Norwegian General Election 13 September 2021

[Хahar 🤔]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Party	Bokmål	Nynorsk
Ap	Arbeiderpartiet	Arbeidarpartiet
H	Høyre	Høgre
Sp	Senterpartiet	Senterpartiet
FrP	Fremksrittspartiet	Framstegspartiet
SV	Sosialistisk Venstreparti	Sosialistisk Venstreparti
R	Rødt	Raudt
V	Venstre	Venstre
MDG	Miljøpartiet De Grønne	Miljøpartiet Dei Grøne
KrF	Kristelig Folkeparti	Kristeleg Folkeparti

Something striking is that on the Nynorsk Wikipedia page for Framstegspartiet, the logo in the infobox nonetheless reads Fremksrittspartiet. The implication, I guess, is that no FrP voters use Nynorsk anyway, which seems like it might be accurate. Either way it's amusing.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I doubt the pandemic plays a factor at all in those hypothetical government changes. Germany might see a change in government because for the first time in history, no incumbent Chancellor is up for election and CDU/CSU just nominated a dull candidate. According to Europe Elects at least, the pandemic was neither a big factor in Norway but rather because many Norwegians were dissatisfied with the government on climate, taxes and decentralization. And Iceland doesn't even have a real center-left government to begin with, the party of the PM is only half as strong as the main coalition partner which is center-right.

Do they want them lower or higher (taxes), and do they want more or less (decentralization)?

Hoyre (the Conservatives) have pushed for centralisation in recent years which is why Centre opposes them. In general, Norway has not really suffered from rural decline as, say, Sweden has, but the Conservatives view a lot of SP's wishlist as keeping afloat an uneconomically unproductive region of the country and maintaining local rural municipal bureaucracies unnecessarily.

As far as taxes, that issue is Progress's although they haven't had the initiative as much as they want. Their big idea for a while has been to tap into (and ultimately abolish?) the "Oil Fund" (the behomoth sovereign wealth fund that all of Norway's oil wealth is funneled to) and use the revenue from oil directly to fund Norway's ample services while slashing taxes across the board. In all honesty, this plan reminds me of Venezuelan budgeting, but Hoyre as the resident sensible party only let them a bit of oil fund spending, as a treat. AP this time around have promised to cut taxes for lower earners and raise them for higher owners, usual social democratic stuff.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

[Lord Halifax]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Nynorsk is a rather irrelevant minority language used by less than 10% of the adult population, so it's natural to perceive Bokmål as Norwegian. It's almost exclusively used in rural Western Norway and some mountain valleys in the interior, which are not exactly leftist strongholds, for obvious reasons. Many municipalities are officially neutral when it comes to the written form used, but the vast majority of people in these places use Bokmål.

All the population growth is in the cities and immigrants naturally pick Bokmål, so while the numbers of Nynorsk users is fairly stable their share of the population is declining. The main function of Nynorsk in the cities is being used by some middle class people to avoid getting their kids put into classes with "too many" ethnic minority children (Irish in Ireland and Swedish in Finland are used in a similar way by similar types).

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

[Estrella]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

How?

[warandwar]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

In the 70s and 80s the very doctrinaire Norwegian Maoists were one of the strongest anti-revisionist movements in the west. We're talking 40k members dedicating huge amounts of time and energy to revolution. By now their numbers have dwindled to maybe a few hundred people, in line with other countries. This is a low point in their organizational life.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Didn’t Jonas Gahr Støre recently say something along the lines of his government’s budget wouldn’t be significantly different than if the current government had stayed in power?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

In the 70s and 80s the very doctrinaire Norwegian Maoists were one of the strongest anti-revisionist movements in the west. We're talking 40k members dedicating huge amounts of time and energy to revolution. By now their numbers have dwindled to maybe a few hundred people, in line with other countries. This is a low point in their organizational life.

The red party still harbours many such radicals inside of its rank some of them in very senior positions. The fact that they might have temporarily toned down some of their most directly anti democratic rethoirc doesn't change the face that they've surged into Parliament.

Communism is a tolitarian ideology and any party that espouses it is not fit for a democratic parliament

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

How?

Making it clear such party will not be an accepted part of the democratic spectrum and shunning it, while addresing the root cause of the alienation from democracy/

[Ex-Assemblyman Steelers]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

Oh, I so pity about you, pure little man.

[H. Ross Peron]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

In the 70s and 80s the very doctrinaire Norwegian Maoists were one of the strongest anti-revisionist movements in the west. We're talking 40k members dedicating huge amounts of time and energy to revolution. By now their numbers have dwindled to maybe a few hundred people, in line with other countries. This is a low point in their organizational life.

The red party still harbours many such radicals inside of its rank some of them in very senior positions. The fact that they might have temporarily toned down some of their most directly anti democratic rethoirc doesn't change the face that they've surged into Parliament.

