Høyre faces tough coalition-building

NEWS ANALYSIS: Norway’s Conservative Party (Høyre) is leading the pre-election campaign race in public opinion polls, but doesn’t want to lead a new government alone. Party boss Erna Solberg faces a tough time building a solid coalition with the country’s other non-socialist parties, though: One thing is getting them to agree on key issues, another is [...]

100 years of women’s right to vote

Norway is today a world leader in sexual equality and tops international charts for women’s position in the workplace. So it’s surprising to think that it’s only 100 years since Norwegian women were finally granted the universal right to vote, after a political battle that lasted 27 years. On June 11, 2013 it will be [...]

Høyre cultivates farmers’ vote

As prime minister hopeful Erna Solberg gathered her Conservative Party (Høyre) for its national meeting at Gardermoen this weekend, the party seemed to be gaining new support from an unlikely source. Even though Høyre advocates free market, anti-protectionist principles and wants to restructure agricultural monopolies, it’s been attracting surprising numbers of voters from farmers who’ve relied [...]

Christian Democrats want to rule

If Norway’s Christian Democrats get their prayers answered and win enough votes to jostle for power in a new government coalition this fall, the country may be in for some big changes regarding relations with Israel and several key ethical issues. As the small party (Kristelig Folkeparti, KrF) wound up its national meeting over the [...]

Small party holds big new wildcard

NEWS ANALYSIS: Another small political party has suddenly emerged this week as the joker on the non-socialist side of the government drama heading into the fall national elections. As the Christian Democrats (Kristelig Folkeparti, KrF) gathered in Trondheim for their national meeting this weekend, their leader Knut Arild Hareide was being viewed as a new potential [...]

Stoltenberg fires up the troops

Labour Party leader Jens Stoltenberg remains a popular prime minister in Norway, but his party has been lagging in the polls and his coalition government has lost hundreds of thousands of voters. That’s why he needed to spend his weekend firing up enthusiasm at the party’s national meeting, where he was also finally winning support [...]

Politicians gather in rites of spring

NEWS ANALYSIS: The spring season of political party gatherings continues this weekend as Labour delegates meet in Oslo, following similar meetings of smaller parties like the Liberals last weekend. They’re all gearing up for the campaign before national elections on September 9, but only the Liberals have so far resorted to proposing a liberalization of [...]

Progress Party toasts progress

Norway’s most conservative party was literally celebrating its progress as it marked its 40th anniversary this week. Siv Jensen and the Progress Party she leads are closer to government power than ever before, after years of shaking up Norwegian politics. Jensen’s predecessor, Carl I Hagen, was also grinning from ear to ear during a round [...]

Center Party keen to close borders

Norway’s rural-oriented Center Party (Senterpartiet, Sp) shocked even its sister party in Sweden over the weekend when it voted to promote withdrawal from the so-called “Schengen agreement” that has opened borders among various European countries. The party also wants to replace Norway’s economic agreement with the European Union, in addition to securing high tariffs and [...]

Tiny party in the spotlight again

NEWS ANALYSIS: More than 90 percent of Norwegian voters don’t support Liv Signe Navarsete’s small, rural-oriented Center Party (Senterpartiet, Sp), yet its top politicians and their upcoming annual meeting this weekend have been grabbing headlines and topping newscasts. Outsiders can only marvel over how and why the party can command so much attention and power [...]

Høyre backs big fortune tax cuts

With the campaign well underway towards national elections later this year, Norway’s leading opposition party Høyre (The  Conservatives Party) has proposed making large cuts in the country’s unpopular fortune tax (formueskatt). The proposal was met with resistance, however, even from all of Høyre’s potential coalition partners, who say the cuts will only benefit the wealthiest [...]

Olympic vote ‘discriminatory’

Residents of Oslo are due to vote over whether their city should apply to host the Winter Olympics (OL) in 2022, but officials at City Hall may be discriminating against roughly 50,000 resident foreign nationals in Oslo set to be excluded from voting. The Olympic referendum is scheduled to take place in connection with national [...]

Høyre hits new heights in new poll

Never before has Norway’s Conservative Party (Høyre) had so much support in a public opinion poll or an election: The party held 40.1 percent of the vote in Norway as of early last week, a level that even Høyre leader Erna Solberg called “unreal.” Solberg was smiling, but nonetheless cautious over the results of the [...]

Solberg wins nod over Stoltenberg

Few Norwegians need a Christmas holiday to revive and cheer them up more than Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, after one of the most challenging years in his lengthy political career. Both he and his Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) continue to trail in public opinion polls, and now his arch rival in the biggest opposition party, The [...]

Non-socialist bloc loses popularity

A new public opinion poll shows gains by both the coalition government’s Labour and Socialist Left parties, at the expense of a non-socialist bloc among opposition parties in Parliament. That Conservative-led bloc would still hold a majority, though, if an election were held today. They have to hope that they hang on to that majority [...]

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