← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Kevin_O'Keeffe
Thread ID: 20199 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-09-14
2005-09-14 00:31 | User Profile
[url=http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=6104]National Vanguard link[/url]
Norwegian Patriots Demolish Sell-outs: Progress Party now largest non-leftist party in Parliament
The Norwegian patriots of the Progress Party managed to take enough votes from the ruling center-right coalition to become the leading opposition force in the nation's Storting (Parliament). Their results also led to a humiliating beating for the coalition, whose leader, now-former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, has conceded defeat to a Red-Green alliance which will form the next government.
The coalition of Christian Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals depended on Progress to keep power in their coalition, but their harsh attacks on the anti-immigration populists alienated ordinary Norwegians and cost the sell-outs power. Bondevik's own Christian Democrats took an especially serious nationalist hammering as their traditional middle class voters switched to Progress, resulting in the Christian Democrats seeing their parliamentary seats halved to 11. The result for Progress of an astounding 37 seats, is second only to the leftist Labor Party, which is expected to lead the new government. The populists' gain is up 11 seats, the exact number the Christian Democrats lost.
Progress Party leader Carl Hagen sees the defeat of the center-right government as justice. "The Progress Party will be the...leading non-socialist party, which will sweep the leftist coalition out in four years, if they hang on that long," he stated. He pointed out the shaky nature of the new left-wing governing coalition of Labor, the Socialist Left Party and the Center Party. While Labor is modelled on Tony Blair's New Labor and is pro-US and European Union, the SLP are hard leftists likely to oppose many Labor policies and could bring down the government.
The loss of faith in the center-right coalition reflects their refusal to address the immigration crisis, which only the populists were willing to do. The message is now clear to Norwegian politicians that race must be on the national agenda.
The Progress Party is part of a new wave of racial-populist parties sweeping Europe.
2005-09-14 00:42 | User Profile
Anyone see the same things I do from this - sounds like the Republican/Democrat circus we have here
While Labor is modelled on Tony Blair's New Labor and is pro-US and European Union, the SLP are hard leftists likely to oppose many Labor policies and could bring down the government.
And this is encouraging, maybe this trend will show up here as well.
The loss of faith in the center-right coalition reflects their refusal to address the immigration crisis, which only the populists were willing to do. The message is now clear to Norwegian politicians that race must be on the national agenda.
The Progress Party is part of a new wave of racial-populist parties sweeping Europe.
2005-09-14 01:21 | User Profile
[url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EBB74B36-8862-464C-8AF4-143271AA8AE2.htm]Al-Jazeera link[/url]
I've been looking for an article that says what percentage of the vote the Progress Party won in Norway; this Al-Jazeera article seems to be the closest there is. Apparently, Progress got more than 20% of the popular vote, but I still don't know how much more than 20 percent....sigh.
Norway's far-right surprises in polls
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
The anti-immigration party won more than a fifth of the votes: An anti-immigration party has won more than a fifth of the votes in Norway's election to become the second biggest party in parliament.
Overall, the Norwegian electorate in Monday's elections swung to the left, with a "Red-Green" alliance set to oust the ruling centre right Christian Democrats and their main Conservative allies.
But the far-right Progress Party was set to become the biggest party on the right with 37 of 169 seats in parliament, an advance of 11 since 1991.
The anti-immigration party has been compared by rivals to France's National Front and Austria's Freedom Party.
While voters deserted Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's Christian Democrats and their main Conservative allies in droves, the Progress Party succeeded with a campaign that mixed blaming immigrants for rising crime with calls for tax cuts on alcohol and Mediterranean retirement homes for Norway's elderly.
Supporters cheered and shouted as party leader Carl Hagen, a dapper, silver-haired 61-year-old, thanked voters "for making this dream come true".
"We will be the real alternative to the government," he said.
"I wasn't prepared for this," Progress supporter Irene Berg Godinez said as the results came in. "I didn't dare believe the result would be this good."
Xenophobia
"Dangerous Africans walk the streets," read one campaign slogan on the party's website, while a poster showed a masked man aiming a shotgun at the reader. "This man is of foreign origin," the caption said.
Hagen has always rejected comparisons to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the former National Front leader in France, and once refused to shake his hand, but rival politicians have said his attitude to immigrants places him on the far right of European politics.
Immigrants make up less than 6% of Norway's population of 4.5 million, which is low by European standards.
Competition for jobs is not fierce, with unemployment at under 4%, and Norway's oil revenues bankroll generous welfare benefits.
"I voted for Progress because although I think it's okay to take in immigrants, I think we have enough now," said Camila, an Oslo voter aged 23 heading to a bar to discuss the elections.
But her friend Elisabeth disagreed.
"It's bad Progress have done so well," she said. "We should be taking in more immigrants and helping them."
Best country
Norway has been ranked the best country in the world to live in by the United Nations for five years in a row.
But Hagen says ordinary Norwegians should get a bigger share of oil savings now worth $190 billion, through tax cuts and handouts.
In nearby Denmark, the anti-immigrant People's Party, an ally of the centre-right government, has pushed through laws making it harder to bring in foreign spouses or qualify for asylum.