Despite all the complaints over rising unemployment and a weaker Norwegian economy, the two conservative political parties forming Norway’s minority government coalition have logged gains in yet another public opinion poll.
Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported this week that its latest party barometer showed the Conservatives with 24.3 percent of the vote, up half a point from DN‘s last poll, while the Conservatives’ government partner the Progress Party rose 0.6 points to claim 17.6 percent of the vote. That’s a dramatic improvement from last summer when the Progress Party briefly slipped below 10 percent.
The coalition’s two support parties had mixed results, with the Christian Democrats also gaining a half-point to hold 5.6 percent of the vote, while the Liberal Party fell a tenth of a point, to 4.7 percent. Together the four parties hold 52.2 percent of voter support in Norway at present.
Labour remains the country’s largest single party with 32.3 percent of the vote but with unclear support from other parties, including the two it shared government power with from 2005 to 2013. The Center Party had 5.8 percent of the vote in DN‘s poll, conducted by Sentio Research Norge AS, while the Socialist Left party (SV) slipped 1.4 points to just 3.4 percent. That left the three left-center parties with 41.5 percent of the vote compared to the ruling coalition’s 52.2 percent.
newsinenglish.no staff
