Norway Turns to the Right
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Nina Berglund, Aftenposten (Oslo), May 22, 2008
The results of the poll, conducted by research bureau Opinion for news group ANB, mark a major shift in traditional political persuasion in a country modelled as a social welfare state. And the results are bad news for the Labour Party, which currently heads the left-centre government.
Newspaper Dagsavisen reported Thursday that fully 27.7 percent of voters now support the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp), Norway’s most right-leaning party represented in parliament. That’s up 1.5 percentage points from the last poll.
The poll results indicate that the Progress Party is thus Norway’s largest, bigger than Labour, which garnered 25.3 percent of the vote, down 1.7 points. That’s a relatively small amount of support for Labour and a real downturn for the party, given its history of dominance in Norwegian politics.
The Conservative Party (Høyre), meanwhile, also gained voter support, up 1.4 points to 17.8 percent. That’s quite a bit smaller than the Progress Party, but together, the two parties could rather easily form a non-socialist (“borgerlig”) government with more than 45 percent of the vote.
By contrast, the three parties forming the current government with Labour together commanded only 36.9 percent of the vote, ironically the exact same percentage that former Labour leader Thorbjørn Jagland once said was needed by Labour alone to rule. Labour had to leave power in 1997 when it “only” won 35 percent in national elections.
The current poll shows just how far Labour has fallen since that time. Its government partner SV (the Socialist Left party) also saw support slip, to 5.9 percent, while the Center Party (sp) rose slightly, to 5.7 percent of the vote.
Voters want change, and more for their money
Explanations for Norwegians’ new attraction to more conservative politics varied, from theories that voters are simply tired of the current ruling coalition, to a desire for change and even a new perceived sense of greediness after years of rising affluence tied to high prices for Norway’s oil. They’re perhaps less willing to share their newfound wealth with the rest of society, preferring to keep more of their earnings for themselves, argue some.
Tommy Wessel, a longtime Progress Party voter, disagrees. He’s simply fed up that his daughter’s school is as rundown as it is, and that his parents can’t get a room in local nursing homes. He, like many others, perceive a decline in social services, while taxes keep going up.
He can’t understand why the government won’t use more of its oil wealth to invest in the public sector at home, something the Progress Party wants to do. Even longtime Labour Party voter Eve Vold shares his frustration.
“I’m disappointed with (Prime Minister) Jens (Stoltenberg),” Vold said. “There’s so much talk. The government doesn’t live up to expectations for schools and health care.” She thinks voters are fleeing to the Progress Party because it says things people agree with.
“The Progress Party speaks a language people want to hear,” agrees Wessel. Party leader Siv Jensen has made it clear she’s ready to take over as prime minister, but that still depends on cooperation from the Conservatives. Unlike some of the small centrist parties that have claimed they’d never cooperate with the Progress Party, the Conservatives are keeping the door open.
  Siv Jensen. |
(Posted on May 23, 2008)
Comments
As to the “new perceived sense of greediness” among Norwegians, “preferring to keep more of their earnings for themselves,” I’m reminded of Joseph Sobran’s take on the redistributionist mentality:
“Need” is the desire for someone else’s wealth.
“Greed” is the desire to keep one’s own wealth.
“Compassion” is when some politician arranges the transfer.
Posted by Trilby at 6:29 PM on May 23
As one Norwegian asked:
By any standard you choose our country is one of the most successful in the world. Why should we learn to accomodate
Islam, a culture that by any standard you choose is a failure?
Posted by at 6:31 PM on May 23
What a strange idea some Norwegians have — that a government should spend the taxes it collects from its citizens on its own citizens. Don’t they realize that is not the purpose of government? The purpose of government is to take money from the citizens of one country, and give that money to the poor and oppressed people of other countries, or better yet, to provide funding to move massive numbers of poor and ignorant Third World People of different cultures and religions into Norway. Come on, where is your multicultural spirit? Pay your taxes and shut-up, or go to jail.
Posted by at 6:48 PM on May 23
In Europe, the swing is increasingly to the right at last as the left has proven to the voters again to have screwed up in the last ten years. In the UK, a very important local election in the last two days in what was formerly a Labour (left wing)thought to be unassailable Labour stronghold, never would have previously been thought to move to the right, has just swept into the British Parliament a Conservative (right wing) member after the existing Labour one died suddenly.
