The next day

The red finally beat the blue, the score ending 88-81. The red left side in Norwegian politics will have 7 more representatives in the parliment the next four years than the blue right side.

We'll have a new prime minister before long, three red parties are joining up to form the new government and we'll just see where it takes us. Things have been changing all the time the past few elections. A few years ago, the party now 'in charge' decided kids in high school shouldn't have to buy all their books, and they gave high schools money to buy some of the books and let students borrow them, providing they pay a small deposit.

That only lasted a year, when the Christian party came into the government they stopped that and, for reasons I have yet to understand, the high schools didn't let the students borrow the books any longer, they sold them to them. I understand the money for books from the state was stopped but they could still let people borrow those they had already bought. Right? Or maybe they weren't allowed to do that.

The news reporters said what we were seeing last night was a typical Norwegian thing. Every election the opposition wins and things change. I assume we'll be unhappy in a couple years and start complaining again.

The Norway Post has just a few little numbers.


Anyway, the priest's out of the house. Focus now will be on, among other things, schools, human rights, helping others, helping our own who need it and the environment. As one of the three forming government said; Focus will on the social aspects, not on cutting taxes. The "rich people's party" Right went down all over, even in the cities where they're usually big. They still hold 20% of the votes in Oslo but they're down almost 8%. The small party Left, focusing more on farmers and the districs went up and are secured a few representatives.

The Progress party got more votes than anyone expected. I'm not quite sure what to say about them... As a guy I went to high school with said "Karl I. Hagen is our best politician. If only we could change most of his opinions, that would be great!" This is a party that wants to close the doors, so to speak, keeping everyone who's not Norwegian out. "Norway for Norwegians" is the unspoken chorus. This is a party whose voters buy houses in Spain and when reporters come to talk to them, they say it's horrible how so many non-Norwegian come to Norway and take our jobs. These are people who have moved to Spain, who see nothing wrong with themselves invading another country (and it does count as invading when they have whole towns speaking Scandinavian), but could not for the life of them allow foreigners to live in Norway.

Of course not all Progress voters live in Spain, and not all Norwegians living in Spain vote for the Progress party, but the fact that it's even possible to think that way strikes me as.. silly. The way we first heard about it was when Karl I. Hagen, Progress party leader, went to Spain to meet the Norwegians living there. This is a guy who wants nothing more than to kick all foreigners out, yet sees no problem with having thousands of Norwegians buying houses on the Spanish Costa del Sol. Because they're old. And they like the sun. Spain is Norway's Florida, and that's fine by him. But God forbid the Spainiards come here!

No you're right, I don't particularly like that party...


Too bad I didn't make a bet though, I would have won this time...