Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store is on his way to a new term of four years after a fierce election in which his labor party explored voters’ fear of uncertainty in tax policies and social welfare.
The Labor Party must win the general election with about 28% of the votes, NRK and TV2 stations reported on Monday (8) after the calculation of more than 70% of the votes. Together with the center-left parties that support him, the labor bloc should earn at least 89 seats in the 169 members parliament.
The opposition block recorded a right turn, with the progress, anti-immigration party, achieving its best historical result. His support is expected to reach about 24%after the party wins conservative voters, who, under 15%, face their worst performance in two decades.
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The election in one of the richest countries in the world was dominated by tax debates on wealth and other labor proposed rates. The opposition, along with the business lobby, argues that these rates harm business and the economy.
“Labor had lost support in several consecutive elections and were able to reverse this trend,” said Johannes Bergh, research director of the Oslo Social Research Institute by telephone.
In the middle of the campaign, there was a public commotion on Israeli investments in the US $ 2 trillion Norwegian sovereign fund. The subsequent removal of the Caterpillar from the Fund due to its bonds with the war in Gaza threatens to make Norway’s relationships worse with the US.
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Store, 65, led the polls after a turnaround earlier this year, when his Junior partner, the center party, left the coalition, and former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, a close friend of the millionaire prime minister, returned to the government. Known as “Stoltenback” in local media, Stoltenberg was appointed Minister of Finance, and support for the Labor Party fired in a month.
Prior to the disclosure of the results, Stoltenberg indicated that he would like to continue as finance minister.
The prime minister also benefited from the so-called “Rally-Aaround-The-Flag” effect related to geopolitical uncertainty and tensions with US President Donald Trump’s administration.
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Projected support indicates that the prime minister has been able to interrupt the trend of falling support to the Labor Party since 2009.
Store performed as a safe leadership at a time when Norway needs to increase defense spending and faces the reduction of the sovereign background returns. Among the opposition, the populist leader of the 47 -year -old Progress Party, Sylvi Listhaug, based her tax reduction campaign, including for the richest, as well as cuts in public spending and end of green subsidies.
The Labor Party said it will try to rule alone after the election, which would leave him in a minority government supported in Parliament by his traditional partners: the socialist left, the center party, as well as the green and the red party. To ensure this support, the labor party may need to make concessions, which may include the reduction in oil and gas exploration and the limitation of electricity exports.
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The labor party needs the support of the four smaller allies, which puts it “in a more challenging situation than in previous parliamentary elections in Norway,” said Bergh.
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