Norway Prosperous But Discontent Nation Goes To The Polls Today With No Clear Winner In Sight

Norway’s unemployment rate is among the lowest in Europe, inflation is down, the nation is prospering and Norwegians are, well, not pleased.

The campaign leading up to today’s national election has exposed widespread discontent. The Labor Party of Prime Minister Thorbjoern Jagland, who governs with a minority, is bedeviled by an inability to translate economic success into support.

“It is, in fact, not easy to be rich,” Jagland lamented during the campaign.

Jagland, who succeeded popular Premier Gro Harlem Brundtland, voted Sunday in his hometown of Lier, 30 miles north of Oslo. Although most towns wait to open polls until today, election day, they are allowed to conduct advance voting. Final election results are expected Wednesday.

Jagland has said he will step down if Labor doesn’t match at least the 36.9 percent of the vote it recorded in the last election four years ago.

Polls published Sunday showed 35 percent to 40 percent support for Labor.

The spoilers are circling, though no clear front-runner has emerged, leaving the question of which of Norway’s seven main parties could run the country if Labor steps down after today’s election.

Support for the Conservatives, once Norway’s main opposition party, has dwindled. A moderate coalition also appears to lack the backing needed to topple Jagland.

Carl I. Hagen and his far-right Party of Progress have picked up support partly through promises to spend more of Norway’s vast oil wealth on health care and aid for the elderly.

But Hagen hopes only to win enough votes in the 165-seat Parliament to force changes; he could double the 6.3 percent the party won four years ago.

Norway, a country of 4.4 million people, is the world’s second-largest oil exporter. It brings in so much revenue from oil sales that the government has been setting aside about $8.2 billion a year for future use.

Hagen and the Progressives, who want to cut taxes, reduce central government control and tighten immigration policies, have managed to turn Labor’s frugality against the party. In one debate, Hagen called Labor’s finance minister “Uncle Scrooge” for refusing to spend oil wealth to cut down a hospital waiting list of 300,000 people.

Some people claim Norwegians are so well-off that they expect their every whim to be satisfied instantly.

In the past three weeks, an estimated one-fourth of voters have switched political parties.