Norway votes on how to spend all its oil wealth
Independent Online Edition > Europe : app6
By Stephen Castle, Europe Correspondent
Published: 13 September 2005
Voters in oil-rich Norway, one of Europe's wealthiest countries, went to the polls to decide whether to plough more government cash into their generous welfare state or to cut taxes.
Even before the latest surge in oil prices, Norway was ranked for five consecutive years by the United Nations as the best place to live in the world.
Yet its low unemployment and a much-envied social security system has not stopped the issue of how much the government spends from dominating debate in the world's third largest oil exporter.
The centre-right governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, a 58-year-old Lutheran clergyman, has fought on a platform of lowering taxes. By contrast Norway's s left-of-centre Labour opposition argued that more could be done to eliminate the country's remaining social problems.
Opinion polls suggested a close result with the possibility that the country's fringe parties could end up holding the balance of power. That is likely to make today a decisive day in Norwegian politics as the political leaders try to broker a deal to install a new coalition government.
The right-wing, anti-immigration Progress Party, the tiny Communist Party or the pro-whaling Coastal Party may prove to hold disproportionate influence in these complex negotiations. The Progress Party, which backed the outgoing coalition but was denied cabinet posts, has demanded a change of prime minister as the price of its support for any new administration.
The Coastal Party wants to raise Norway's whale hunting quota. Its only MP was elected in 2001 after grilling whale-burgers for voters on the campaign trail.
After casting his vote in Oslo yesterday, the opposition leader Jens Stoltenberg, said: "The last opinion polls show that we are in the lead, but in the end it is the voters who will speak with their votes." Mr Stoltenberg, a 46-year-old economist who was prime minister from 2000-01, heads a three-party "red-green" alliance which wants to spend more oil cash on jobs, care for the elderly and education. He argues that the tax cuts introduced by Mr Bondevik have served only to help the rich.
By contrast the Prime Minister believes that he could combine further reductions in taxation with improvements in health care and education.
The Labour Party dominated Norwegian politics for nearly four decades after the Second World War, but no single party has commanded a majority since the early 1990s. The current centre-right government has presided over four years of unprecedented prosperity in the country of 4.6 million, and unemployment in August was just 3.7 per cent, which compares favourably with 5.8 per cent in Denmark and 5.5 per cent in Sweden. Luxembourg is the only European country that can claim to be richer per head than Norway. And, as the biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the nation's wealth has been boosted by a windfall from record high energy prices. But that has only served to sharpen debate over how to use the oil income.
Norway's indigenous Sami people were also voting yesterday in elections for their own parliament, the Sametinget, a political contest given added significance by laws passed earlier this year extending the assembly's powers over the Arctic lands.
With the result expected to be the closest for years, opinion polls in the final two days before the election produced conflicting forecasts. A TNS Gallup survey suggested the government would win 88 of the 169 parliamentary seats, while an Opinion survey showed the Labour-led opposition winning 85 seats.
Voters in oil-rich Norway, one of Europe's wealthiest countries, went to the polls to decide whether to plough more government cash into their generous welfare state or to cut taxes.
Even before the latest surge in oil prices, Norway was ranked for five consecutive years by the United Nations as the best place to live in the world.
Yet its low unemployment and a much-envied social security system has not stopped the issue of how much the government spends from dominating debate in the world's third largest oil exporter.
The centre-right governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, a 58-year-old Lutheran clergyman, has fought on a platform of lowering taxes. By contrast Norway's s left-of-centre Labour opposition argued that more could be done to eliminate the country's remaining social problems.
Opinion polls suggested a close result with the possibility that the country's fringe parties could end up holding the balance of power. That is likely to make today a decisive day in Norwegian politics as the political leaders try to broker a deal to install a new coalition government.
The right-wing, anti-immigration Progress Party, the tiny Communist Party or the pro-whaling Coastal Party may prove to hold disproportionate influence in these complex negotiations. The Progress Party, which backed the outgoing coalition but was denied cabinet posts, has demanded a change of prime minister as the price of its support for any new administration.
The Coastal Party wants to raise Norway's whale hunting quota. Its only MP was elected in 2001 after grilling whale-burgers for voters on the campaign trail.
After casting his vote in Oslo yesterday, the opposition leader Jens Stoltenberg, said: "The last opinion polls show that we are in the lead, but in the end it is the voters who will speak with their votes." Mr Stoltenberg, a 46-year-old economist who was prime minister from 2000-01, heads a three-party "red-green" alliance which wants to spend more oil cash on jobs, care for the elderly and education. He argues that the tax cuts introduced by Mr Bondevik have served only to help the rich.
By contrast the Prime Minister believes that he could combine further reductions in taxation with improvements in health care and education.
The Labour Party dominated Norwegian politics for nearly four decades after the Second World War, but no single party has commanded a majority since the early 1990s. The current centre-right government has presided over four years of unprecedented prosperity in the country of 4.6 million, and unemployment in August was just 3.7 per cent, which compares favourably with 5.8 per cent in Denmark and 5.5 per cent in Sweden. Luxembourg is the only European country that can claim to be richer per head than Norway. And, as the biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the nation's wealth has been boosted by a windfall from record high energy prices. But that has only served to sharpen debate over how to use the oil income.
Norway's indigenous Sami people were also voting yesterday in elections for their own parliament, the Sametinget, a political contest given added significance by laws passed earlier this year extending the assembly's powers over the Arctic lands.
With the result expected to be the closest for years, opinion polls in the final two days before the election produced conflicting forecasts. A TNS Gallup survey suggested the government would win 88 of the 169 parliamentary seats, while an Opinion survey showed the Labour-led opposition winning 85 seats.
