Norwegian local elections, 2015
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Author Topic: Norwegian local elections, 2015  (Read 17703 times)
politicus
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« Reply #75 on: September 18, 2015, 03:43:18 AM »

In the industrial settlement of Årdal, MDGs single representative on the new municipal council decided to let her five-year old son draw lots to find out which parties she would enter into negotiations with. The son picked the center-left.

lol
That's not really more laughable than drawing lots to appoint jurors who can decide on a capital punishment... Sortition is not way more laughable than democracy, both have their merits and drawbacks.

lol was for the method, not the procedure
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Viewfromthenorth
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« Reply #76 on: September 18, 2015, 07:08:07 AM »

A new coalition has been announced that will govern Stavanger: Høyre, FrP, Venstre, KrF, Sp and Pensjonistpartiet. They will enjoy confidence and supply support from Folkeaksjonen Nei til mer bompenger (an anti-road tolls party), and will altogether hold 41 of 67 seats on the city council.
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« Reply #77 on: September 22, 2015, 11:46:14 AM »

Ap, KrF and V will most likely form the new city government in Bergen. This probably means that KrF gets the mayor. SV was also invited to join the talks, but declined the offer.

The three parties combined control 34 of 67 seats on the city council.
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« Reply #78 on: September 24, 2015, 09:01:01 AM »

To the surprise of absolutely nobody in the entire country, MDG has decided to enter into negotiations with Ap and SV, meaning we will probably have a center-left government in Oslo.
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DavidB.
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« Reply #79 on: September 24, 2015, 09:02:58 AM »

Ap, KrF and V will most likely form the new city government in Bergen. This probably means that KrF gets the mayor. SV was also invited to join the talks, but declined the offer.

The three parties combined control 34 of 67 seats on the city council.
KrF and V, isn't that an awkward combination? Aren't there religion-state issues that play a role in local decisions?
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« Reply #80 on: September 24, 2015, 05:48:18 PM »

Ap, KrF and V will most likely form the new city government in Bergen. This probably means that KrF gets the mayor. SV was also invited to join the talks, but declined the offer.

The three parties combined control 34 of 67 seats on the city council.
KrF and V, isn't that an awkward combination? Aren't there religion-state issues that play a role in local decisions?

Not awkward at all, these parties cooperate all the time at both the local and national level. Not sure what issues you'd be talking about.

What will be interesting to see in Bergen is who will win out when it comes to policy regarding drug users. V based almost their entire campaign on opening a safe, supervised injection room, which KrF is vehemently opposed to and has been blocking for the past several years. Ap is on V's side in this one.
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« Reply #81 on: September 24, 2015, 05:52:12 PM »

Why are KrF so strong in the Southern muncipalaties?
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Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese
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« Reply #82 on: September 24, 2015, 05:53:49 PM »

Why are KrF so strong in the Southern muncipalaties?

Lots of Christians.
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CrabCake
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« Reply #83 on: September 24, 2015, 05:55:26 PM »


Thanks. (Ask a stupid question, I guess...)

Why are there so many conservative Christians down there? Retiree spot?
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politicus
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« Reply #84 on: September 24, 2015, 05:55:42 PM »
« Edited: September 24, 2015, 05:57:14 PM by politicus »


Rather a specific kind of them: fundamentalist Christians.


Why are there so many conservative Christians down there? Retiree spot?

Nah, SW = Bible Belt.
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Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese
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« Reply #85 on: September 25, 2015, 02:33:13 AM »

Why are there so many conservative Christians down there? Retiree spot?

Nah, SW = Bible Belt.

Quite interestingly, despite the image of the Nordic countries as very secular and non-religious, most of us have a Conservative miniature bible belt. In Sweden it covers mostly Jönköping county (sometimes given the pun nickname Bönköping which means Prayer Town) southern Västergötland and a string of islands on the West coast north and west of Gothenburg. The Norwegian one is in the area you identified,  in Finland it's some of the areas in Österbotten centered around Jakobstad.

