Posted on 09/10/2001 11:50:01 AM PDT by veronica
Norway vote seen dealing blow to ruling socialists
OSLO, Sept 10 (AFP) -
Norwegians angry at high taxes and deteriorating public services voted on Monday in a general election expected to deal an historic rebuke to the ruling socialists despite unprecedented prosperity from oil exports.
In gusty winds and chilly drizzle, voters throughout the small Nordic country trooped to polling stations where some 3.3 million voters were asked to elect representatives to the 165-seat parliament, the Storting.
Opinion polls said the governing socialist Labour Party, that dominated Norwegian politics for most of the 20th century, was only expected to win about 24 percent support, a low not seen since the 1920s.
Support for the opposition Conservative Party was at nearly the same level, with a handful of other centrist and right-wing parties also showing solid backing, according to the surveys. Experts foresaw a muddled election result with the only clear outcome being a significant slide in the fortunes of the Labour Party, even if it would not force the government of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg to quit immediately.
"Norway is heading into a bewildering election night with no party holding a majority and no coalitions ready to form," the respected independent daily Aftenposten said on its web site as voting was in progress. Stoltenberg, casting his vote at an Oslo school, admitted he was anxious about the outcome of the vote but expressed satisfaction that the Labour Party had put its best foot forward. "There is a 50-percent chance that I will be back as prime minister," Bondevik said as he voted in the west coast town of Molde. Voting ends at 9 pm (1900 GMT) when the first exit polls were expected to be announced. More precise results were due by midnight.
Election officials could offer no data on election turnout, which they said was not monitored in Norway. Vote counting however was under way in parts of the country hours before the polls closed and NTB news agency said around one fourth of Norway's counties had reported the results of postal voting in which more than 500,000 people cast their ballot.
The election turned on the twin issues of spending on public services and taxes, with parties and voters divided on whether and how to bring the country's spectacular oil wealth to bear.
Conservatives have found favour among voters with an broad argument that government must improve public education and health care while simultaneously cutting Norway's famously high taxes and topping up state coffers instead with revenue from crude oil exports.
Norway is the world's second largest oil exporter but the bulk of its oil profits are husbanded away in accounts popularly known as the "fund for future generations", valued in June at 523 kroner (64 billion dollars, 70 billion euros). "Labour and the Conservatives are in perfect agreement about how to use the oil money," Aarebrot said. "But is is the parties at the left and right extremes needed for alliances that have the most divergent views about the oil money."
If you have a serious, life threatening disease....for health services, you're better off going to Germany
If you have a serious, life threatening disease....for health services, you're better off going to Germany
The Europeans will have to reach into their pocketbooks to bankroll their new military, to shoulder their own common defense. It is much too expensive for American to continue to bankroll support of an European Union which drags us into the World Court for Trade issues, badmouths our president and envy's our wealth.
The European system is imploding between a drop in worker's production when compared to America's workers productivity gains... and their health care/social system which requires an increase in the VAT Taxes every couple years.
The Europeans will have to reach into their pocketbooks to bankroll their new military, to shoulder their own common defense. It is much too expensive for American to continue to bankroll support of an European Union which drags us into the World Court for Trade issues, badmouths our president and envy's our wealth.
The European system is imploding between a drop in worker's production when compared to America's workers productivity gains... and their health care/social system which requires an increase in the VAT Taxes every couple years.
The Europeans will have to reach into their pocketbooks to bankroll their new military, to shoulder their own common defense. It is much too expensive for American to continue to bankroll support of an European Union which drags us into the World Court for Trade issues, badmouths our president and envy's our wealth.
The European system is imploding between a drop in worker's production when compared to America's workers productivity gains... and their health care/social system which requires an increase in the VAT Taxes every couple years.
The Europeans will have to reach into their pocketbooks to bankroll their new military, to shoulder their own common defense. It is much too expensive for American to continue to bankroll support of an European Union which drags us into the World Court for Trade issues, badmouths our president and envy's our wealth.
The European system is imploding between a drop in worker's production when compared to America's workers productivity gains... and their health care/social system which requires an increase in the VAT Taxes every couple years.
The Europeans will have to reach into their pocketbooks to bankroll their new military, to shoulder their own common defense. It is much too expensive for American to continue to bankroll support of an European Union which drags us into the World Court for Trade issues, badmouths our president and envy's our wealth.
The European system is imploding between a drop in worker's production when compared to America's workers productivity gains... and their health care/social system which requires an increase in the VAT Taxes every couple years.
Norwegians are much too sensible to allow themselves to be impoverished by questionable social programs. Like every other country in the world, Norway is faced with high levels of immigration. However, they regulate it strictly! Deport people who violate their regulations, and make sure that immigrants are all up and running within a few years as productive members of society. Education, jobs, etc. They're not about to allow their very fine standard of living and way of life to get bowled over by invading hoards.
But I do wonder about all that oil money. They're saving it for WHOSE future, exactly?
When I visited Norway, my hostess wondered how in the world the USA could handle such a polyglot culture.
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