03/09/2025
On Sep 2, Johannes Bergh, Research Director at the Institute of Social Reesearch, was kind to share some of the things that characterise the parliamentary election in Norway on September 8. "A year ago most thought that the centre-conservative parties would win the election. The rise in the support for the Labour Party is unlike almost anything we have seen in Norwegian politics, he said. Three of the reasons : Jens Stoltenberg joined the government, the Centre part left the government and Donald Trump came to power again in the USA.
The second FPA guest FPAthat day was Rasmus Hansson, the first member of the Green Party ever to be elected to parliament in 2013: “Climate is increasingly ignored in Norwegian politics,” he said, lamenting a lack of focus on the environment.
He accused the ruling Labour and opposition Conservative Parties of arguing that Europe needed Norway’s oil and gas exports after cuts in imports from Russia because of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Hansson said that the Ukraine war was a figleaf covering up the fact that the two parties’ pro-oil and gas policies had not changed for years despite the worsening environmental crisis. “It’s the same policy in a new wrapping,” he said.
“We are really profiting from f**king up the climate,” he said.
He said the Greens hoped to win enough seats in parliament to ensure a victory of the Labour-led centre-left. That meant the Party could have sway to discourage Labour’s plans for continued exploration for oil and gas.