There is one on Jutland in Denmark as well, but I think Politicus would tell me I was wrong if I tried to identify where exactly, so I'll leave it to her better knowledge to tell you exactly where it is. Smiley

Iceland, as far as I know, doesn't have a bible belt, though I imagine Politicus can correct me on this as well. On the other hand all of the Faroe Islands outside of Torshavn is a bible belt.       
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« Reply #86 on: September 25, 2015, 04:16:11 AM »

Yeah, pretty much what you guys have said. All of rural Norway shares some SoCon traits (everyone outside the big cities is slightly homophobic, but won't display it because that would be making a scene), but in parts of Aust-Agder, Rogaland and Hordaland, as well as all of Vest-Agder it goes nuts. Some towns have more bedehus (independent fundie churches) than schools.
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Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese
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« Reply #87 on: September 25, 2015, 04:24:32 AM »

everyone outside the big cities is slightly homophobic, but won't display it because that would be making a scene

What?! Now you're just making unjust generalizations. I grew up in a rural area in Sweden and though lots of people certainly held homophobic opinions and it certainly is more socially conservative than most non-Scandinavians think, it's greatly untrue to claim that all, or even most, of people outside of the big cities are homophobes. That isn't the case in Sweden, and I don't think that changes when you cross the Norwegian boarder.

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« Reply #88 on: September 25, 2015, 04:36:55 AM »

everyone outside the big cities is slightly homophobic, but won't display it because that would be making a scene

What?! Now you're just making unjust generalizations. I grew up in a rural area in Sweden and though lots of people certainly held homophobic opinions and it certainly is more socially conservative than most non-Scandinavians think, it's greatly untrue to claim that all, or even most, of people outside of the big cities are homophobes. That isn't the case in Sweden, and I don't think that changes when you cross the Norwegian boarder.



OK, (slightly) homophobic may be the wrong word (you ignored the word slightly). Would "somewhat uncomfortable when an openly gay person is around" suit you better? By the way, I think you'll find the Norwegian countryside is somewhat more conservative than the Swedish countryside.
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Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese
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« Reply #89 on: September 25, 2015, 04:54:25 AM »
« Edited: September 25, 2015, 04:57:35 AM by Swedish Austerity Cheese »

OK, (slightly) homophobic may be the wrong word (you ignored the word slightly). Would "somewhat uncomfortable when an openly gay person is around" suit you better? By the way, I think you'll find the Norwegian countryside is somewhat more conservative than the Swedish countryside.

I'm not upset if you say some people in rural areas are slightly homophobic and I wouldn't be upset if you said some people are very homophobic as there certainly are those kinds of people. I'm upset you said that everyone is.

My family, and lots of my friends that I had growing up have always been very supportive of my sexuality and has never been uncomfortable with me being open or any of my boyfriends for that matter and they are very clearly rural people. It's quite insensitive to lump such wonderful people with the bigots, who bullied me for being gay when I grew up. You should never generalize in that way. Homophobia is more usual in the countryside, but that doesn't mean all rural people act and think the same.

The Norwegian countryside might very well be more conservative than the Swedish countryside, I have no idea to be honest, but I'm thoroughly convinced that not everyone who lives there are slightly homophobic or even uncomfortable in the presence of openly gay people.
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« Reply #90 on: September 25, 2015, 05:13:54 AM »

Alright, I can't claim every single person is is. But a large majority are. I made a generalization that people make every single day, that most people understand is a rhetorical generalization and should not be taken literally. Sheesh...
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politicus
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« Reply #91 on: September 25, 2015, 05:31:21 AM »
« Edited: September 25, 2015, 08:33:54 AM by politicus »

Why are there so many conservative Christians down there? Retiree spot?

Nah, SW = Bible Belt.

Quite interestingly, despite the image of the Nordic countries as very secular and non-religious, most of us have a Conservative miniature bible belt. In Sweden it covers mostly Jönköping county (sometimes given the pun nickname Bönköping which means Prayer Town) southern Västergötland and a string of islands on the West coast north and west of Gothenburg. The Norwegian one is in the area you identified,  in Finland it's some of the areas in Österbotten centered around Jakobstad.

