Left-Leaning Bloc Wins Norway Election, Labour Leader set to Become new PM
Image Courtesy: AP
Copenhagen: The leader of Norway's Labour Party is to start talks on Tuesday to build a coalition after the Centre-Left bloc beat the incumbent Conservatives and won Norway's general elections.
With all votes now counted, the Labour Party and its two Left-leaning allies — the Socialist Left and the euroskeptic Center Party — grabbed 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the current government would get 68. The last seat is going to a northern Norway health-focused protest party, Pasientfokus.
The outgoing assembly was 88-81 in favoor of the Centre-Right led by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who was ousted after two four-year terms in the job. Her party also suffered a huge loss — nine seats
Monday's result means that currently all five Nordic countries now have left-leaning governments.
Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Labour leader, said he would start talks with Norway's third largest group, the Centre Party, and its leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum. That party made the largest gain and grabbed nine seats. Gahr Stoere also will meet the media later while Solberg is scheduling a news conference to talk about the election outcome.
Any post-election arrangement is likely to be fraught for the Labour Party and Gahr Stoere. The Socialist Left won't offer its support lightly and the Centre Party is also demanding a more aggressive approach toward shifting to renewable energy.
Gahr Stoere, who is poised to become prime minister, is a 61-year-old former civil servant. He also owns a large part of his family's company, and most the fortune there comes from the sale in 1977 of a Norwegian company that made cast iron stoves and fireplaces.
Gahr Stoere also served as foreign minister from 2005-2013 under then-Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. He took over the reins of the party when Stoltenberg became NATO secretary general.
Nearly 3.9 million Norwegians were eligible and more than 1.6 million of them voted in advance, according to Norway's election commission. Turnout was 76.5%, down from more than 78% last time.
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