Communism is a tolitarian ideology and any party that espouses it is not fit for a democratic parliament

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

How?

Making it clear such party will not be an accepted part of the democratic spectrum and shunning it, while addresing the root cause of the alienation from democracy/

who care

[H. Ross Peron]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Nynorsk is a rather irrelevant minority language used by less than 10% of the adult population, so it's natural to perceive Bokmål as Norwegian. It's almost exclusively used in rural Western Norway and some mountain valleys in the interior, which are not exactly leftist strongholds, for obvious reasons. Many municipalities are officially neutral when it comes to the written form used, but the vast majority of people in these places use Bokmål.

All the population growth is in the cities and immigrants naturally pick Bokmål, so while the numbers of Nynorsk users is fairly stable their share of the population is declining. The main function of Nynorsk in the cities is being used by some middle class people to avoid getting their kids put into classes with "too many" ethnic minority children (Irish in Ireland and Swedish in Finland are used in a similar way by similar types).

Public schools are supposed to offer separate Nynorsk classes?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

In the 70s and 80s the very doctrinaire Norwegian Maoists were one of the strongest anti-revisionist movements in the west. We're talking 40k members dedicating huge amounts of time and energy to revolution. By now their numbers have dwindled to maybe a few hundred people, in line with other countries. This is a low point in their organizational life.

The red party still harbours many such radicals inside of its rank some of them in very senior positions. The fact that they might have temporarily toned down some of their most directly anti democratic rethoirc doesn't change the face that they've surged into Parliament.

Communism is a tolitarian ideology and any party that espouses it is not fit for a democratic parliament

Disturbing to see a Maoist party gaining so much of the vote(red). It's sad how socially acceptable left-wing radicalism is these days among young people. They deserve to be placed under a Cordon sanitaire.

After decades of neoliberalism, the Nordic countries have had enough with the corporate-backed parties and Union bosses keeping the working class in check. Time to continue owning the monied.

Love the back-to-back histrionics over some third-rate lefty outfit winning 5% of the votes (while still having no realistic chances of impacting national policy) declined in the forms of terror and triumphalism. Pure comedy gold.

That was the initial reaction to the far-right parties in Norway and look at them now. 5% is 1 in 20 people who reject liberal democracy proffering authoritarian communism and voting for a party sympathetic to the ideals of Mao Zedong.

This is a crisis that needs serious politicia action now when the threat can still be addressed not a false sense of calm.

How?

Making it clear such party will not be an accepted part of the democratic spectrum and shunning it, while addresing the root cause of the alienation from democracy/

who care

People who like liberal democracy.

[An American Tail: Fubart Goes West]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Party	Bokmål	Nynorsk
Ap	Arbeiderpartiet	Arbeidarpartiet
H	Høyre	Høgre
Sp	Senterpartiet	Senterpartiet
FrP	Fremksrittspartiet	Framstegspartiet
SV	Sosialistisk Venstreparti	Sosialistisk Venstreparti
R	Rødt	Raudt
V	Venstre	Venstre
MDG	Miljøpartiet De Grønne	Miljøpartiet Dei Grøne
KrF	Kristelig Folkeparti	Kristeleg Folkeparti

Something striking is that on the Nynorsk Wikipedia page for Framstegspartiet, the logo in the infobox nonetheless reads Fremksrittspartiet. The implication, I guess, is that no FrP voters use Nynorsk anyway, which seems like it might be accurate. Either way it's amusing.

It always makes me chuckle when I remember that there’s a dispute over how to write Norwegian. I think I like the look of Bokmål more; looks more Scandinavian than German.

[Lurker]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Nynorsk is a rather irrelevant minority language used by less than 10% of the adult population, so it's natural to perceive Bokmål as Norwegian. It's almost exclusively used in rural Western Norway and some mountain valleys in the interior, which are not exactly leftist strongholds, for obvious reasons. Many municipalities are officially neutral when it comes to the written form used, but the vast majority of people in these places use Bokmål.

All the population growth is in the cities and immigrants naturally pick Bokmål, so while the numbers of Nynorsk users is fairly stable their share of the population is declining. The main function of Nynorsk in the cities is being used by some middle class people to avoid getting their kids put into classes with "too many" ethnic minority children (Irish in Ireland and Swedish in Finland are used in a similar way by similar types).

I'm not a Nynorsk user myself, but I have to comment on this, as it's quite a stretch. I've only ever heard of one case perhaps fitting this description, decades ago, at the local primary school where I live in Oslo. And even then, the idea that this was the real motivation was very much disputed. Your post makes it seem like this happens a lot, which would be very difficult anyway - there are hardly anyone who uses Nynorsk as their primary language at primary school level in the major cities. (In 2016/17 there were in only three - 3 - such pupils in all of Oslo and Akershus.)

