The Norwegian political mess

The leader of the Norwegian Labor Party recently said that the pecularities of the Norwegian political system, coupled with the pecularities of the Norwegian parliamentary situation, were confronted with the very real option of "an adherent of the Conservative Party would vote for the Liberal Party so that a Christian Democrat would become prime minister."

How is that possible?

• Because the Conservative Party is relatively large, it would take fewer incremental votes to get a Liberal Party representative into parliament than to get one more Conservative Party member in.  To maintain a non-socialist block, Conservative party members get more bang from their vote if they vote for the Liberals, who are tiny.
• Even though the Christian Democrats are among the smallest parties in Norway, their support is absolutely essential for a non-Socialist government.  Last time around they insisted on getting the prime minister position in order to provide that support.

• It's even more absurd that Norway's next largest party - the so-called "Progressive Party" is always excluded from the coalition government, even though their support is essential to such governments. 

As a result, the political situation in Norway is very volatile, and nobody wants to predict the outcome.  The Center [sic] Party has finally shown its true colors and is now offering support for a "red-green" alternative with the Labor Party and the "Socialist Left" party. 

I think the parties should rename themselves to reflect their constituencies.  Here's a suggestion:

• The Labor Party: the Naive Apparatchiks
• The Conservative Party: the Frustrated Urbanites
• The Progressive Party: the Indignant Conformists
• The Socialist Left: the Charming Radicals
• The Christian Democrats: the Self-Righteous Joykillers
• The Center Party: the Spoiled Farmers
• The Liberal Party: the Clueless Intellectuals

Interesting thing was that something over 302,000 Norwegians took the "electomatic" at Aftenposten, in which they expressed their view on the central issues of the debate.  As it turned out, most of those who took the test ended up favoring the Progressive Party, with the Conservative Party coming in second and the Labor Party third.  Women were way more radical than men - the top three were the Center Party, the Liberal Party, and the Socialist Left. 

In about 10 minutes, the polling stations close, and we'll see how it turns out.