Anti-immigration Conservative Erna Solberg Triumphs in Norway Election

Norwegian centre-right leader Erna Solberg is set to form a new government after Labour Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg admitted election defeat.

BBC News
September 10, 2013

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Ms Solberg described her win as “a historic election victory for the right-wing parties”.

Her Conservative Party is widely expected to form a government with the anti-immigration Progress Party.

It is oil-rich Norway’s first general election since attacks by a far-right extremist left 77 people dead in 2011.

With three-quarters of the votes counted, the bloc of four right-wing parties had won 96 of 169 seats in parliament.

Ms Solberg, 52, will become Norway’s second female prime minister after Gro Harlem Brundtland, and its first Conservative prime minister since 1990.

She is nicknamed “Iron Erna” for her robust views when she served in the cabinet between 2001 and 2005.

Much attention is now focused on the Progress Party, poised to enter government for the first time.

Ms Solberg also needs a third coalition partner to ensure a majority – but it is not yet clear whether the smaller Christian Democrats or Liberals are prepared to work with the Progress Party. They may instead opt to stay out, but give parliamentary support to a minority government comprising the Conservatives and Progress.

Correspondents say the Progress Party has toned down its anti-immigration rhetoric since Anders Behring Breivik’s atrocity in 2011.

The vote was Norway’s first general election since the far-right extremist killed 77 people in an Oslo bombing and a gun attack at a Labour Party youth camp. Breivik had previously been a member of the Progress Party.

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