Norwegian Election

[Jens]

In case your local media has failed to report it, there is a election to the Norwegian Storting (Grand Diet) this monday and the outcome is very unsure. During the last months it has looked like the centre-left coalition led by Arbeiderpartiet (Labour party) was heading toward a solid victory over the current centre-right coalition led by Kjeld Magne Bondevik of  Kristelig Folkeparti (Christian People's Party) but the latest polls doesn't give give any of the grand coalitions a majority in the Storting.

The current situation in Stortinget is this: (From left to right)

Sosialistisk Venstreparti: 23 M
Arbeiderpartiet: 43 M
Senterpartiet: 10 M
Venstre: 2 M
Kristelig Folkeparti: 22 M
Høyre: 38 M
Fremskrittspartiet: 24 M
Others: 1 M

The current government consists of Kristelig Folkeparti, Venstre and Høyre and is a minority government supported by Fremskrittspartiet

[Jens]

The Parties running in this election are:

Government:
Kristelig Folkeparti (Christian People's Party):
Christian Democratic party that really emerged after WWII. Comes from the very christian parts of Western Norway, but has succeded in gaining votes because of their focus on family values, anti-alcohol and anti-EU. Their original fundamentalist christian views has been toned down a bit, but they still are the only Norwegian party against abortion. The leader of KrF, Kjell Magne Bondevik has been prime minister since 2001

Høyre (Right):
H is a conservative party, one of the two original parties Høyre and Venstre. H has traditionally been the major oppositional party to DNA, but in the later years KrF and Fremskrittspartiet has been serious competators to that title. H is pro-EU

Venstre (Left):
V is a social-liberal party (not like Venstre in Denmark, more simelar to Radikale Venstre) that used to be on of the major parties but has had serious problems passing the 4% treshold since 1973, where the question about EU-membership caused the party to splinter.

Supporting the government:

Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party):
Fp was founded as a protest against high taxes, bureacracy and EU-membership as Anders Langes Parti (named after the founder Anders Lange) and changed its name to Fp in 1977 (copycat!!) Because of its nature as a protest party the Fp support has been very inconsistant but in the later years the policies (and carismatic behaviour) of the party's leader Carl I. Hagen, presenting themself as supporter of the weak (Norwegian, Fp has a very strong stint of xenofobia) has given the party a very strong position in Norwegian politics and made it the 2nd largest party in 1997.

Opposition:

Det Norske Arbeiderpartiet (Norwegian Labour Party):
DNA has been in power the majority of the time since WWII and had a majority on its own from 1945 to 1961. Their last prime minister was Jens Stoltenberg who also is their candidate this time. Last election following Stoltenbergs government was the worst defeat ever for DNA and their worst election since 1924 giving DNA less than a quarter of the votes and only 43 mandates. DNA is a socialdemocratic party and supports membership of the European Union

Sosialistisk Venstreparti (Socialist Left Party):
SV was founded in 1961 by breakouts from Ap as Sosialistik Folkeparti inspired by the succes of SF in Denmark. In 1973 the party merged with various leftwing groups and created SV. The last election was the best ever for SV, giving the party 12,5 % and 23 mandates. SV is a socialist party and is against membership of the European union

Senterpartiet (Centre Party):
Originally Farmers Party, Senterpartiet is very much the representative of the countryside. The party hold strong positions in Norways many small parishes. The party is centre-liberal with a strong agarian twist and is strongly against membership of the EU. In the early 90'es SP gained many votes on the Anti-EU stance but support has dropped sharply, mainly because of the dying out of the tradition SP base in the countryside. Last election was the worst ever. SP only got 5,6 % and 10 mandates

Rød Valgallianse (Red Electoral Alliance):
Founded as a protest against the grand left wing coalition in 1973, RV has only ever been represented in the Storting from 1993 to 1997. RV is a marxist party

Kystpartiet (Coast Party):
Kp is a regional party representing mainly the fishermen in northern Norway

[Jens]

Odd thing is that Labour are still polling fairly well (around about the 30% mark)... the Socialist Left seem to have been collapsing of late (I could be misreading, but they seem to have dropped 7pts in one poll).
Any idea why?

Lets just call it the illusion of statistics. An extremely exellent poll 17% contra a poll a bit under standard ca 10%, but the election looks very close. I'll post some polls right away

[Jens]

Latest poll from NRK (Norwegian BBC)

Government:

KrF:  8,0% -4,4% 14M - 8M
H:   15,5% -5,7% 27M -11M
V:     6,1% +2,2% 11M +9M

Support:

Fp: 18,1% +3,5% 32M +6M
Kp:   1,9% +0,2%   2M +1M

Opposition:
DNA:28,9% +4,6% 51M +8M
SV:  13,6% +1,2% 23M
Sp:    4,6% -1,0%    8M -2M
RV:    1,6% +0,4%   1M +1M

Total:
Government: 52M -10M
Support:        34M + 7M
Opposition:    83M + 7M

[Jens]

Interesting that the parties named "Left" and "Right" are in the same coalition.

