Norway’s two party coalition collapses as living costs rise

Norway's prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store (Wikimedia Commons)

Last week, the Norwegian two party minority coalition government collapsed, according to the Financial Times (London), “over whether Norway should keep more of its electricity for itself to lower prices or export it to the EU and UK, an issue seen as crucial to future relations with Brussels”.

The rural, Centre party, left the coalition government, stating that Norway needed to take a more protectionist position on electricity. The Labour party will now govern alone until September elections. It has pledged to guarantee cheap electricity prices nationwide and no new interconnectors for export to Europe. This has led to fury from Norway’s neighbours, Denmark and Sweden, and the EU.

Robin Nilsen looks at the underlying class issues, such as the high cost of living for working class people, that led to the collapse of the coalition government.

Socialistworld.net

The Norwegian liberal party called the SP (Center Party), has in a cynical way decided to pull out of the two-party coalition that was in office in Norway. But the Norwegian electorate are not likely to forget about of their membership of a ‘center left’ coalition government that presided over a huge losses of earning power by the workers, the poor and the pensioners.

If there was a general election today, according to polls, the SP (Center Party) would lose most if not all of their seats in Oslo. After the last national election in 2021 we saw that the AP (Norwegian Labour Party or NLP) decided instead of going into coalition with the left party, it decided to go into a coalition with the SP (Center Party) This two party coalition was too turn away from the left, leaving the SV (Left Socialists) in a position to make demands on them, and the Rødt (communist party) out in the cold.

The Norwegian Labour Party and the Center Party were calling all the shots and the SV (Left Socialists) doing some work negotiating for a few crumbs (sometimes meaningful but still crumbs). In one budget, the Left Socialists negotiated extra money for SFO (payment for teachers to work overtime, shortening the time between schools finishing and parents getting home from work) which Labour Party later took credit for.

In recent years, the Labour Party led coalition government has faced many challenges and timidly tried and miserably failed to fix these problems. The costs of food, electricity, petrol, diesel etc. all rose significantly (settled down now but will probably go up again soon). Rents and mortgages and bank interest have all risen.

The parliamentary leader of the Left Socialists (SV), Kirsti Bergstø, is positioning herself (and the parliamentary SV group) to replace the SP, (Center Party) (though some SV members on social media argue it is very undemocratic to do this without a National Conference decision).

In most gallop polls the Labour Party, and the Center Party coalition have been losing mandates, and the main post Christmas gallop showed them down to under 20% and the two main conservative parties combined totaling over 60%.

The Labour Party and Center Party coalition was implementing the neo-liberal politics of the EU and not doing anything about the causes of austerity. This can bring back the right wing popularists at the next election in September 2025, similar to what happened in the elections in the USA, where Trump was re-elected. The policies of the Labour Party and the Center Party coalition are playing a big role in the return of the right wing populists.

All the local and county councils (Kommune and Fylkekommunene) in Norway are underfunded because that the Conservatives (H Høyre) took NOK 48 billion about (£4.8 billion) from the budgets of the regional and local council budgets to give tax relief mainly to their friends and oligarchs. The Labour Party and the Center Party coalition could have reversed these cuts but choose not to. And in the manifesto of the Frp (Populist Freedom Party) who will probably increase their support in the September elections, we see further cuts to the budgets of the hospitals and schools. They will then try to add tax cuts; some will go to workers, but most will go to their millionaire sponsors.

Any decent workers’ party would have seen that councils got their budget funding increased by rescinding the cuts made by the right-wing parties.

The CWI in Norway says:

Reverse government cuts at council level.

Build more student housing, especially in rural areas.

More and better public and fully integrated transport in rural areas.

The introduction of electric high-speed trains, reducing the reliance on airplanes etc.

Make the rich pay for the cost-of-living crisis.

Nationalise the banks and insurance companies, under democratic workers’ control and management.

Renationalisation of the energy industry.

Huge government investment at regional and municipal levels, so that all the jobs lost can be re-gained, and affordable and properly functioning public services resumed.

A 30-hour working week, without loss of pay.

For workers’/trade unions’ led mass campaigns to reverse climate change.

Voters would welcome all these sorts of measures, alongside a full programme for socialist change.

For a strong left party based on the working class and independent socialist policies!

 

 

 

 

 

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