"We Did It": Norway Ruling Labour Party Wins General Election

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store declared victory in a close election where his Labor Party played to voters’ fears of uncertainty regarding taxation and welfare policies.

Store is headed for another four years in office after Labor emerged as the Nordic country’s biggest, while the opposition bloc saw a shift to the right.

The prime minister’s party won the general election with about 28% of the votes. Together with the center-left parties supporting it, the Labor-led bloc was on track for 88 seats — just over half — in the 169-member legislature, as 99% of votes were counted. He also managed to snap a declining trend in the support for Labor since 2009.

“In uncertain times, we’ve shown that we can deal with the challenges,” the prime minister told his cheering supporters in Oslo, pledging to start negotiations with all parties in the center-left bloc. “What our friends out in the world can look at and say is that it’s possible for the Social Democrats to win elections, even in a time where the right-wing powers are strong.”

On the other side of the political spectrum, the anti-immigration Progress Party scored its best result on record with about 24% backing after the party took voters from the Conservatives, who at less than 15% had their worst outcome in two decades.

The results cap an election race in one of the world’s richest countries that was dominated by debates over taxes on wealth and other levies by Labor. The opposition, along with the entrepreneurial lobby, says the fees are damaging to businesses and the economy. 

Store ran as a safe pair of hands at a time when the NATO member bordering Russia needs to boost defense spending and as wealth fund returns are seen dwindling. Among the opposition, populist Progress Party leader Sylvi Listhaug, 47, built her campaign on cutting taxes, including levies on the wealthiest, as well as reducing public spending and scrapping green subsidies.

The incumbent also benefited from what’s seen as a rally-around-the-flag effect related to geopolitical uncertainty and tensions with US President Donald Trump’s administration. 

Listhaug and Conservatives’ Erna Solberg both congratulated Store for the victory.

In the middle of the campaigns, a public uproar broke out over Israeli investments by the nation’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The subsequent removal of Caterpillar Inc. from the fund due to its links to the war in Gaza is threatening to worsen Norway’s relationship with the US, but did not derail Store’s bid for another term in office.

About a year ago, Store, 65, looked to be heading for opposition. Then, a sudden turnaround early this year reversed his prospects as his junior partner, the Center Party, left the coalition. The return to government of former North Atlantic Treaty Organization head Jens Stoltenberg, a close friend of the millionaire premier was a second stroke of fortune. In what became known as “Stoltenback” in local media, the twice-premier was appointed as the finance minister, with Labor’s backing jumping by a record margin in a month.

On Monday, before the vote tally was released, Stoltenberg indicated he would like to stay on as finance minister.

The results show voters were ready to overlook Store’s personal wealth, inherited from his grandfather’s sale of the Jotul stove maker, which has previously contributed to the party losing traction with its core voters. A career politician, he had studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and taught at Harvard, before taking helm of Norway’s biggest party in 2014.

The Labor Party has said it will try to continue to rule alone after the election, which would leave it in a minority government supported in parliament by its traditional partners, the Socialist Left and the Center Party, as well as the Greens and the Red Party. To win that support, Labor is likely to have to offer concessions. 

The Socialist Left on Monday repeated a demand to pull the oil fund’s remaining investments in Israel, indicating that will be a condition of its support of the government. The Red Party has previously made a similar demand. Other concessions may range from reducing oil and gas exploration to limiting electricity exports.

“With this election result, Norway will get four tough years ahead for people and for business, when we get a government that is dependent on the Red Party, Socialist Left and Green Party,” opposition leader Listhaug said.