Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy Generator
4.7 C
Oslo
Friday, March 29, 2024

Small leftist parties urged to merge

Stein Ørnhøi, a veteran politician and member of the Socialist Left party (SV), thinks the time is ripe for SV and two other of Norway’s most left-leaning parties to get together and mount a stronger joint political force.

SV barely won representation in parliament last week, after winning just 4.1 percent of the vote. Many party members and commentators feel that SV’s decision to spend the last eight years as part of the left-center coalition government forced it to make too many compromises on major issues, especially regarding the environment, and that resulted in core SV voters defecting to other parties.

Ørnhøi wrote in a commentary published in Manifest Tidsskrift and Kristiansand’s newspaper Fædrelandsvennen that SV arguably should have joined forces with both the newly resurgent Green Party (Miljøpartiet De Grønne, MDG), which won a seat in parliament for the first time, and the Reds party (Rødt), which lost its bid at a seat.

Now he thinks they should get together well in advance of the next parliamentary elections four years from now, to challenge the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) on the left side of Norwegian politics. MDG’s new MP, Rasmus Hansson, has said he tried to mount such a bloc last spring, to get environmental issues higher on the political agenda, but SV wasn’t interested.

newsinenglish.no staff

LATEST STORIES

FOR THE RECORD

For more news on Arctic developments.

MOST READ THIS WEEK

Donate

If you like what we’re doing, please consider a donation. It’s easy using PayPal, or our Norway bank account. READ MORE