Though mot as right wing as the British National Party which is also gaining acceptance by the voters, the Conservative party has historically in the last 50-odd years always been called upon to sort out the financial mess that Labour always seems to leave the country in every time they are in power.
The sun is peeking over the horizon again! If there was a national election next week, the Labour Party would be out of government in a big way - at last.
Posted by Brian Deller at 7:10 PM on May 23
Prolly has more to do with this (as I’m sure you know):
Four times more crime in Oslo than New York
Posted by Norway resident at 7:14 PM on May 23
I do not suspect that this massive turn to the right has anything to do with greed. It may possibly be a reaction to rape having tripled since Labour opened the doors to the country and that in Oslo 44% of immigrants are unemployed, national unemployment rate
currently runs at 3%. The colour question in Norway is very much
Harry Potter “he who must not be named”.
Posted by ciccio at 8:13 PM on May 23
To any Norwegians reading this. Stay the right course, and please don’t be influenced by the USA, my country, which is headed straight to distaster with its leftist egalitarian lies.
Posted by truthbetold at 9:04 PM on May 23
How much better this system appears than the two-party system which binds the U.S. and limits its options.
Posted by Thrasymachus at 10:14 PM on May 23
Do we dare hope for the resurrection of another Charles “the hammer” Martel? Could it be possible that he may come back to us in a Nordic country? We can only hope and pray for such a blessing.
Posted by at 10:36 PM on May 23
Just exactly where are these immigrants from? The picture in the article is standard fare for any news article about immigrants in Europe. Even though in this picture their backs are to the camera, they’re usually veiled or head scarf wearing light skinned women with fat faces. Are they Turks?
Posted by at 11:47 PM on May 23
The shift to the right can be seen in Britain, Holland, Denmark, France, Switzerland, and even Canada.
The lefty intellectuals will be in panic mode soon, warning of dire consequences if they aren’t listened to.
Posted by at 12:51 AM on May 24
Europes VOTERS are moving to the right but as we just saw with the arrest of a cartoonist in Holland and muslim riots in Brussels (I commited a thought/speach crime right there) it is business as usual for the government marxists in power. Europe is nothing close to a democracy more a soft dictatorship of the political elite. After all, they know what is best for us.
Posted by Amsterdamsky at 4:53 AM on May 24
Brian Deller,
I hate to say this but New Labour is the most evil, vicious, ruthless enemy the English working-class has ever had to contend with.The Tory Party look reasonable in comparison!
I base this comment on New Labours’s insane ‘open-door’ immigration policy (it is ironic that in the recent Crewe by-election New Labour was reduced to the scurrilous tactic of trying to claim the Tories are ‘soft on immigration’ - the sheer desperation of it).
The fact is due to New Lbour’s dearly held immigrationost policy working-class incomes have been destroyed by a super-abundance of cheap imported labor and rents and house prices have risen to astronomic levels due to increased competition for limited resources.
The only people benifitting (apart from the immigrants themselves) are the stereotypical ‘fat-cat’ capitalist bosses (gosh, how kind and generous New Labour have been to them)who have prospered mightily at the expense of the English poor.
Finally, the English working-class have rumbled New Labour for what they really are.
Posted by Kenelm Digby at 8:07 AM on May 24
To you who ask where all these immigrants in Norway come from: Some are Turks, but the most visible (and the most hated) are Pakistanis and Somalis.
Posted by at 4:25 PM on May 24
Right or left, does it really matter? America’s been drifting to the right now for more than a generation now and it doesn’t seem to have produced any results. Third world immigration continues and the culture war is more heated than ever. Even with a Republican dominated Congress and President, the process accelerated.
Posted by at 9:49 PM on May 24
Some are Turks, but the most visible (and the most hated) are Pakistanis and Somalis.
Posted by at 4:25 PM
———
I would guess maybe Kurds and Iraqis too (?), given the present turmoil in world politics.
Posted by at 10:58 PM on May 24
9:49:
“Right or left, does it really matter? America’s been drifting to the right now for more than a generation now and it doesn’t seem to have produced any results. Third world immigration continues and the culture war is more heated than ever. Even with a Republican dominated Congress and President, the process accelerated.”
That’s because the vast majority of elected “Republicans” today and over the past 25 years have become pro-Corporate, NeoCons. There was a time when Republicans valued Nation-hood over Corporate-hood. With the exception of a minority of them, including Ron Paul, they no longer vote in the interests of the ethic and cultural majority of this nation (Whites), and haven’t for a long time.
