Norwegian Parliamentary Election 2013

[Viewfromthenorth]

For the past couple days, the election has partly been about the abundant rumors of SVs demise. A commentator in Bergens Tidende wrote about what he sees as a potential scenario: SV coming under the threshold and ending up with 0-1 seats in parliament. After that, there will be nothing left for the three wings of the party: the environmentalists leaving for MdG, the pragmatics making their way over to Ap, and the left-wingers gradually joining a more moderate Rødt. I find the scenario interestnig, but not entirely realistic.

[HansOslo]

I could never vote for SV, but I think the talk of the party's impending demise is a bit exaggerated. There is room to the left of AP, especially when the party is led by centrists like Stoltenberg, Støre and Eide. This room can’t be filled by Rødt (they are too incompetent and too far to the left), and MDG is too much of a one-trick-pony. There is no doubt that SV is in serious trouble, but I don’t think they are going away any time soon.

[Viewfromthenorth]

Walked by SVs election booth on Karl Johans gate (Oslos main street, Swedes may make as much fun as they wish of the fact that it's named after a Swedish king), told one of the party workers I hope they remained in Parliament but I wouldn't vote for them. He could only reply with a half-hearted "Well, then you'll have to contribute!". They're openly begging for tactical/sympathy votes...

Also had a nice conversation with the Pirate Party "Admiral" (leader). I initially asked him when their full electoral program would be published, because it's labelled as TBA on their website, he instead decided to fill me in on all of their direct democracy ideas. Turns out he can't answer a question either.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Walked by SVs election booth on Karl Johans gate (Oslos main street, Swedes may make as much fun as they wish of the fact that it's named after a Swedish king)

He was as much Norwegian as he was Swedish. It's not like he was born here, or spoke a single word of Swedish.

Though we elected him while you were conquered by him...   

[HansOslo]

[quote author=Swedish Cheese link=topic=168177.msg3840590#msg3840590
Though we elected him while you were conquered by him...   
[/quote]

And now the Swedes come to Norway to work for us.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

And now the Swedes come to Norway to work for us.

Haha, well I can't deny it. A third of my friends worked in Norway this summer.

[HansOslo]

And now the Swedes come to Norway to work for us.

Haha, well I can't deny it. A third of my friends worked in Norway this summer.

And we are very grateful for it. Most Norwegians find the Swedish workers very service minded and pleasant to deal with.

I think I have only met one guy who was angry at the Swedish guest workers, for taking jobs in the service sector. However, he was the sort of person very few people would think of hiring anyway, with or without the Swedes.

[Lurker]

The newest daily VG poll show Høyre+FrP at just 42,9% - far from a parliamentary majority. Venstre and KrF both get 5,9%, leaving the center-right bloc at 54,7%. If this is the result, the only certainty is that Erna Solberg will become PM - what form of coalition we'll get is more unclear.

Interestingly, Miljøpartiet De Grønne is now above the 4% treshold (as are all the current parliamentary parties).

[HansOslo]

The VG poll is really interesting, as it includes a lot of other information as well. For example what percentages the parties get in the different regions of the country. The North is as usual Høyres weakest area, with 25 % support for the party. More surprisingly Western Norway is where the party is doing best, with 32% of the vote. I assumed their strongest area would be Oslo and the Southeast in general.

[joevsimp]

The VG poll is really interesting, as it includes a lot of other information as well. For example what percentages the parties get in the different regions of the country. The North is as usual Høyres weakest area, with 25 % support for the party. More surprisingly Western Norway is where the party is doing best, with 32% of the vote. I assumed their strongest area would be Oslo and the Southeast in general.

Maybe they're picking up SP's losses...

Link?

[Lurker]

The VG poll is really interesting, as it includes a lot of other information as well. For example what percentages the parties get in the different regions of the country. The North is as usual Høyres weakest area, with 25 % support for the party. More surprisingly Western Norway is where the party is doing best, with 32% of the vote. I assumed their strongest area would be Oslo and the Southeast in general.

