madkins
Registered
*Siv Jensen(left) and Erna Solberg
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1586136.ece
Aftenposten in English
The political right is coming
January 2, 2007
Voters believe that the Progress and Conservative parties will gather enough support to form a majority government on their own at the next national elections.
Siv Jensen (left) and Erna Solberg may be able to negotiate a majority government in two years time.
Progress Party leader Siv Jensen and Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg will have the option of working out a majority alliance in 2009 according to 54.8 percent of voters in a new survey by Sentio carried out for newspaper Nationen. Only 33.5 percent of voters believe the governing left-center coalition will manage to retain their majority.
"That voters actually expect the Conservatives and the Progress Party to have a joint majority after the parliamentary elections in two years - I find this inspiring. We have seen indications that the road there is not so long, even if there are still some (parliamentary) seats to go," Jensen said.
Erna Solberg was more cautious about the survey results.
"I would have been more comfortable if there had been such a clear majority saying that they wanted such a change in government," Solberg told Nationen. Solberg said that she in fact expects that the center oriented parties will be needed to form alliance majorities in 2009.
Election researcher Frank Aarebrot believes that the current government is responsible for the recent rightward trend, and is convinced he knows what the Conservatives and Progress Party need to do to gain a clear majority.
"They need to carry on as they have. They have had little to do with their rise in popularity, that is due to the silly conduct of the government parties (Labour, Socialist Left, Center) and their inability to create order in their own ranks," Aarebrot said.
Skara Brae,
madkins
*Dan P. Neegaard