News of Norway, issue 5, 1999
Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik's government has maneuvered through parliament in fine style ever since the coalition came to power following the government elections two years ago. Their pragmatic maneuvering through parliament has held them aflight, and Bondevik's steady leadership has kept the ministers of the three respective parties, the Christian Democrats, the Center and the Liberals, in line. Analysts believe Bondevik's personal popularity secured his party additional gain in the election results.
On the other hand the Liberals remain at their current low standings. Slight statistical jumps or plunges seem to balance out in time for elections. The four percent headlock looks hard to shake.
The Center Party encountered another disappointing election. It doesn't seem to surprise analysts or party members. The European Union (EU) referendum gave the Center a huge boost. As EU matters have faded from the forefront of Norwegian politics, the Center has received less attention and less support at the polls.
The educational component is comprised of the curriculum and the expedition web site, which enables the students to follow the expedition and use it to learn material in various subjects.
Labor of leadership
The further into the elections the Labor party went, the further the downslide. Party leader Thorbjørn Jagland lost authority in the eyes of the press and certain Labor majors. How the majority of his party members react is still undecided.
Labor voters have been defecting to the right and to the left ever since the election campaign kicked off. The main question in Norwegian politics at the moment is if Labor's rank and file still want Jagland in charge - despite the party's worst result since the twenties in the local government elections. Some believe the election turned into a referendum on Thorbjørn Jagland himself, rather than of his party's beliefs.
A recent survey shows that more than half the Labor voters polled say they still want Thorbjørn Jagland as leader. Jagland himself has told the press he wishes to continue his quest of recapturing government. "It is absolutely impossible for me to leave now. A new chairman would be left in an impossible situation," Mr. Jagland says to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Any initiative from one, or both, of the party's vice-leaders, Jens Stoltenberg or Hill-Martha Solberg, will nevertheless force the leadership issue to surface.
The biggest party in Norwegian politics has struggled through two years of opposition. Analysts are uncertain to what extent Jagland can handle the wear and tear of parliamentary pragmatics. The infamous demand of 36.9 percent voter support at the latest government election casts a shadow on Labor's current polling results which are clearly below the 30 percent line.
The phantom menace
The Progress Party's days of disruption in Norwegian politics are far from over. Their key issue, opposition towards liberal immigration policy, came back to haunt this year's local elections.
The Progress Party increased their representation in the Municipal Councils by gaining 290 seats in the recent elections, which left them with a total of 985 seats.
Advertising and media magazine Kampanje put together a specialist jury rating the parties' communications skills, and Carl I. Hagen's right-wing Progress Party was named the winner of Norway's district election campaigns. However the Oslo result was disappointing for right-wingers. While the Progress Party's flamboyant election campaign had looked promising, the controversial issue of immigration appears to have curried little favor with voters in the nation's capital. The party lost three council seats in Oslo, and one of the party's front politicians in Oslo, Oddbjørn Jonstad, was removed from the party for his extremist opinions on immigration. The Progress Party had to ask controversial Members of Parliament Vidar Kleppe and Øystein Hedstrøm to call off rallies where immigration was to be a topic.
When Oslo's city council met for the first time after the local election, Conservatives and Christian Democrats said they would not accept any of the tenets of the Progress Party's strict immigrant policy.
Petersen on top as the cards are shuffled
Jan Petersen, leader of the Conservative Party, rises from the rubble as the trump card of Norwegian politics. His demand of more influence no longer falls on deaf ears.
The Conservative gain in recent municipal elections can be attributed to the fact that 55 percent of the party's voters have been drifting since the general election in 1997, but 32 percent of the voters from 1997 have now returned. This number is up from November, when only 11 percent of these voters had returned to the Conservative fold. As the Conservative tally approached 20 percent, Conservative Party leader Jan Petersen proposed on television to the centrist Bondevik Government: "Call me, Mr. Bondevik. We have things to talk about."
In this post-election time Liberal Party leader Lars Sponheim has been chumming up with Petersen. "Norway needs a majority Government and it is natural to start discussing the major political challenges with the Conservatives," Mr. Sponheim said to Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen.
Both the Conservative Party and leader Fritz Huitfeldt of the Oslo Municipal Executive Board remain in power in Oslo, but they may have to hand the office of mayor over to the Progress Party.
Couch potato party triumphs
Norwegian voters are following international trends of low voter turnout. Not since 1922 have so few turned up at the polling booths to vote in the local elections. The size of the non-voter group increases in every election. A record low 56.3 percent turnout is even lower than the 61.9 percent voter turnout in 1995.