Bondevik bows out
Aftenposten Norway
September 12, 2005
It's official: Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said he'd turn in his resignation to King Harald on Tuesday and leave behind a lifetime in politics. Results of Monday's election left him and the Conservatives with a major defeat, and Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party will take over as premier in mid-October.
It wouldn't be quite right, however, to say that Norwegian voters took a sharp left turn at the polls on Monday. Labour's government partner, the Socialist Left (SV), took a pounding and lost a third of its seats in Parliament, while Norway's most right-leaning party, the Progress Party, scored its biggest election victory ever.
Carl I Hagen's Progress Party
(Fremskrittspartiet) ended up with 22.1 percent of the vote and 37 seats in Parliament, up 11 from the last election. It will now have at least one representative from every county in the country, and clearly ranks as the largest non-socialist party in Norway.
Norway's smallest non-socialist party, the Liberals
(Venstre), also won their most votes ever, ending with 6 percent of the vote and quadrupling their number of seats in Parliament. They were the only government party to do well, and perhaps not coincidentally were also the only one to indicate that they could cooperate with the Progress Party.
The Conservatives
(Høyre), meanwhile, suffered their worst election ever, ending with just 14 percent of the vote and a loss of 15 seats in Parliament. Bondevik's Christian Democrats
(Kristelig Folkepartiet) were all but humiliated, ending with just 6.8 percent of the vote.
Many political analysts said voters were tired of Bondevik and his Christian Democrats, and punished the Conservatives for continuing to support them instead of cooperating with the Progress Party. The Christian Democrats, meanwhile, continued to blame Hagen and his Progress Party for splitting the non-socialist side.
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