The Republican party needs to purge itself from the plague of NeoCons currently affecting it before I would ever consider voting for them again, because, like you said, all of this third-world immigration accelerated during the seven years we had a majority Republican Congress and President. It’s all about cheap labor. They are now simply doing the bidding of the multi-nationals. THAT is more imporant to them than the circumstances of the overwhelming number of Whites that voted for them…and are being replaced in workspace and otherwise BY these third world immigrants that they’ve let in. Buy Ron Paul’s “Revolution: A Manifesto” to see what needs to be done to reverse things.
Posted by at 12:29 PM on May 25
I have almost - almost - come to the point of thinking that Europe needs another, more competent Mussolini.
Posted by Fletcher at 12:59 PM on May 25
“I hate to say this but New Labour is the most evil, vicious, ruthless enemy the English working-class has ever had to contend with.The Tory Party look reasonable in comparison!” Kenelm Digby
I agree that the Labour Party has betrayed the white working class for cheap imported labor, but the Conservatives haven’t been that much better. Nevertheless, phony Blair is probably the worst Prime Minister in the history of formerly Great Britain. Both parties represent the same plutocratic interests of the privileged elite. The Conservatives have yet to crack down on immigration—legal or illegal. Unfortunately, the only party you can rely upon to curtail immigration is the BNP.
Posted by Sardonicus at 1:49 PM on May 25
Just exactly where are these immigrants from? The picture in the article is standard fare for any news article about immigrants in Europe. Even though in this picture their backs are to the camera, they’re usually veiled or head scarf wearing light skinned women with fat faces. Are they Turks?
It doesn’t matter, they are Muslims and they are the greatest threat to white europe and the U.K or the rest of the world for that matter.
Posted by Skip at 5:33 PM on May 25
So, where do those various Norwegian parties stand on immigration? If the Progress party is against becoming part of Eurabia that might explain the shift in votes much better than “greed”.
Also, it is not greed to want to keep what one has honestly earned.
It is actually the left wing parties in Great Britain and the United States that are most eager to do the bidding of their corporate masters, bringing in an endless supply of cheap labor with which to replace the native born citizens. I presume it’s the same in Norway.
Posted by WR the elder at 8:31 PM on May 25
There’s Hard Right and there’s centre Right (soft Right). Voting for the latter is the same as voting for Labour or any socialist party. Both are practically indistinguishable.
Indigenous Europeans are hesitant about voting for the real mcCoy (Hard Right) and until they get over that mental stumbling block, they will never regain their nations’ sovereignty and, therefore, indigenous homelands, and freedoms to decide the future of their countries and peoples.
Posted by A Swain at 4:54 PM on May 26
We like to blame everything on politicians, but this is mostly our fault than theirs, we’re the ones who give them this power. I am a believer in compassionate segregation. This influx of folks from other countries is not going to slow any time soon. There is only one way to stop it. Give them the technology to better their own lives. We did it with Japan after WW2, tried it with gulf countries in the middle east with some success, and it’s currently doing well with china these days. If they are self-sufficient, they won’t think about migrating here. Transfer of technology is the answer.
Posted by Jack at 5:20 PM on May 26
“It doesn’t matter, they are Muslims and they are the greatest threat to white europe and the U.K, or the rest of the world for that matter.”
Posted by Skip
— — — — —
They are certainly a threat. But I would (mildly) disagree with you that they are THE GREATEST threat. We are faced with various enemies - not all of them so evident.
Posted by browser at 8:02 PM on May 26
“Give them the technology to better their own lives. We did it with Japan after WW2, tried it with gulf countries in the middle east with some success, and it’s currently doing well with china these days. If they are self-sufficient, they won’t think about migrating here. Transfer of technology is the answer.”
Yeah right! Compare the law-abiding high IQ populations of Northern Eurasia to the brown-black hordes. It will never work.
Posted by Brick at 6:54 AM on May 27
WR the Elder wrote: So, where do those various Norwegian parties stand on immigration?
Here are a few ideas about the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, Frp) platform:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Party_(Norway)#The_2005_Brochure_on_Immigration
Populism
Frp are sometimes connected to right-wing populism in Europe[12] because they are skeptical towards immigration and have the same perspective on means to combat crime.
