COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – The center-left bloc was heading for a victory in Norway’s election on Monday, as official projections signaled that ruling Conservatives would lose power after a climate-dominated campaign. the future of the country’s oil and gas exploration industry.
With a projection based on a preliminary count of almost 93% of the vote, the Labor Party and its two allies, the Socialist Left and the Central Eurosceptic Party, would occupy 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the ‘current government would get 68. One seat was still not safe.
As Norway’s largest party, Labor will try to form a coalition government and its leader, 61-year-old Jonas Gahr Stoere, is on the verge of becoming Norway’s next leader. The Scandinavian country is not a member of the European Union.
“We will now give Norway a new government and a new direction,” Gahr Stoere said on election night before cheering on party members who sang “Stoere” and applauded. He added that in the coming days he will invite the parties “who want a new change” to the talks.
Labor has promised an industrial policy that will encourage support for new green industries, such as wind power, “blue hydrogen” that uses natural gas to produce an alternative fuel, and carbon capture and storage, which seeks to bury dioxide. of carbon under the ocean.
In the 2013 election, Labor was ousted from power, which allowed Conservative Erna Solberg to become Prime Minister and Norway’s longest-serving leader. Gahr Stoere said Monday that he also wanted to thank Solberg for being “a good prime minister.”
“We knew we needed a miracle: the Conservatives’ work session is over, ”Solberg said. “I congratulate Jonas Gahr Stoere on what seems like a clear majority.”
Its Conservatives suffered a setback, losing 4.7 percentage points, which was dubbed by Norwegian broadcaster NRK as “the biggest loser in the election”. His former coalition partner, the Progress Party, lost 3.4 percentage points, according to a preliminary count of more than 93% of Norway’s election commission votes.
Solberg, 60, is ahead of a minority government since 2020; before they were coalitions with, among others, the populist Progress Party. Due to her long tenure, as well as her commitment to economic liberalism, she became known at home as “Iron Erna”, inspired by the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was nicknamed “The Iron Lady” by his firm style.
Solberg hoped to become the first prime minister to win a third consecutive four-year term. During his eight years in office, he has expanded oil exploration, reduced taxes and tried to make public administration more efficient.
Any horse trade after the election is likely to be full for the Labor Party and Gahr Stoere. The socialist left will not offer its support for the light and the Center Party also demands a more aggressive approach to switching to renewable energy.
The Center Party got the biggest gains in the election by taking almost 14% of the vote (up 3.6 percentage points) with its leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, a farmer turned politician, and noted with a big smile that had become Stortinget’s third largest group after Labor and Conservatives.
The campaign focused on North Sea oil and gas which have helped make Norway one of the richest countries in the world. But fears about climate change have called into question the future of the industry. The country’s largest industry is responsible for more than 40% of exports and directly accounts for more than 5% of the workforce.
On the other hand, the Norwegians they are among the most climate-conscious consumers in the world, and most new car purchases are now electric.
Most of Norway’s oil and gas still come from mature areas in the North Sea, but most of the country’s untapped reserves are in the Barents Sea, above the Arctic Circle. This is a red line for environmentalists, who could play a crucial role in securing a majority government.
Gahr Stoere is a former civil servant who was elected to the Stortinget in 2009. He also owns a large part of his family’s business and most of the fortune there comes from the sale in 1977 of a Norwegian company that he made cast iron stoves and fireplaces.
Stoere also served as foreign minister from 2005 to 2013 under the government of then-Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and took over the reins of the party when Stoltenberg became NATO’s secretary general.
About 3.9 million Norwegians could vote and more than 1.6 million of them voted in advance, according to the Norwegian Electoral Commission. The turnout was 76.3%, below more than 78% in this nation, with 5.3 million votes.
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