[buritobr]

Labour Party performed better in rural areas than in the capital. It looks like Latin American electoral geography and not developed world.

[Lechasseur]

Are the Christian Democrats going to make it into Parliament?

[Sestak]

Are the Christian Democrats going to make it into Parliament?

They'll get in some constituency seats (looks like 3 of them on the preliminary count) but are under threshold so won't be entitled to any leveling seats.

[Astatine]

Are the Christian Democrats going to make it into Parliament?

They have won 3 regional seats, but aren't eligible for levelling seats as they only got 3.8 % (4 % would be needed). They failed the threshold by 6,115 votes and would have received 7 seats if they had narrowly taken the hurdle.

Also, didn't their leader get caught in some scandal ahead of the election?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Labour Party performed better in rural areas than in the capital. It looks like Latin American electoral geography and not developed world.

Not really rural areas, so much as small towns. Though they certainly have a better rural vote than has become normal, but that's largely because they put the work in and always have done.

[Antonio the Sixth]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Party	Bokmål	Nynorsk
Ap	Arbeiderpartiet	Arbeidarpartiet
H	Høyre	Høgre
Sp	Senterpartiet	Senterpartiet
FrP	Fremksrittspartiet	Framstegspartiet
SV	Sosialistisk Venstreparti	Sosialistisk Venstreparti
R	Rødt	Raudt
V	Venstre	Venstre
MDG	Miljøpartiet De Grønne	Miljøpartiet Dei Grøne
KrF	Kristelig Folkeparti	Kristeleg Folkeparti

Something striking is that on the Nynorsk Wikipedia page for Framstegspartiet, the logo in the infobox nonetheless reads Fremksrittspartiet. The implication, I guess, is that no FrP voters use Nynorsk anyway, which seems like it might be accurate. Either way it's amusing.

It always makes me chuckle when I remember that there’s a dispute over how to write Norwegian. I think I like the look of Bokmål more; looks more Scandinavian than German.

Personally I think I'd prefer Nynorsk, at least on anticolonialist grounds. The cultural oppression of Norway by Denmark was a disheartening historical development, and it should be undone more fully. Also all the Danish accents and extra letters are kind of annoying (except ø which is admittedly iconic). But then again I'm French so I have no ground to stand on there.

[Ethelberth]

There has always been a special place in my heart for Nynorsk, the form of written Norwegian that looks distinctively Norwegian and not like any other language. It seems like Nynorsk should be the left-wing variety of Norwegian, but in practice it does not appear that municipalities that officially use Nynorsk show any particular tendency to vote for the left.

In any case, it strikes me as a mild injustice that abroad we have Bokmål names of political parties presented to us as though they are the definitive Norwegian names. I decided to look at the name in each register of each party in the Storting. Parties with differing names are bolded.

Party	Bokmål	Nynorsk
Ap	Arbeiderpartiet	Arbeidarpartiet
H	Høyre	Høgre
Sp	Senterpartiet	Senterpartiet
FrP	Fremksrittspartiet	Framstegspartiet
SV	Sosialistisk Venstreparti	Sosialistisk Venstreparti
R	Rødt	Raudt
V	Venstre	Venstre
MDG	Miljøpartiet De Grønne	Miljøpartiet Dei Grøne
KrF	Kristelig Folkeparti	Kristeleg Folkeparti

Something striking is that on the Nynorsk Wikipedia page for Framstegspartiet, the logo in the infobox nonetheless reads Fremksrittspartiet. The implication, I guess, is that no FrP voters use Nynorsk anyway, which seems like it might be accurate. Either way it's amusing.

It always makes me chuckle when I remember that there’s a dispute over how to write Norwegian. I think I like the look of Bokmål more; looks more Scandinavian than German.

Technically it is  opposite. Bokmål is full of Germanisms whereas Nynorks is purified Scandinavian language.

[CumbrianLefty]

Looks like the Greens ended up with around 3.8-3.9%? Ouch.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

For trivia's sake here's the Sami Parliament results, held at the same time.



Norwegian Sámi Association (NSR)            18   +0
North Calotte People (NKF)            9   +6
Labour Party (Ap)            7   -2
Centre Party (Sp)            3   +1
Sámi People's Party (SfP)            1   +0
Árja            0   -1
Progress Party (FrP)            0   -1
Conservative Party (H)            0   -1
Ávjovári Moving Sámi List (JSL)            1   +0
Ávjovári Residents List (FABL)            0   -1
People's Federation of the Saami (SFF)            0   +0

[America Needs R'hllor]

Looks like the Greens ended up with around 3.8-3.9%? Ouch.

The Norwegians will continue moralizing (like the rest of the Scandinavians) while hugging their oil industry tight.