[edit] Immigration
The immigration policy of the Progress party has for a long time been a matter of heated discussion. The policy of the party is to favour immigrants who quickly learn Norwegian and get jobs, while expelling the criminal foreigners. In a speech during opening of the election campaign for the 2007 election, the party chairman Siv Jensen claimed that the present immigration policy is a failure because it lets criminals stay in Norway, while throwing out people who work hard and follow the law. [1]
Critics accuse the party of xenophobia, whereas supporters argue that the policy is to address a real problem as non-European immigrants are overrepresented in some of the crime statistics.[13]
[edit] The 2005 Brochure on Immigration
During the 2005 electoral campaign, the Progress Party printed a brochure focusing on criminal immigrants. The text on the brochure reads “The perpetrator is of foreign origin …!” Heavy criticism followed by the other Norwegian parties, centered on the allegation that such an advertisement criminalized immigrants as a group. Prime-minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said that “the Progress Party plays on the fear of foreigners.”
The Progress Party protested that the critics were mutilating their message. They pointed out that the next page of the brochure read: “«Those most eager to get rid of criminal immigrants are us honest immigrants!» (Pakistani-born immigrant in Norway)”. Frp chairman Hagen argued “Bondevik is wrong here. The brochure says that many immigrants are law-abiding citizens that do a fantastic job for Norway. But unfortunately there are too many who are not. Statistics clearly show that criminality is growing among immigrants.”[14] The Progress Party maintains that it has nothing against law-abiding immigrants who are in Norway on legal premises, and they reject discrimination based on colour, race, cultural, ethnic or religious affiliation. [15]
[edit] War on Terror
Although the War on Terror is not an issue the Progress Party promotes a lot, they have a clear position in support of the United States. The only Norwegian party to support the U.S led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the Progress Party .Former party chairman Carl I Hagen sometimes claims that there is a link between Islamist fundamentalism and terror. This position receives particularly broad support among conservative Christian communities.[citation needed]
Carl I Hagen once said in an interview that “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslim”. Upon question of why he did not consider terrorism in the Basque country and Northern Ireland, he replied that these were “national conflicts, and [had] nothing to do with [international terrorism]”.[16]
Posted by NoObamaNation at 11:15 AM on May 27
The shift to the right in Norweigan politics should be blamed on the God-given right to self-preservation and the desire to keep their country safe and secure. Integration doe not work, one race will naturally move to dominate the other. The muslims and all other people of races and beliefs that are contrary to the white people and their beliefs in Norway should leave. Norway belongs to Norweigans, plain and simple. In order to maintain peace and harmony, everybody needs to return to the country of their ancestors. That is to say, countries that are majority white should remain so. Black remain black, muslim remain muslim, etc…
Posted by eddie at 12:45 AM on May 28
““Need” is the desire for someone else’s wealth.
“Greed” is the desire to keep one’s own wealth.
“Compassion” is when some politician arranges the transfer.”
Well, that certainly explains the black propensity for socialism; “Blacks “need” whitey’s wealth,” and whites are “greedy” because they don’t want to give it up. In Chicago’s Crook County, home of the OVER 10% Sales Tax, blacks can obtain whitey’s wealth through the simple expedient of VOTING like the racists that they are. There are more than enough socialist whites living in Oak Park, et al., to ensure the success of the blacks’ “compassion” of wealth transfer.
Where I work, I heard a black woman talk about how much one of her relatives made being employed by Crook County. Blacks vote their interest (free money) while whitey is all caught up trying to appear progressive, non-racists, anti-war, etc.
Brainwashing has been a total success, as we see by the surveys showing that the more educated support Obama!
Posted by at 9:08 AM on May 28
“The lefty intellectuals will be in panic mode soon, warning of dire consequences if they aren’t listened to.”
Fear of de-funding?
Posted by uncle screwge at 1:13 PM on June 2
To you who wrote: “I would guess maybe Kurds and Iraqis too (?), given the present turmoil in world politics.”
Comment: You certainly know that there are two types of immigration: Those who apply for asylum, and those who come in because of family reunification or chain migration.
The Kurds and Iraqis dominate the group that enter Norway by applying for asylum. More than 90% of the Pakistanis and the Somalis in Norway marry their siblings in their home countries, however, and chain migration works very well for them.
Posted by Norwegian at 3:16 PM on June 4