By Gwladys Fouche and Ilze Filks OSLO (Reuters) – Norway voted on Monday on the final day of a parliamentary election dominated by concerns over the cost of living and turmoil in international politics, with the ruling Labour Party narrowly favoured to remain in office. A left-wing bloc of Labour and four smaller parties is […]
World
Norwegians vote with Labour Party narrowly favoured to win re-election
Audio By Carbonatix
By Gwladys Fouche and Ilze Filks
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway voted on Monday on the final day of a parliamentary election dominated by concerns over the cost of living and turmoil in international politics, with the ruling Labour Party narrowly favoured to remain in office.
A left-wing bloc of Labour and four smaller parties is seen winning 88 seats in parliament, three more than the minimum needed to secure a majority and down from a combined 100 seats in 2021, according to an average of recent opinion polls.
Casting his ballot in Oslo, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said rising prices had been, in his opinion, top of voters’ minds, but added that inflation and interest rates were now on their way down.
“This issue of your daily coping with expenses has been key … And then of course also what is around Norway with the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and how we secure our foreign policy in a predictable way,” Stoere told reporters.
On the right, the populist Progress Party, the centre-right Conservatives and two smaller groups look set to win the remaining 81 seats, but opinion poll forecasts were within the margin of error and the outcome could depend on how some of the smallest parties fare.
Voting in the two-day election concludes at 1900 GMT, followed by immediate exit polls, with final results expected by early Tuesday morning.
Among other key issues were taxes and the quality of public services. The result could have an impact on the oil and gas industry and power supplies to Europe, as well as the management of Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign and trade policies also loomed large, and analysts said this could benefit Stoere, a former foreign minister who presents himself as a safe pair of hands.
Labour was lagging in the polls at the start of the year but received a major boost in February from the surprise return to politics of former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg as finance minister – a move dubbed “Stoltenback” in Norwegian media.
POTENTIAL ‘TUTTI FRUTTI’ COALITION
While the election remains close, the left-wing bloc appeared to have momentum in the most recent opinion polls, said Johannes Bergh, head of the national election studies programme at the Oslo-based Institute for Social Research.
“So if you were betting, you would probably guess that the centre-left would win,” Bergh said.
Benjamin Tegelaar-Breiby, a 29-year-old software developer, said he hoped for a centre-left win.
“I feel like the world is kind of crumbling around us and so I would like stability in Norway. That’s kind of what I’m voting for,” he told Reuters in Oslo.
At least nine political parties are expected to secure seats in the election but only the leaders of Labour, Progress and the Conservatives are candidates for prime minister.
Stoere has ruled since 2021 with the backing of the agrarian Centre Party and the Socialist Left, but opinion polls show he may also need to rely on the far-left Red party and the Greens in a mix some analysts have dubbed a “tutti frutti” coalition.
Demands from the Greens and Reds could include tougher restrictions on oil and gas exploration, more taxes on the wealthy and high earners, and more overall spending from the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
Labour is seen winning some 27% of the vote, this month’s pollofpolls.no average showed.
On the right, former Prime Minister Erna Solberg of the Conservative Party hopes to return to power with promises of broad tax cuts, including to the wealth tax that is deeply unpopular with businesses.
But as in other Western countries, voters are increasingly turning to more populist right-wing options. Before the election, Sylvi Listhaug’s anti-immigration Progress Party was polling at around 21% of the vote, comfortably ahead of the Conservatives on 14%.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, Tom Little, Nora Buli, Ilze Filks, Terje Solsvik, Nerijus Adomaitis and Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Susan Fenton, Frances Kerry and Aidan Lewis)