The Great Nordic Thread

[Heimdal]

Nothing have been decided yet of course, but Stoltenberg is clearly interested in the position. If he does get this job, the Labour party will have to choose a new leader. The overwhelming favorite is Jonas Gahr Støre (54), who has served as both Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Health in the Stoltenberg II cabinet. Støre's background is somewhat unusual for a party leader: He is considered to be part of the Labour Party "right", like Stoltenberg, only joined the Labour Party in his mid 30's, and comes from a wealthy upper class family. Despite, this he apparently has strong support amongst all factions in the Labour Party, and no realistic challengers exist.

Indeed. I think I have read somewhere that Støre was a supporter (maybe even a member) of Høyre when he was a young man. Støre is a great choice for AP. They will need him to attract the educated and urban middle class that is crucial to their electoral fortunes in 2017.
I was happy to see Stoltenberg leave as prime minister, but I think he could do a great job as NATOs Secretary General. He is obviously a very able man. Not to mention how Norway probably is one of the most enthusiastic and pro-American of the NATO-countries (Norwegian fighter aircrafts delivered about 25 % of the bombs dropped over Libya during the intervention there).

[Heimdal]

Indeed. I think I have read somewhere that Støre was a supporter (maybe even a member) of Høyre when he was a young man. Støre is a great choice for AP. They will need him to attract the educated and urban middle class that is crucial to their electoral fortunes in 2017.
I was happy to see Stoltenberg leave as prime minister, but I think he could do a great job as NATOs Secretary General. He is obviously a very able man. Not to mention how Norway probably is one of the most enthusiastic and pro-American of the NATO-countries (Norwegian fighter aircrafts delivered about 25 % of the bombs dropped over Libya during the intervention there).

Yes, that's true about Støre. There was a story about his background in Høyre a few years back. http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/09/17/547220.html

He doesn't seem to ever have been an active member of the party (guess it would have said if he was), but he did have talks with Kåre Willoch about working for him in 1987. In the end, Støre was offered the job but did not take it (for whatever reasons - Støre in 2008 said it was because he, deep down, felt he did not belong in Høyre, but that could well be spin of course).

 

I don’t think it would hurt him that much, even if he had been an active member of the party. A lot of people voted for Høyre during the 1980s. There is a precedent here as well. Høyres great chief during the 1960s was John Lyng. He was a member of the communist organization “Mot Dag” during the 1920s.

[Heimdal]

It looks like Stoltenberg will be appointed as the next General-Secretary of NATO.

http://www.nrk.no/norge/_-stoltenberg-new-chief-of-nato-1.11624901

That obviously clears the way for Jonas Gahr Støre as the next leader of the Labor party, and probably the position of prime minister after 2017.

[Heimdal]

Former minister of foreign affairs Jonas Gahr Støre has been elected as the new leader of the Norwegian Labour party. That means that Gahr Støre will be Labour’s candidate for Prime Minister in 2017.

Gahr Støre is considered to belong to the moderate-conservative faction of Labour, and there are few political differences between him and former leader Jens Stoltenberg.

[Heimdal]

I like the fact that conservative Christian have no place in Danish politics.

I think that it something most of the Scandinavian countries have in common. The Christian Democrats appeared in places like Italy and Germany because the traditional rightwing bourgeois parties had compromised by supporting fascists or Nazis, or simply by being associated with them. The same dynamics weren’t in place in Norway, Sweden or Denmark.

[Heimdal]

I like the fact that conservative Christian have no place in Danish politics.

I think that it something most of the Scandinavian countries have in common. The Christian Democrats appeared in places like Italy and Germany because the traditional rightwing bourgeois parties had compromised by supporting fascists or Nazis, or simply by being associated with them. The same dynamics weren't in place in Norway, Sweden or Denmark.

Christian Democrats do not necessarily equal Christian Conservatives - especially in Scandinavia  and if you do actually make that equation DK, Norway, Sweden do have conservative Christian parties.

The German catholic party Zentrum, which was the main ancestor of CDU, dates back to the German Empire. CDU became bigger because of bourgeois parties incriminating themselves by collaborating with the Nazis, but Christian Democrats would have existed as a strong party anyway.

As mentioned earlier Christian conservatives do have a place in Danish politics, as an important segment in the DPP - as seen in the partys growing homophobia and opposition to gay marriage.

I agree. Christian Democrats are not necessarily Christian conservatives.  They can easily belong to other parties as well. You mentioned that DPP caters to a lot of the conservative Christian voters in Denmark. That is to some extent the case in Norway as well. People who place a great deal of emphasis on abortion and gay marriage usually vote for FrP or KrF.

But my point is that Scandinavia is distinct by the fact that Christian democratic parties are either marginal (as in Norway and Sweden), or gone altogether (as in Denmark). I seem to remember that there was a Christian Democratic party in parliament in Denmark, but that they disappeared during the late 1990s?

[Heimdal]

Very interesting poll. I didn’t expect to see the Social Democrats do so well, or Venstre do so badly.

If Danish Peoples Party actually became bigger than Venstre in a real election, how would that change the dynamics on the Danish right?

[Heimdal]

Very interesting poll. I didn’t expect to see the Social Democrats do so well, or Venstre do so badly.

If Danish Peoples Party actually became bigger than Venstre in a real election, how would that change the dynamics on the Danish right?

I have no idea and if someone say they do, they're wrong.

DPP are between two point, the untouchable and the mainstream, last time such a party became the biggest was the SocDem in the early part of the century. So there are little precedence for how the voters and the Right will react to DPP being biggest. I doubt the Right would give DPP the PM position, on the other hand if DPP are the biggest party, it would look weird, as avoidance of responsability (from DPP side) and as an insult (from the other party in government) if they didn't became part of the government.

It might not be such a big transition after all.

I have heard that the DPP isn't that far to the right in terms of economic and social policy. In the respect that they support the Danish welfare state, and accepts the need for high tax rates to fund these social programs (Their sister party in Norway is far more ambivalent on this point. They want the welfare state, but not the tax rates that are needed to pay for it). On these issues they should be able to find a lot of common ground with the Social Democrats.

The DPP obviously differs from other parties (maybe especially on the left) on immigration policy. But is this all that controversial today? The impression from Norway is that DPP and Fogh Rasmussen largely won these battles in the early 2000s.