Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Norway Swings to the Right

Former leader of the youth group of the communist Left Party in Sweden, Ali Esbati is happy about Norway's left-wing government. But voter's aren't.

In the latest poll, the officially libertarian but in practical politics right-wing populist Progress Party have risen to 29.5%, up 7.4%:points from the election. The second most free market oriented Norwegan Party, the Conservative Party, increases to 16.6%, up 2.5% from the election. This means that the Progress Party and the Conservative Party have together 46.1% and are thus within striking distance of achieving a majority on their own.

By contrast, the 3 parties of the government, the Labor Party, the Centre Party (who are much more left-wing than their Swedish counterparts) and the Socialist Left only get a total of 40%, down from 47.8% in the latest election, and much lower than the total for the Progress Party and the Conservative Party.

Interestingly, the two other opposition parties, the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party, who are both less free market oriented than the Progress Party and the Conservative Party, are also losing support.

It seems in other words that most Norwegans don't share Esbati's positive view of the achievements of Norway's left-wing government.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder if the Norwegian Progress Party will follow the trajectory of the Danish People's Party. The DPP has its roots in the Danish Progress Party, which was originally right wing libertarian with anarchist tendencies. Anti-immigration rhetoric played well with groups that were threatened by immigrants, i.e. unskilled workers and recipients of governments transfers. These became its core constituency, and the DPP became an anti-immigration nationalist social-democratic party.

3:02 PM  

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