With a projection based on a preliminary count of nearly 93 per cent of the votes, the Labor Party and its two allies — the Socialist Left and the euroskeptic Center Party — would hold 100 seats in the 169-seat Stortinget assembly while the current government would get 68. One seat was still unsure.

As Norway’s largest party, Labor will try to form a coalition government and its chief, 61-year-old Jonas Gahr Stoere, is poised to become Norway’s next leader. The Scandinavian country is not a member of the European Union.

We will now give Norway a new government and a new course, Gahr Stoere said on a election night before cheering party members who chanted “Stoere” and clapped. He added that he will in the coming days invite the parties that want a new change for talks.



Norway Does Not Want Fossil Fuels To Be Its Future

Along with the pandemic response another issue was crucial in the campaign: the future of the oil and gas industry in the heart and soul of the country's economy.

The country’s biggest industry is responsible for over 40 per cent of energy exports and directly employs more than 5 per cent of the workforce.

Labor has promised an industrial policy that will funnel support to new green industries, like wind power, “blue hydrogen” that uses natural gas to produce an alternative fuel, and carbon capture and storage, which seeks to bury carbon dioxide under the ocean.

In the 2013 election, Labor was ousted from power, enabling the Conservatives’ Ms. Erna Solberg to become prime minister and Norway’s longest- serving leader. Mr. Gahr Stoere said Monday that he also wanted to thank Ms. Solberg for having been “a good prime minister.”

We knew we needed a miracle —-the Conservatives’ work session is over,” said Ms. Solberg.  I congratulate Jonas Gahr Stoere with what looks like a clear majority, she stated.

Her Conservatives suffered a setback, losing 4.7 percentage points which was dubbed by Norwegian broadcaster NRK as “the election’s biggest loser.” Its former coalition partner, the Progress Party lost 3.4 percentage points, according to a preliminary counting of more than 93% of the votes by Norway’s election commission.



Conservative PM's The Biggest Mistake?

Ms. Solberg was hoping to become the first prime minister to win a third consecutive four-year term. During her eight-year tenure, she has expanded oil exploration, cut taxes and sought to make public administration more efficient. But critics stated the expanded exploration might have been her biggest mistake in the country which years for more investment of the Green Industry.

The 60-year-old Ms. Solberg has been ahead of a minority government since 2020 — before then it was coalitions with, among others, the populist Progress Party. Due to her long tenure, as well as her commitment to economic liberalism, she became known at home as “Iron Erna” — inspired by the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who was nicknamed “The Iron Lady” for her firm style.

Ms. Solberg was hoping to become the first prime minister to win a third consecutive four-year term. During her eight-year tenure, she has expanded oil exploration, cut taxes and sought to make public administration more efficient.



The Left Promises Shift To Renewable Energy

Any post-election horse trading is likely to be fraught for the Labor Party and Gahr Stoere. The Socialist Left won’t offer its support lightly and the Center Party is also demanding a more aggressive approach toward shifting to renewable energy.

The Center Party made the largest gains in the election by grabbing nearly 14 per cent of the votes — a 3.6 percentage point hike — with its leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, a farmer-turned-politician, noting with a large smile that it had become the third largest group in Stortinget after Labor and the Conservatives.

The campaign focused on the North Sea oil and gas that has helped make Norway one of the world’s wealthiest countries.