There is one on Jutland in Denmark as well, but I think Politicus would tell me I was wrong if I tried to identify where exactly, so I'll leave it to her better knowledge to tell you exactly where it is. Smiley

Iceland, as far as I know, doesn't have a bible belt, though I imagine politicus can correct me on this as well. On the other hand all of the Faroe Islands outside of Torshavn is a bible belt.        

Iceland doesn't really have a Bible Belt in the conventional sense, although there are certainly regions that are more religious than others, but the state church has pretty much had things under control up there until pedophilia scandals in recent decades undermined them somewhat. The small fundi Christian Party never got off the ground and polled around 0.1% before they disbanded. The Vestmanna Islands off the south coast may be a weaksauce bible belt of sorts (but that would be pushing the limits of the term quite a bit) and the Westfiords in the NW are fairly religious (but in different ways as illustrated with the refugee reception thing, where small Westfiord municipalities have been among the first to welcome refugees and Vestmanna among the anti-refugee holdouts - both influenced by religion).

Regarding the Faeros they are actually quite diverse when speaking of religion. This graph of party strength illustrates it well.


The fundi Centre Party is at the bottom. The areas in red are their strongest. As you can see the southern part of Suduroy and Eysturoy (except the far west) + parts of southern and eastern Streymoy are the real Bible Belt. Whereas Vagar, Northern Suduroy, Sandoy with surrounding islets and Western Streymoy are decidedly not Bible Belt. The areas around Torshavn (and the town itself) actually have a higher fundi share than many more remote places. Fundis have migrated to "town" as everyone else and Torshavn is close to some old fundi strongholds, but the town is of course socially liberal as a whole.
The Nordoyar are hard to pin down as most of the population (90%+) now lives in Klaksvik, which is a culturally conservative place with some evangelical congregations and Inner Mission strength, but not dominated by fundis. There are also little places up there with no fundis at all and the overall fundi share isn't really high enough to call it a part of the Bible Belt, but certainly relatively SoCon.

Suduroy both being an SD stronghold and partly Bible Belt and whose two phenomenons overlapping somewhat has been a main factor in making gay marriage so tricky in the Faroes.



The Danish "Bible Belt" is pretty weaksauce these days, but was traditionally located around Ringkøbing Fiord in Western Jutland stretching north and inland with diminishing strength, the Hedensted/Løsning area in SE Jutland between Horsens and Vejle was home to "The Strong Jutlanders", a late 18th century/early 19th century pietistic/Lutheran orthodox layman movement and still has fundis and Bornholm has a high evangelical free church share, but compared to Vest-Agder or even Bönköping, this isn't much of a bible belt at all. Fundis are 7-8% tops in even their strongest areas.

Is the Finnish Bible Belters Swedish speaking or both communities? I see Jakobstad is 56.4% Swedish-speaking/40.2% Finnish-speaking according to Wiki (would have guessed 2:1, but Swedish keeps shrinking).
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Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese
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« Reply #92 on: September 25, 2015, 05:36:25 AM »

Alright, I can't claim every single person is is. But a large majority are. I made a generalization that people make every single day, that most people understand is a rhetorical generalization and should not be taken literally. Sheesh...

Yes generalizations such as:

- Immigrants are criminals
- Women want children
- Gay people are promiscuous
- Danes are racist
- Urban people are arrogant and know nothing of the rest of the country

Yes people make generalizations, I have too at times. That doesn't make it right.
I'm sure you didn't have any bad intentions, but when you come with incorrect facts (rhetorical or not) I feel it should be pointed out that it is in fact incorrect. Not only does it spread stereo-types about rural people, you also enforce stereo-types about yourself as lots of people on the countryside think that people who've lived their entire lives in Oslo or Stockholm is ignorant about anything that happens in the rest of the country, especially in rural areas.
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Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese
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« Reply #93 on: September 25, 2015, 05:39:23 AM »

Is the Finnish Bible Belters Swedish speaking or both communities? I see Jakobstad is 56.4% Swedish-speaking/40.2% Finnish-speaking according to Wiki (would have guessed 2:1, but Swedish keeps shrinking).

