There are two ways that the parties on the center-left stage can respond to the ascent of FrP. For one, they can try to capture voters by launching policies that resemble the most popular policies on the right. Alternatively, they can further emphasize their left-of-center position, and try to educate the public of the follies of many of FrP's suggestions.Although e.g. the leader of SV (the Socialist Left Party), Kristin Halvorsen, has stuck her head far down in the ground and claims the opposite, it seems that the population is drifting right in their support for political parties. The opinion polls show this trend quite clearly.
If the growth of the parties on the right could pull the other parties slightly towards the right, that could in my mind be a positive thing. For example, if it could soften up the stiff resistance to anything that smacks of privatization, I would welcome that very much. That would not be the case if it happens in the more populistic areas, like immigration or spending of the oil fund money. And that is precisely my fear, and something we might have seen signs of recently with Ap toughening up it's stance on immigration.
Even though we need to shoulder our responsibility when it comes to accepting refugees from conflict-ridden areas, there also needs to be limits to immigration. We cannot simply open our borders up and accept anyone and everyone. A small society like Norway simply does not have the capacity to deal with too many immigrants and refugees. The last couple of years, Norway have received from 5.000 to 6.500 asylum seekers annually. Recent research suggests that asylum seekers, especially young ones, are being very well integrated and that they are not any unreasonable burden on the Norwegian society (i.e. welfare state). This confirms that Norway is perfectly capable of absorbing this number of refugees.
Our Prime Minister's tightening up of immigration rules was based on estimates that we could be faced with a more than doubling of the number of asylum seekers next year. It could be debated whether we would be able to responsibly absorb that many. But if this is a trend towards a more populistic line from Ap, that would be very, very sad. To abandon responsible policies is not good at all, and if Ap and the other serious political parties start doing so, that is not good for anyone. It should be left alone to FrP to try to score cheap political points by suggesting irresponsible and/or reckless policies.
4 comments:
The problem of whether Norway's politics is drifting "right" and or staying "left" is interesting. It's interesting because you also raised the question of how to stop such a change. I live in the northwest of the U.S. I think we're pretty far to the right in most of the country, the national policy is right, and the local policies are barely center. The question of how to drag the country back toward the left is never, or very seldom raised here.
The issue would be clarified if you talked a bit about the policies that makes one right or left.
For example, "privatization." You said that you would applaud some privatization in the Norwegian economy in order to try to satisfy the right's thirst. I am not sure what parts of the economy are "nationalized" that you would want to sell off.
Here, most everything has been sold off that they can get away with. The privatization here is so extreme, I believe, that not only do the corporations own most things, but the regulation of their businesses is left up to them. This has been shown to be a disaster as the home ownership economy has been corrupted and now threatens the credit industry.
The U.S. thinks almost anything should be privatized. They recommended to Bolivia, I believe, that their city water supplies should be sold off and water sold to their citizens by the gallon...The country rebelled, rightly so, at that.
I am not sure that evrything needs to be run by governments. I think certain essential aspects of life should not be a matter of profit. So, there's room for debate what all that includes.
Hence, I'm curious what Norway says on these issues.
Thank you for your comments and your interest in this and other subjects on my blog, Steven.
It is of course right, as you point out that Norway is quite leftist compared to countries like the US in a great many aspects.
When it comes to the issue of privatization, what I was referring to was mainly what I see as a somewhat one-dimensional over-reliance on schools, hospitals, etc. run by the state. I need to point out that I by no means would want to welcome the unravelling of the very good welfare system that we have. But I do think that privately run schools and hospitals could be a very good supplement and addition, and would give people options to choose from.
I did not really mean that I would welcome this only as a way to "satisfy the right's thirst" for privatization, although of course the right side of the political spectrum is a great deal more sympathetic to this than the left. But I think it would be for the better if the left would soften up a bit on this.
As you points out, privatization for privatizations sake could lead to catastrophic results, and if the "thirst for privatization" is to strong, it might lead astray.
Greetings!
I just got back to the U.S. from Norway. I think Norway is such a beautiful place. Everything is taken care so nice. I stayed on a farm in outside of Drammen. It was so quiet there, all I could hear was a fly buzzing around once and awhile at night when I was laying in bed.
I was there to work with http://www.visjonnorge.com the Christian Satellite television station over Europe. The are headquartered in Drammen. They are launching Vision Heaven satellite television in U.S. I am heading up it for them. Discover more at http://www.visionheaven.com
The Norwegian people were very nice and friendly and I enjoyed myself very much.
I pray the Lord bless Norway!
Linda Cross
I am happy you enjoyed your stay in Norway, Linda. I wish you good luck with your work in the U.S. :)
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