Norway’s left-wing coalition re-elected
Preliminary results of Monday’s Parliament election in Norway show that Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Government has been re-elected.
When most votes were counted this morning the results indicated that the three-party coalition of the Labour, Socialist Left and Centre Party would get 86 seats out of 169 in the Storting - the Norwegian Parliament. To have majority, 85 seats or more are needed.
The three parties will most likely start talks within the next few days on forming the second coalition government ruled by Jens Stoltenberg. It is expected some few changes of ministers, but an important position like the foreign minister’s post is expected to remain unchanged. Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre is by many polls said to be one of the government’s most popular ministers. Also within the Labour Party Støre has massive support.
Monday’s election was the first time Jonas Gahr Støre was elected to the Partliament. If he continue as Foreign Minister in the government, his seat in the Parliament will be taken by the next on the list from the Labour party in Oslo.
Jens Stoltenberg became Prime Minister of the current government in 2005. Jens Stoltenberg (50) is the son of Thorvald Stoltenberg, Norway’s Foreign Minister in the periods 1987 to 1989 and 1990 to 1993. In his second period as Foreign Minister, Thorvald Stoltenberg took the initiative together with Russia’s Andrey Kozyrev to form the Barents Cooperation.
- I’am very committed to the Barents Cooperation. I get reminded about it every time I eat dinner at Thorvald’s place; Jens Stoltenberg told the audience when he visited the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes in 2006 together with his father, as reported by BarentsObserver.
With 99,9 percent of the votes counted for early Tuesday morning, the results indicated that Labour got 64 seats, Centre party got 11 and the Socialist Left got 11 seats, and by that have majority in the Parliament with 86 seats. The opposition parties got 83 seats all together.
As BarentsObserver reported during the election campaign no big changes is expected in Norway’s foreign strategy policy in the north.
One of the issues that are disputed between the three parties in the government coalition is oil and gas activities in the pristine Lofoten region in northern Norway. The Centre party has a wait-and-see attitude, while the Labour Party, split between oil drilling and protecting the environment, is undecided on opening the Lofoten areas. They say they will wait with the decision till after 2010. The Socialist Left are strong opponents against opening for oil drilling. Both during the election campaign and tonight, when commenting on the results, the Socialist Left party underlines that they can guarantee no oil drilling in Lofoten for the coming four years as long as they are in government.
Kristin Halvorsen, leader of the Socialist Left Party and Finance Minister in the current coalition government will meet hard negotiations with Labour when the political platform for the government’s next four years will be made. The oil and gas lobby in the Labour is expected to be strong. In Norway’s two northernmost counties – Troms and Finnmark – the Socialist Left lost their two seats in Parliament, while the Labour got three seats in both Troms and Finnmark.