two blocks" (MDG mostly cooperates with the center-left, but stubbornly reject the notion that they are a center-left party)

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Lol, why are the Greens maintaining this weird Moderate Hero act? What is their aim?

Lord knows. I don't have as much trouble with the concept of the "moderate hero" as some people on this board, but this positioning by MDG is just weird. Their party program clearly leans center-left, so why are they pretending otherwise? Hopefully this sham will be out of the way soon. I don't like block politics, but I have an even greater distaste for people lying to themselves.

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Trondheim update:
http://www.nrk.no/trondelag/dette-er-otterviks-nye-allianse-1.12557654

Mayor Rita Ottervik (Ap) decided to do the opposite of what I thought. Her alliance will now consist of no less than seven parties: Ap, MDG, SV, V, Pp, KrF and Sp. For English speakers that translates to the Labour Party, the Greens, the Socialist Left, the Liberals, the Christian Democrats and the Center Party. This coalition controls 47 of 67 seats in the Trondheim City Council.

Hilde Opoku from MDG will become the party's first ever deputy mayor.

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Good question about the City Council members. I suppose it could help to increase the diversity of parties on the council...

Yes, Norwegian municipalities can elect to either go for "formannskapsmodellen" (i.e. mayors with real power, and an executive board elected proportionally from all parties), or "byparlamentarisme" ("city parliamentarism", i.e. a formal coalition government running the city). Oslo, Bergen and Tromsø have elected to choose model number three, as have several counties (where it is entirely pointless). I would say that solution works in the biggest cities only, with Tromsø being a borderline case. Moss (a city of around 30 000 in Østfold) tried to introduce it some years ago, to the tune of laughter and despair from the rest of the country.

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The government has no plans to abolish the concept of municipal parliamentarism, in fact I suspect they want more of the new, enlarged municipalities to choose this system. Most of the opposition to this system comes from the left, who are worried about the fact that this also means that more of the process can be kept away from the public. Which is to a certain extent a valid argument, but to me it's an argument for expanding freedom of information laws, not for abolishing the whole system.

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Not a good day for the Greens, who are showing some of their inexperience.

In the town of Gjøvik, they joined in a rainbow coalition of sorts with FrP, H, KrF, Pp and Sp to get rid of Ap, who have been in control there for over 90 years straight. Today, MDG got cold feet, decided to drop the coalition and support Ap instead, claiming that they had been put under "immense pressure" to sign the deal with the center-right parties.

In the industrial settlement of Årdal, MDGs single representative on the new municipal council decided to let her five-year old son draw lots to find out which parties she would enter into negotiations with. The son picked the center-left.

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These incidents will probably be forgotten soon. If they end up being part of a larger pattern, it will be a different story.

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A new coalition has been announced that will govern Stavanger: Høyre, FrP, Venstre, KrF, Sp and Pensjonistpartiet. They will enjoy confidence and supply support from Folkeaksjonen Nei til mer bompenger (an anti-road tolls party), and will altogether hold 41 of 67 seats on the city council.

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Ap, KrF and V will most likely form the new city government in Bergen. This probably means that KrF gets the mayor. SV was also invited to join the talks, but declined the offer.

The three parties combined control 34 of 67 seats on the city council.

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To the surprise of absolutely nobody in the entire country, MDG has decided to enter into negotiations with Ap and SV, meaning we will probably have a center-left government in Oslo.

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Ap, KrF and V will most likely form the new city government in Bergen. This probably means that KrF gets the mayor. SV was also invited to join the talks, but declined the offer.

The three parties combined control 34 of 67 seats on the city council.

KrF and V, isn't that an awkward combination? Aren't there religion-state issues that play a role in local decisions?

Not awkward at all, these parties cooperate all the time at both the local and national level. Not sure what issues you'd be talking about.

What will be interesting to see in Bergen is who will win out when it comes to policy regarding drug users. V based almost their entire campaign on opening a safe, supervised injection room, which KrF is vehemently opposed to and has been blocking for the past several years. Ap is on V's side in this one.

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Yeah, pretty much what you guys have said. All of rural Norway shares some SoCon traits (everyone outside the big cities is slightly homophobic, but won't display it because that would be making a scene), but in parts of Aust-Agder, Rogaland and Hordaland, as well as all of Vest-Agder it goes nuts. Some towns have more bedehus (independent fundie churches) than schools.

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everyone outside the big cities is slightly homophobic, but won't display it because that would be making a scene

What?! Now you're just making unjust generalizations. I grew up in a rural area in Sweden and though lots of people certainly held homophobic opinions and it certainly is more socially conservative than most non-Scandinavians think, it's greatly untrue to claim that all, or even most, of people outside of the big cities are homophobes. That isn't the case in Sweden, and I don't think that changes when you cross the Norwegian boarder.

OK, (slightly) homophobic may be the wrong word (you ignored the word slightly). Would "somewhat uncomfortable when an openly gay person is around" suit you better? By the way, I think you'll find the Norwegian countryside is somewhat more conservative than the Swedish countryside.

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Alright, I can't claim every single person is is. But a large majority are. I made a generalization that people make every single day, that most people understand is a rhetorical generalization and should not be taken literally. Sheesh...

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Ap, SV and Rødt have reached an agreement in Tromsø, which among other things details that they will abolish city parliamentarism in eight months. The city will then revert to the traditional model, meaning an executive board consisting of all parties on the city council.

This is presumably Rødts major takeaway from these negotiations, because in return they gave up the mayorship to Ap.

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The two last city governments (in the cities with a parliamentary system) have been formed:

- In Bergen, the new coalition will be composed of Ap, KrF and V. Ap will get both the mayor and the chair of the city government.

- In Oslo, the new coalition will be composed of Ap, SV and MDG and will require the support of Rødt. This is already turning interesting.

My ranting points:
  - MDG and the other parties agreed that the area within Ring 1 (that is to say, an area limited by the Royal Palace to the west, Youngstorget to the north, and the Central Station to the east) will be made car-free by 2019 (deliveries and similar excepted, of course). They have adopted a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, meaning that the practical problems are being sorted out right now. For example, they cannot tell if taxis will be exempted.

  - They have also announced that Oslo will not support expansion of the E18 motorway. The problem? There are three parties in that project: Oslo, Akershus county and the national government. The latter two don't give a sh*t. MDG will reportedly withdraw from the city government if they do not get their way regarding the E18.

  - To make this all even better, they also announced they want to build a new subway tunnel. While this is undoubtedly a good idea, financing it will require help from Akershus. Akershus already supports a good deal of infrastructure projects in Oslo, _in return_ for Oslo supporting the E18 (which runs through western parts of Akershus and desperately needs expanding). No E18 = no new subway tunnel. You can't have both, MDG.

  - The new city government will not use the normal Norwegian term byråd, it will instead use byregjering (which literally translates to city government), which sounds stupidly pompous to everyone else. In addition, the borough councils will no longer be bydelsutvalg (borough committees), but instead bydelsstyrer (borough councils). Pompous, but nothing too outrageous so far. The last name change is the killer: bydelsutvalgsleder (borough council leader) will now become bydelsordfører (borough mayor).

  - In exchange for their support, Rødt has managed to get the city government to agree that no new private childcare places will be constructed. This will inevitably lead to a shortage of childcare places in a few years, but you know, ideology is important.

  - Also, Rødt managed to include some phrasing about how Oslo will no longer allow for the
opening of "commercial schools" (that is to say, private schools). There are two problems here: first, private schools fall under the regulation of the national government, and the city government therefore has no jurisdiction in that area. The second is that there are no "commercial" schools in Oslo, because private schools in Norway cannot be for profit!