Take a look at my thread about the Danish election. The names derive from their physical position in parliament, not from any political stance. Venstre (Left) in Norway is a social-liberal party and are quite similar to Radikale Venstre in Denmark (translate Radical Left, but the party is neither Radical nor Left)

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We have these traditional christian areas in both the western parts of Denmark and Norway. They are based around the fishermen who fish in the ruff enviroment on the North Sea. These days they basically are christian democrats and nothing like extreme christian fundamentalist.

[Jens]

Why'd the support for the Christian Dems split in half?

mainly fatigue, the last two elections where the best ever for KrF. This election has given them their "traditional" share of the votes and generally this election was about why the world's richest and best country (Norwegians arn't modest) still has very poor people, local level budget problems and worn down schools ect.

[Jens]

With 99,08% counted the Storting looks like this;

Ap: 32,8% +8,5% 61M +18M
SV:   8,7%  -3,8% 15M  -  8M
SP:   6,5% +1,0% 11M  + 1M

KrF:  6,8% -5,6%  11M  -11M
V:     5,9% +2,0% 10M  + 8M
H:   14,1% -7,1%  24M  -14M

FrP: 22,1%+7,4% 37M  -11M

RV:    1,2% +0,0%  0M   +0M
KP:    0,8% - 0,9%  0M    -1M

The only way a Ap-SV-SP government can fail now is in the negociation room. Bondevik has resigned and there is no way SP is going to join a government supported by Fremskrittspartiet

[Jens]

Great little interactive map of the results: http://www7.nrk.no/nyheter/Valg05/valresultat/

It is interesting that some parties have very localized support in some communes (30+% where they are under 10).  For example the Centre Party in some areas on the west coast.

What is Kystparteit?  0.8% nation wide, 8.3% Troms County, 36.4% Karlsoy commune.  This is on the Arctic Coast, north of the Sweden-Finland border.  Is this a Lapp party?

No, Kystpartiet (Coast Party) is the party of one man, Steinar Bastesen, who is from Karlsøy and is a fisherman or whaler. Senterpartiet was originally called Peasants party and still has massive support in rural areas and very little in the cities

[Jens]

A little update on the Norwegian situation. 3 days ago Ap, SV and SP began negosiation to form a government, but it looks like it is going to take some time to get to an agreement, probably a couple of weeks

[Jens]

The negociations are now finished and the number of statsråder (ministers) each party will get has been announced, but not the names. Arbeiderpartiet will get 10 ministers, Sosialistisk Venstreparti 5 and Senterpartiet 4 ministers.
Acording to NRK the distribution will be like this:

Ap
Prime Minister (Jens Stoltenberg)
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Defence
Minister of Justice
Minister of Social and Work Affairs
Minister of Family, Integration and Equality
Minister of Health
Minister of Fishery

SV
Minister of Finance (perhaps Kristin Halvorsen)
Minister of Knowledge
Minister of Enviroment
Minister of Foreign Aid
Minister of Administration

SP
Minister of Agriculture (perhaps Terje Riis-Johansen)
Minister of Municipal and District Affairs (perhaps Åslaug Haga)
Minister of Trafic
Minister of Oil and Energy (perhaps Marit Arnstad)

[Jens]

Minister of Administration

Where is the minister of Administration responsible for?

Basically adminstrating the public departments including pay and starff, information from the state - A more aqurate name would be ministry of Government Administration. It was renamed Ministry of Modernisation in 2004 but it looks like the new government is going to reestablish parts of the old Ministry of Labour and Government Administration

http://odin.dep.no/mod/english/news/bn.html

[Jens]

The names of the minsters are now official

Ap
Prime Minister - Jens Stoltenberg
Minister of Foreign Affairs - Jonas Gahr Støre
Minister of Defence - Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen
Minister of Justice - Knut Storberget
Minister of Family, Integration and Equality - Karita Bekkemellem
Minister of Health - Sylvia Brustad
Minister of Fishery - Helga Pedersen
Minister of Culture - Trond Giske
Mister of Industry - Odd Eriksen
Minister of Labour and Social Affairs - Bjarne Håkon Hanssen

SV
Minister of Finance - Kristin Halvorsen (SV leader)
Minister of Knowledge - Øystein Djupedal
Minister of Enviroment - Helen Bjørnøy
Minister of Foreign Aid - Erik Solheim
Minister of Administration - Heidi Grande Røys

SP
Minister of Agriculture - Terje Riis-Johansen
Minister of Municipal and District Affairs Åslaug Haga (SP leader)
Minister of Trafic - Liv Signe Navarsete
Minister of Oil and Energy - Odd Roger Enoksen

9 women 10 men; average age of 43,9 years

[Jens]

I also like the Ministry of Knowledge.

Well you of all people should get the very direct translation try it in German
 

[Jens]

I would think it's about Education.

partly, but also recearch. I didn't really bother to look up their own translation before but now I see that they translate is as Ministry of Education and Recearch http://odin.dep.no/ufd/english/bn.html