Posted on 10/23/2001 7:09:10 AM PDT by JJ59
Far right to share power in NorwayAndrew Osborn Thursday October 18, 2001 The Guardian For the first time since the second world war, the far right got a slice of power in Norway yesterday after the Labour-led government resigned, clearing the way for a new centre-right administration propped up by the anti-immigration Progress party. Anti-racism campaigners said that the success of the party, led by the charismatic maverick Carl Hagen, known as King Carl, spelled disaster for ethnic minorities, and could cause irreparable damage to race relations. "We now have a central government that is totally dependent on the far right to survive," Akhenaton de Leon, director of the Institution Against Public Discrimination, told the Guardian. "The symbolism is clear - that it pays to be intolerant. I don't think that young black Norwegians are going to very happy about this and it could have a devastating effect on the integration process." Although the Progress party, which favours capping immigration at 1,000 people a year, is not a formal member of the new three-party governing coalition, it holds the balance of power. The pledging of its 26 seats in the storting (parliament) allowed the incoming Christian Democrat prime minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, to form a majority government and persuaded his outgoing Labour predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg, to step down. Each time the new government wants to pass new legislation it will need the Progress party for a majority. There are now concerns that it will be in an ideal position to extract concessions from the new administration. According to the daily news paper Dagsavisen, the party is being brought into the mainstream "after nearly 30 years in the cold". The Progress party sealed its success in elections last month when it captured 26 seats - up from 20 in 1997. With no party winning a majority in the 165-member parliament, the position of Progress was strong. Last year, at the peak of its popularity as measured by opinion polls, it outstripped the ruling Labour party to become the most popular political force among this affluent country's 4.5m people. But scandals involving the party leadership and allegations of under-age sex and rape forced the second-in-command, Terje Soeviknes, to resign in February of this year. The party's ratings slumped. Although Mr Hagen has tried to tone down his rhetoric, the pary's hardline policies remain unchanged. It advocates abolishing development aid to the third world because it believes that the money is spent on "arms and luxury goods" and it argues that poverty is a result of some countries' inability to organise themselves. A maximum of 1,000 immigrants a year should, it says, be allowed into Norway; asylum seekers who break the law should be repatriated. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
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Young black Norwegians? LOL!!!
Maybe Norway will be the first Scandinavian welfare state to adopt a sound immigration policy - but I won't hold my breath.
I assume "far right" in Norwegian means "centrist Democrat" in American.
A maximum of 1,000 immigrants a year should, it says, be allowed into Norway; asylum seekers who break the law should be repatriated.
It all reads like common sense to me.
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