Both. The Swedish speaking municipality Larsmo, north of Jakobstad, is the heart of the Finish Bible Belt though. I believe the Christian Democrats got around 40% of the vote there in the Finish General Election. I actually dated a guy (Swedish speaker) from there, who had very conservative and Christian parents.
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politicus
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« Reply #94 on: September 25, 2015, 06:56:26 AM »
« Edited: September 25, 2015, 06:59:28 AM by politicus »

On Norway and religion the church and religion research institute KIFO actually published a big 2010 study, which followed changes in opinion of religion and religious life from 1991-2008. It showed that people from Rogaland and the Agder counties had a markedly more active religious life and more often expressed a personal faith than other Norwegians, but that pietism related to religious awakening movements and religious associations had nearly collapsed in the rest of the Vestland with people being only somewhat more religious than those in Eastern Norway and Trøndelag, and the Church of Norway taking over.

Even outside of secular Oslo most of Østlandet had little faith! Østfold and especially Hedmark are fairly irreligious places (it seems the closer you get to Sweden the less religious people are, interpret it whichever way you like..). Trøndelag also lacks personal faith, but has a higher share of alternative religion/new age than Østlandet. Northern Norway also has a high share of alternative religion/spirituality (understandably, I would go pantheist with all that natural beauty as well), but otherwise remains split with both lots of hardcore atheists and pockets of deeply religious Laestidians.
 
While you can be homophobic without being religious I doubt that all rural Norwegians are equally homophobic, secular Hedmark or spiritual/atheist Finnmark being equal to the SW on this doesn't  seem credible.



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« Reply #95 on: September 30, 2015, 05:30:21 AM »

Ap, SV and Rødt have reached an agreement in Tromsø, which among other things details that they will abolish city parliamentarism in eight months. The city will then revert to the traditional model, meaning an executive board consisting of all parties on the city council.

This is presumably Rødts major takeaway from these negotiations, because in return they gave up the mayorship to Ap.
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« Reply #96 on: October 20, 2015, 10:41:27 AM »

The two last city governments (in the cities with a parliamentary system) have been formed:

- In Bergen, the new coalition will be composed of Ap, KrF and V. Ap will get both the mayor and the chair of the city government.

- In Oslo, the new coalition will be composed of Ap, SV and MDG and will require the support of Rødt. This is already turning interesting.

My ranting points:
  - MDG and the other parties agreed that the area within Ring 1 (that is to say, an area limited by the Royal Palace to the west, Youngstorget to the north, and the Central Station to the east) will be made car-free by 2019 (deliveries and similar excepted, of course). They have adopted a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, meaning that the practical problems are being sorted out right now. For example, they cannot tell if taxis will be exempted.

  - They have also announced that Oslo will not support expansion of the E18 motorway. The problem? There are three parties in that project: Oslo, Akershus county and the national government. The latter two don't give a sh*t. MDG will reportedly withdraw from the city government if they do not get their way regarding the E18.

  - To make this all even better, they also announced they want to build a new subway tunnel. While this is undoubtedly a good idea, financing it will require help from Akershus. Akershus already supports a good deal of infrastructure projects in Oslo, _in return_ for Oslo supporting the E18 (which runs through western parts of Akershus and desperately needs expanding). No E18 = no new subway tunnel. You can't have both, MDG.

  - The new city government will not use the normal Norwegian term byråd, it will instead use byregjering (which literally translates to city government), which sounds stupidly pompous to everyone else. In addition, the borough councils will no longer be bydelsutvalg (borough committees), but instead bydelsstyrer (borough councils). Pompous, but nothing too outrageous so far. The last name change is the killer: bydelsutvalgsleder (borough council leader) will now become bydelsordfører (borough mayor).

  - In exchange for their support, Rødt has managed to get the city government to agree that no new private childcare places will be constructed. This will inevitably lead to a shortage of childcare places in a few years, but you know, ideology is important.

  - Also, Rødt managed to include some phrasing about how Oslo will no longer allow for the
opening of "commercial schools" (that is to say, private schools). There are two problems here: first, private schools fall under the regulation of the national government, and the city government therefore has no jurisdiction in that area. The second is that there are no "commercial" schools in Oslo, because private schools in Norway cannot be for profit!
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