By Stephen Castle, Europe Correspondent
Published: 13 September 2005
Voters in oil-rich Norway, one of Europe's wealthiest countries, went to the polls to decide whether to plough more government cash into their generous welfare state or to cut taxes.
Even before the latest surge in oil prices, Norway was ranked for five consecutive years by the United Nations as the best place to live in the world.
Yet its low unemployment and a much-envied social security system has not stopped the issue of how much the government spends from dominating debate in the world's third largest oil exporter.
The centre-right governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, a 58-year-old Lutheran clergyman, has fought on a platform of lowering taxes. By contrast Norway's s left-of-centre Labour opposition argued that more could be done to eliminate the country's remaining social problems.
Opinion polls suggested a close result with the possibility that the country's fringe parties could end up holding the balance of power. That is likely to make today a decisive day in Norwegian politics as the political leaders try to broker a deal to install a new coalition government.
The right-wing, anti-immigration Progress Party, the tiny Communist Party or the pro-whaling Coastal Party may prove to hold disproportionate influence in these complex negotiations. The Progress Party, which backed the outgoing coalition but was denied cabinet posts, has demanded a change of prime minister as the price of its support for any new administration.
The Coastal Party wants to raise Norway's whale hunting quota. Its only MP was elected in 2001 after grilling whale-burgers for voters on the campaign trail.
After casting his vote in Oslo yesterday, the opposition leader Jens Stoltenberg, said: "The last opinion polls show that we are in the lead, but in the end it is the voters who will speak with their votes." Mr Stoltenberg, a 46-year-old economist who was prime minister from 2000-01, heads a three-party "red-green" alliance which wants to spend more oil cash on jobs, care for the elderly and education. He argues that the tax cuts introduced by Mr Bondevik have served only to help the rich.
By contrast the Prime Minister believes that he could combine further reductions in taxation with improvements in health care and education.
The Labour Party dominated Norwegian politics for nearly four decades after the Second World War, but no single party has commanded a majority since the early 1990s. The current centre-right government has presided over four years of unprecedented prosperity in the country of 4.6 million, and unemployment in August was just 3.7 per cent, which compares favourably with 5.8 per cent in Denmark and 5.5 per cent in Sweden. Luxembourg is the only European country that can claim to be richer per head than Norway. And, as the biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the nation's wealth has been boosted by a windfall from record high energy prices. But that has only served to sharpen debate over how to use the oil income.
Norway's indigenous Sami people were also voting yesterday in elections for their own parliament, the Sametinget, a political contest given added significance by laws passed earlier this year extending the assembly's powers over the Arctic lands.
With the result expected to be the closest for years, opinion polls in the final two days before the election produced conflicting forecasts. A TNS Gallup survey suggested the government would win 88 of the 169 parliamentary seats, while an Opinion survey showed the Labour-led opposition winning 85 seats.
Voters in oil-rich Norway, one of Europe's wealthiest countries, went to the polls to decide whether to plough more government cash into their generous welfare state or to cut taxes.
Even before the latest surge in oil prices, Norway was ranked for five consecutive years by the United Nations as the best place to live in the world.
Yet its low unemployment and a much-envied social security system has not stopped the issue of how much the government spends from dominating debate in the world's third largest oil exporter.
The centre-right governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, a 58-year-old Lutheran clergyman, has fought on a platform of lowering taxes. By contrast Norway's s left-of-centre Labour opposition argued that more could be done to eliminate the country's remaining social problems.
Opinion polls suggested a close result with the possibility that the country's fringe parties could end up holding the balance of power. That is likely to make today a decisive day in Norwegian politics as the political leaders try to broker a deal to install a new coalition government.
The right-wing, anti-immigration Progress Party, the tiny Communist Party or the pro-whaling Coastal Party may prove to hold disproportionate influence in these complex negotiations. The Progress Party, which backed the outgoing coalition but was denied cabinet posts, has demanded a change of prime minister as the price of its support for any new administration.
The Coastal Party wants to raise Norway's whale hunting quota. Its only MP was elected in 2001 after grilling whale-burgers for voters on the campaign trail.
After casting his vote in Oslo yesterday, the opposition leader Jens Stoltenberg, said: "The last opinion polls show that we are in the lead, but in the end it is the voters who will speak with their votes." Mr Stoltenberg, a 46-year-old economist who was prime minister from 2000-01, heads a three-party "red-green" alliance which wants to spend more oil cash on jobs, care for the elderly and education. He argues that the tax cuts introduced by Mr Bondevik have served only to help the rich.
By contrast the Prime Minister believes that he could combine further reductions in taxation with improvements in health care and education.
The Labour Party dominated Norwegian politics for nearly four decades after the Second World War, but no single party has commanded a majority since the early 1990s. The current centre-right government has presided over four years of unprecedented prosperity in the country of 4.6 million, and unemployment in August was just 3.7 per cent, which compares favourably with 5.8 per cent in Denmark and 5.5 per cent in Sweden. Luxembourg is the only European country that can claim to be richer per head than Norway. And, as the biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, the nation's wealth has been boosted by a windfall from record high energy prices. But that has only served to sharpen debate over how to use the oil income.
Norway's indigenous Sami people were also voting yesterday in elections for their own parliament, the Sametinget, a political contest given added significance by laws passed earlier this year extending the assembly's powers over the Arctic lands.
With the result expected to be the closest for years, opinion polls in the final two days before the election produced conflicting forecasts. A TNS Gallup survey suggested the government would win 88 of the 169 parliamentary seats, while an Opinion survey showed the Labour-led opposition winning 85 seats.
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