Maybe they're picking up SP's losses...

Link?

Here's a link.:


http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/valg-2013/artikkel.php?artid=10133011


By SP you presumably mean Senterpartiet. If so, no. First of all, their "base" and Høyre's base are very different, and secondly SP are at the same level of support as they were in the last election. A large number of the new Høyre voters in Western Norway would probably be former FrP voters (whose downslide in the West has coincided with Høyre's success.) They will also have captured quite a few who voted AP in the last election.

[joevsimp]

MDG 36%
SV     31%
R       30%
SP     29%
AP     28%
KrF    28%
V        27%
H        23%
FrP     10%

not that I'm in Norway though, answered don't know to a few

[Viewfromthenorth]

VG has been running daily opinion polls lately and today it went nuts:

H 29%
Ap 28.6%
FrP 14.6%
V 7.3% (!!!!)
KrF 5.1%
Sp 4.9%
MdG 4.1%
SV 3.5%
Rødt 1.2%
Others 1.7%

Quite an unrealistic result for Venstre of course, but it could be the beginning of something.

[DC Al Fine]

FrP: 47%
H: 44%
KrF: 37%

Everything else quite low. I didn't bother choosing what issues were important to me, but I imagine KrF would do better under that model.

[HansOslo]

VG has been running daily opinion polls lately and today it went nuts:

H 29%
Ap 28.6%
FrP 14.6%
V 7.3% (!!!!)
KrF 5.1%
Sp 4.9%
MdG 4.1%
SV 3.5%
Rødt 1.2%
Others 1.7%

Quite an unrealistic result for Venstre of course, but it could be the beginning of something.

Venstre will probably break 4% this time, but 7% seem a bit high. SV should also be above 4%. That poll is bad news for AP too. With just a couple of weeks left to go, they should at least be bigger than Høyre.

[joevsimp]

today's poll has venstre back to normal, and AP just ahead, and both SV and MdG above the threshold*

Ap    28.7%
H      27.7%
FrP   15.2%
V         5.9%
KrF     5.8%
Sp      5.6%
MdG  4.2%
SV      4.0%
Rødt   1.4%
Others 1.4%

*tbh though, on everything apart from FrP coming third, these polls just tell me that everything is too close to call

[Viewfromthenorth]

Høyre has always gone for minimalistic election posters, but this year they also appear to like the idea of subtle themes. The arrow points to the right (Høyre simply means "right") and the text reads "Better schools". This, of course, ignores the fact that there are actually quite a few people who can't tell the difference between left and right.



7-Eleven has actually been running a rather nice campaign. They have ads on the subway listing the alternatives to democracy, and these stands where they offer a free coffee while you decide what to vote for. This one is conviniently located next to an early voting station.



Last but not least, Litago, which is a brand of yoghurts and flavored milk, has been running a downright embarrassing parody campaign. This poster reads "Vote for the cow, get the violin back", which is a pun on a well-known childrens song.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

This, of course, ignores the fact that there are actually quite a few people who can't tell the difference between left and right.

*Insert obvious Stupid Norwegians joke here*

One would hope that as the poster is next to a road, the people driving cars on that road does know which side of the road they're on... and thus should know the difference.   

[Viewfromthenorth]

This, of course, ignores the fact that there are actually quite a few people who can't tell the difference between left and right.

*Insert obvious Stupid Norwegians joke here*

One would hope that as the poster is next to a road, the people driving cars on that road does know which side of the road they're on... and thus should know the difference.   

Actually, the first place I heard of this problem for anyone but small children was in...you guessed it, Sweden

[Franknburger]

This, of course, ignores the fact that there are actually quite a few people who can't tell the difference between left and right.

*Insert obvious Stupid Norwegians joke here*  

Mind to share some of these jokes with us?

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

This, of course, ignores the fact that there are actually quite a few people who can't tell the difference between left and right.

