Tuesday 13 September 2005

Pic of the day: "I hate the way I get frustrated when I can't make decisions!" Typical voter in a multi-party election. (OK, actually it is a screenshot from the anime Damekko Doubutsu.)

General election

Yesterday the Norwegian people voted for a new Storting (parliament). The outcome was as most had expected, a narrow victory for the "red-green" coalition of Labor, Socialist Left and the Center Party.

It is a strange alliance: Labor is the classic Social Democrats, a party that has ruled alone for more than half of the time since the second world war. They are used to responsibility and pragmatism. The Socialist Left, on the other hand, has never been in government; and in opposition they have been dreamers with wild ideas. They are strongly anti-capitalist and anti-American and want Norway out of NATO. They are the classic "eat the rich" party with politics that simply don't work in the real world, because cutting down the trees don't let you harvest them again next year. On the other side, you have the Center Party, which is agrarian in origin, now a general rural / provincial party. Their politics are perfectly feasible but somewhat expensive and none too popular in the urban population. They are excellent traders though and will pick their fights where they have a chance to win.

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The disturbing part is the Socialist Left. These are not quite communists, more like hippies, with a deep conviction that any large nation is a threat to the world, and the USA worst of all. Even when America is not actively invading other countries, as they sometimes do, they are still killing off the planet's ecosystem. Left alone, the evil capitalists will make of the world a hell forever, a stinking desert devoid of beauty and life (except perhaps roaches and such).

The rest of the populace reasonably thought these people were spoiled kids who had never left campus long enough to realize that in the real world you actually need money. Very few people except themselves took them seriously. And then came G.W. Bush and proved them right. OK, that may be a bit harsh, but it has certainly become a lot easier to be anti-American with the current leadership over there.

Despite the Socialists' popularity in the opinion polls, however, on election day many people hesitated to actually vote for them. The party did a much poorer election than expected. Sadly for the country, those votes largely went to Labor instead, so they still got a small majority of representatives (although the opposing conservative block got a narrow majority of the actual votes. Yeah, our election system is also messed up, but at least we have a multi-party system and a constitutional monarchy, so we don't give almost unlimited power to one man by mistake. That's a comfort.)

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For Norwegians, the change means higher taxes and more public spending. We can live with that. It is not ideal for economic growth, but we're already filthy rich and proud of it. Normally a great economy and a high standard of living will benefit the sitting government, but in this case we have come to take it for granted. And it probably is, unless some enormous catastrophe occurs. (Like, say, a largish rock falling from the sky or some such. Divine intervention level.)

For the world, Norway doesn't mean a whole lot one way or the other. We will continue our hectic peace missions to the third world, bringing buckets of cash as usual. We will continue to make excellent weapon and military equipment and sell to our less scrupulous allies who will then distribute the weapons to the same warring parts that we try to negotiate peace deals between. And we'll stay in NATO. But the upcoming Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, has already informed President Bush that Norway's symbolic military presence in Iraq will end within 100 days. Bush was not happy about that. But seeing Bush unhappy is considered a good sign for something like 5 billion humans these days, so I doubt Mr Stoltenberg will lose much sleep over that.

I maintain that Jens Stoltenberg is a dangerous man, though. He is way too smart for a politician. Expect him to sacrifice his current allies when necessary to forge an alliance with the Conservatives, in order to get Norway into EU. 5 million people are not nearly enough for a man of his genius to rule over. 300 million is more like it. Wait and see.