Tight vote in Norway to decide whether to stick with Labour or turn right

The Norwegians go to the polls on Sunday and Monday in a narrow race to decide whether they will continue with a government led by workers or resorting to the center right right.

There are only four million voters in this founding member in NATO, who shares technical limits with Russia and is part of the European United European Union market but not a member state.

Despite its small population, Norway has long surpassed its weight on the international stage, and wars in Gaza and Ukraine – as well as the American commercial tariffs – played an important role in the election campaign.

However, in the final extension of the race, the focus has turned into an increase in the cost of living and inequality.

Andreas, the father of a young child, says about what he considers the main issues: “General spending, infrastructure, railway infrastructure and road building, these types of things.”

This local focus became clear during the Norway Summer Festival in the small town of Arndal, last month.

Every year, the Norwegian political class joins the heads of companies, unions and the public on the southeastern coast to obtain a set of talks and meetings. This time, it was opened with a televised electoral debate at the national level in which all the main political leaders participated.

Among them was the Prime Minister of the Labor Party, Jonas Jahr Store, 65, who aims for a second term in his post after eight years of conservative rule in 2021.

He is fighting a challenge from a bloc consisting of two conservative parties: the right -wing popular progress party during the Selfie Leso era, 47 years old, who rose in popularity, and the Hurrir Party of the former Minister of Camel Erna Solberg, who is looking to return to power.

One of the campaign’s hot campaign issues was the future of wealth tax by 1 %, which Norwegians pay if their assets added more than 1.76 million Norwegian kronor (130,000 pounds; $ 175,000), although there are discounts covering three quarters of your main home value.

Hundreds of wealthy Norwegians have already left the country to Switzerland in recent years, due to their country’s high original taxes.

Can this exit be reversed?

Sylvi Listhaug called for the cancellation of wealth tax and the reduction of other taxes as well, while Solberg Governor wants to remove the wealth tax on what they call “working capital”, such as stocks.

The Labor Party refuses to go to this extent, but he promised a widespread tax review. She has former NATO leader Jeans Stoltenberg, who is responsible for financing and warns against establishing a tax system that means that the richest in Norway is ultimately paying a small or non -existent tax.

Opinion polls were put before the voting party in the foreground, before the Progress Party in Leshaf and the Conservatives, and partially raised by the “Stoltenberg effect”.

But if the integrated forces in the center win properly, one of the big questions in these elections is any party leaders who will be prime minister.

Solburg, 67, who has been prime minister for eight years, has so far refused to accept the idea that her popular rival can take office in front of her, indicating that voters see her a great political attraction.

Foreign policy was rarely far from the election campaign, and recent weeks were dominated by a step through the sovereign wealth fund in Norway – the largest in the world – to cancel investments in nearly half of the Israeli companies that they held due to the violations of the alleged rights.

The Central Bank runs that the $ 1.9 million fund (1.4 Triple pounds), which was built over decades of huge oil and gas resources in Norway, is managed by the central bank, but it must follow moral guidelines.

Nikolai Tangin, CEO of the Fund, which was carried out by the political opposite winds surrounding the Gaza war, described its recent decisions as “my worst crisis.”

Although Norway is part of NATO, it was not part of the European Union.

It has the ability to access the unified European Union market through its membership in the European Economic Zone, so it must respect its bases. It is part of the Schengen border area of ​​the European Union.

Perhaps the war of Russia in Ukraine has approached its European neighbors on a set of levels, but the issue of joining the European Union was hardly addressed during the election campaign because the parties are cautious against the loss of voters in such a polarizing issue.

“There is still a huge” vote “in Norway. Thus, the voters are not there,” said journalist Friedrich Solfang, who was one of the TV debate supervisors in Arndal.

For Solberg Governors, working actively on European Union membership is an essential policy, but it must be based on a referendum.

“Therefore, it is not about this election campaign,” she told the BBC. “Of course, as long as we do not see a clearer move towards the majority of the European Union membership, none of us will start in a new discussion about the referendum.”

“The Labor Party has always been a supporter of the European Union, but it is not subject to the agenda today,” said Foreign Minister Espin Barth Eddie.

“I am not prevented from happening in the future if the main things happen, but at the present time, my state as a foreign minister is trying to keep the best we can have the relationship.”

Part of the television discussion appeared in Arendal, a duel between party leaders from the same side in politics.

When two parties were presented to the center of the center – liberals who want to join the European Union and Christian Democrats who did not – offered a choice between the flags of the European Union or Pride in schools, they preferred to discuss flags.

“I think with the geopolitical situation, it is an uncertain future and I think we may have to take the discussion seriously,” said Ever Hin, a nurse.

Cristina Stoyk, who has Norwegian and Spanish nationality.

“I think the Norwegian policy is a kind of action as if it was on a separate island for the rest of the world and is not affected, but it is clear that it is.”

Norway has a political system that includes 19 electoral departments based on proportional representation and no party can rule on its own.

To form a majority in Storting 169 seats, the coalition needs 85 seats, and minority governments have long been common in Norway.

The STUTER’s Labor was a minority government with the center party after the recent elections, but the two -party coalition collapsed in January in a row due to energy policies in the European Union.

The right block in the center contains its own disputes, so these elections may end with a clear majority when the votes are calculated on Monday evening.