*Insert obvious Stupid Norwegians joke here*   

Mind to share some of these jokes with us?

A Norwegian electrician got a phone call from an old lady asking him to fix her broken doorbell. Swift at work the Norwegian drove away to attend to the problem immediatley. However it was not long before he returned disgruntled. His collegue asked him why he had returned so quckily, and was told that he had rung on the door seven times yet no one had come and opened.   

A Swedish math professor was working at Oslo University. After having graded the latest exams he announced to his Norwegian students that he'd had no choice but to fail 80% of them, at which point one of the brighter students shouted: "That's not even possible, we're not that many in this class."

It was a great tragedy in  Bergen the day the library had to close, after a break-in where the culprits had stolen both books.       

What do you call an intelligent person in Norwegian?
Tourist

A big buff Norwegian was bragging in a bar that no Swede had ever been brave enough to tell a stupid Norwegian joke to his face. At which point a Swedish guy quipped that it wasn't lack of bravery so much as the fact that no Swede could be bothered to spend an hour explaining the joke for him. 

[HansOslo]

Once there was a blind Norwegian, a deaf Dane and a wheelchair bound Swede who came upon a magic cavern. They were granted one wish each when they entered the cavern. First the blind Norwegian entered. He wished to see again. When he came out, he said
-   I can see.

Then the deaf Dane went into the cave. He wanted to be able to hear. When he returned, he said
-   I can hear.

Then the wheelchair bound Swede rolled into the cave to make a wish. When he came out he said
-   Look mates, I’ve got two new wheels. (Titta kompisar, två nya hjul.)

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Once there was a blind Norwegian, a deaf Dane and a wheelchair bound Swede who came upon a magic cavern. They were granted one wish each when they entered the cavern. First the blind Norwegian entered. He wished to see again. When he came out, he said
-   I can see.

Then the deaf Dane went into the cave. He wanted to be able to hear. When he returned, he said
-   I can hear.

Then the wheelchair bound Swede rolled into the cave to make a wish. When he came out he said
-   Look mates, I’ve got two new wheels. (Titta kompisar, två nya hjul.)

A Swede, a Dane and a Norwegian was stranded together at a deserted island in the Pacific. After several months on the island the three's hope of ever being rescued was declining, until one day they came upon a magic lamp containing a genie. As the genie was freed he granted the three Scandinavians a wish wach.
The Swede asked to be returned to his family, and disappeared. The Dane asked for the same thing, and also disappeared.
The Norwegian looked around and said "Well I'm gonna get awfully lonely out here so I wish for the Swede and the Dane to come back."       

[Franknburger]

Once there was a blind Norwegian, a deaf Dane and a wheelchair bound Swede who came upon a magic cavern. They were granted one wish each when they entered the cavern. First the blind Norwegian entered. He wished to see again. When he came out, he said
-   I can see.

Then the deaf Dane went into the cave. He wanted to be able to hear. When he returned, he said
-   I can hear.

Then the wheelchair bound Swede rolled into the cave to make a wish. When he came out he said
-   Look mates, I’ve got two new wheels. (Titta kompisar, två nya hjul.)

A Swede, a Dane and a Norwegian was stranded together at a deserted island in the Pacific. After several months on the island the three's hope of ever being rescued was declining, until one day they came upon a magic lamp containing a genie. As the genie was freed he granted the three Scandinavians a wish wach.
The Swede asked to be returned to his family, and disappeared. The Dane asked for the same thing, and also disappeared.
The Norwegian looked around and said "Well I'm gonna get awfully lonely out here so I wish for the Swede and the Dane to come back."       

That one is even better in the post-USSR version - a Georgian, an Estonian and a Russian getting stranded, and the Russian finally saying "I wish my friends were back with me.."

Anyway - forgive my trolling attempt, let's get back to Norwegian politics...

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

I just read that you're not allowed to sell alcohol in Norway on election day, as to keep people from voting drunk. Very fascinating.