18.09.2005
THE NORWAY'S ELECTIONS:
The Victory of a "Red - Green" Alliance
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Simon Araloff, AIA European section
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The elections to the Parliament of Norway (Storting), which took place last week have ended with a victory of an oppositional Red-Green Coalition led by the Labor party (Det Norske Arbeiderpartiet - DNA). The leader of the DNA is Jens Stoltenberg, who already occupied the post of the Prime Minister of Norway in the past..
The Revolution
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| The leader of the DNA Jens Stoltenberg |
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In the evening of September, 13, the present Prime Minister of Norway Kjell Magne Bondevik addressed the voters, thanked them for support and informed about the defeat. According to the results of calculation of the votes, a victory in the elections gained the so-called "Red - Green" alliance" of the social democratic Labor party (Det Norske Arbeiderpartiet - DNA), the Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti - SV) and Centre Party (Senterpartiet), receiving 32.7 % of votes (almost 10 % than during the previous elections of 2001). The leader of an alliance, 46-years old economist Jens Stoltenberg should present the new government till October, 10.
The new coalition, which all the three abovementioned parties will enter, will receive 88 seats from 169 in the new parliament and that is an overwhelming majority. The centre-right opposition will get 81 places, accordingly. This result is really revolutionary for the Norwegian politics as during the last decades so-called "coalitions of minority" (a coalition which is not possessing the majority in Parliament) were formed regularly.
The victory of the left does not mean at all that there is a withdrawal of supporters from the right bloc. On the contrary, right parties as the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) and the Liberals (Venstre) have strengthened their positions. But the real fiasco suffered the party of the leaving Prime Minister Bondevik – the Christian Democrats (Kristelig Folkepartiet), which have reached only 6.8 % (the worst result since 1924). Thus, both the party and its leader, were punished for inability to overcome a disagreement in the right camp, which stained all their pre-election campaign.
During the elections in Norway the main dispute was basically about the effective utilization of the huge financial assets received from export of oil. The matter is that Norway has its own stocks of oil that allows it to take the third place in the world on the export of this product. As a result of a rise in prices of oil through the last years, the country managed to create a special "fund for descendants", which currently has a huge sum of $190 billion (approximately 41000 dollars for each citizen of the country). At the moment Norway is on the first place in the world on a standard of living. During the pre-election campaign the left forces promised to allocate even more attention to the further development of systems of public health services and education, and also to the care over pensioners.
Born to be a Politician
Despite of his "leftism", Jens Stoltenberg belongs to the elite of the Norwegian society. He was born on March, 16, 1959 in the family of Thorvald Stoltenberg, the future Minister of Defence and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Norway from the oldest party of the country - the Labor party (it was established in 1887.)
The elder Stoltenberg is a well-known politician of the global level. In 1993 he was appointed to the post of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and UN Co-Chairman of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia. He played the main role in creation of the modern Bosnia and Herzegovina on the ruins of former Yugoslavia. Today he is the President of the Norwegian Red Cross.
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| Jens Stoltenberg and his wife |
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The son of Torvald, Jens, the economist by education, is married and has two children. His wife Ingrid Schulerud is a proffecional diplomat, she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway (Utenriksdepartementet.)
Stoltenberg junior followed the steps of his father when at the end of the Seventies he began his political activity in the ranks of the Labor party. Due to his family being a party elite, the political career of Jens developed promptly, for what he was nicknamed "Party's golden boy". In 1985 he was already in the board of the party as the leader of its youth wing, in 1990-92 he supervised over its main branch in Norway's capital - Oslo, in 1993 he became the Member of Parliament, and soon the vice-president of the DNA. In 1993-96 Jens Stoltenberg was the Minister of Industry, in 1996-97 - the Minister of Finance and in 2000-2001 - the Prime Minister of Norway.
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