OSLO (Realist English). Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, whose Labor Party emerged as the largest force in Norway’s parliamentary election, has begun negotiations with potential allies to secure backing for a minority government.
Labor won Monday’s vote with the support of the broader center-left bloc, which captured 87 seats in the 169-member Storting. That gives Store a fragile majority after 16 years of steady decline in Labor’s voter base. Turnout reached 78.9 percent, the highest since 1989, according to preliminary figures from the Norwegian Directorate of Elections.
Store acknowledged the challenge ahead, saying he would open talks with four smaller parties beginning Tuesday. “We need a majority for a budget, we know we need a majority for our politics, and that majority lies to the left,” he told reporters in Oslo. He added that while cooperation with left-leaning parties will be key, he also seeks cross-party consensus on issues such as defense, tax policy and continued support for Ukraine.
The political landscape has shifted on the right, where the anti-immigrant Progress Party doubled its support to become the second-largest force, drawing voters away from the Conservatives, who posted their weakest result in two decades.
The outcome promises continuity in Norway’s energy-rich economy, Europe’s largest oil and gas exporter. But it also ensures years of delicate bargaining, with smaller groups — from the far-left Red Party to the agrarian Center Party — now holding the balance of power as kingmakers in Store’s government.
