2025 Norwegian parliamentary election
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All 169 seats in the Storting 85 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Norway on 8 September 2025 to elect the members of the Storting for the 2025–2029 parliamentary term.[1][2]
Background
[edit]Government formation
[edit]_(cropped).jpg/250px-Jonas_Gahr_Støre_(2025)_(cropped).jpg)
In the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election, the Labour Party emerged victorious, defeating the Conservative Party of Erna Solberg. After the elections, Jonas Gahr Støre, the leader of the Labour Party, started talks about the formation of a new government with the Centre Party and Socialist Left Party.[3] The Socialist Left Party backed down from negotations due to disagreements over environmental and welfare policies.[4] The Labour Party and the Centre Party then negotiated on forming a minority government,[5] which was officialised in October 2021.[6] Støre was sworn in as the prime minister of Norway on 14 October 2021.[7] Throughout the existence of his cabinet, however, they relied on support from the Socialist Left Party.[8]
Ministerial resignations
[edit]Since 2021, Støre's government saw changes due to resignations of several ministers. Hadia Tajik, the minister of labour and social inclusion, was the first to resign in March 2022 due to alleged tax fraud fro 2006.[9][10][11] She was succeeded as minister by Marte Mjøs Persen.[12] A month later, Odd Roger Enoksen resigned as minister of defence after sexual harassment allegations.[13] He was succeeded by Bjørn Arild Gram.[14]
A year later, in June 2023, Nettavisen reported that minister Anette Trettebergstuen was involved in a cronyist case by appointing colleagues to the board of Norsk Tipping.[15] Aftenposten also reported that she had also nominated a close friend to the board of the Oslo Opera House.[16] Trettebergstuen resigned as minister later that month and was succeeded by Lubna Jaffery.[17] A month later, Ola Borten Moe resigned as minister,[18] while Anniken Huitfeldt was dismissed in an October 2023 government reshuffle.[19]
In January 2024, the Sandra Borch and Ingvild Kjerkol plagiarism affair occurred, which led to the resignation of ministers Sandra Borch and Ingvild Kjerkol.[20][21]
Collapse of governing coalition
[edit]In January 2025, the Centre Party left the governing coalition over disagreements with the Labour Party on energy policy relating to the European Union, resulting in the first one-party government in 25 years.[22] Eight cabinet ministers from the Centre Party were replaced,[23] including Centre Party leader and minister of finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, who was succeeded by former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.[24]
Stoltenberg's return has been credited with the Labour Party's resurgence in the polls, dubbed the "Jens effect"[25][26] or the "Stoltenberg effect".[27][28] Within days of his return or "Stoltenback", the Labour Party had gained 10 points in the polls.[29] The Centre Party's exit from government has also been credited,[29] with journalist Berit Aalborg arguing that it made the Labour Party more recognisable to its former voters.[30]
Electoral system
[edit]The election uses party-list proportional representation in nineteen multi-member constituencies based on the pre-2018 counties of Norway. The number of members to be returned from each constituency varies between 4 and 20. To determine the apportionment of the 169 seats amongst the 19 counties, a two-tier formula is used, based on population and geographic size. Each inhabitant counts one point, while each square kilometer counts 1.8 points. Each constituency is guarenteed 4 seats.[31][32]
150 of the seats (all but one in each constituency) are constituency seats. These are awarded based on the election results in each county, and are unaffected by results in other counties. Nineteen of the seats (one for each county) are leveling seats, awarded to parties above 4% of the national vote. A modification of the Sainte-Lague method, where the first quotient for each party is calculated using a divisor of 1.4 instead of 1, is used to allocate both the constituency and leveling seats. A party must win 4% of the national vote in order to win levelling seats but may still win constituency seats even if it fails to reach this threshold. If a party wins more constituency seats than it is entitled to seats overall based on its national vote share, those additional seats are kept, with the number of seats won by other parties being reduced. The system for apportioning seats to constituencies is biased in favour of rural areas since the area of the county is a factor, but the system of compensation seats reduces the effect this has on the number of seats won by each party.[31][32]
Political parties
[edit]The table below lists political parties elected to the Storting in the 2021 parliamentary election.
The table below shows the extraparliamentary parties contesting the election.
Name | Ideology | Position | Leader | 2021 result | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ND | Norway Democrats Norgesdemokratene |
National conservatism | Far-right[55][56][57] | Geir Ugland Jacobsen | 1.1% | |
PP | Pensioners' Party Pensjonistpartiet |
Single-issue politics (pensioners' interests) |
— | Kurt Johhny Hæggernes | 0.6% | |
Kon | Conservative Konservativt |
Christian right | Right-wing | Erik Selle | 0.4% | |
INP | Industry and Business Party Industri- og Næringspartiet |
Populism | Right-wing | Ann Jorun Hillersøy | 0.3% | |
PS | Partiet Sentrum | Centrism | Centre to centre-left | Geir Lippestad | 0.3% | |
NKP | Communist Party of Norway Norges Kommunistiske Parti |
Communism | Far-left | Runa Evensen | 0.0% | |
GP | Generation Party Generasjonspartiet |
Direct democracy[58] | Gyda Oddekalv | 0.0% | ||
VIP | Welfare and Innovation Party Velferd og Innovasjonspartiet |
Single-issue politics (health policy) |
Erik Hexeberg | Did not contest | ||
DNI | DNI Party Partiet DNI |
Climate scepticism[58] | Owe I. Waltherzøe | Did not contest | ||
FOR | Peace and Justice Fred og Rettferdighet |
Russophilia | Marielle Leraand | Did not contest | ||
Loneliness Party Ensomhetspartiet |
Single-issue politics | Else Kåss Furuseth | Did not contest | |||
Save Ullevål Hospital Redd Ullevål sykehus |
Single-issue politics (health politics) |
— | Lene Sundfær Haug | Did not contest | ||
Source: Norwegian Directorate of Elections[53][54] |
Of the parties listed above, four only contest in a single constituency: Patient Focus (Finnmark), Communist Party of Norway (Vest-Agder), Loneliness Party, and Save Ullevål Hospital (both Oslo).[58]
Campaign
[edit]Slogans
[edit]Party | Original slogan | English translation | |
---|---|---|---|
Labour Party | Trygghet for fremtida[59] | Safety for the future | |
Conservative Party | Ingen slagord. Bare løsninger.[60] | No slogans. Only solutions. | |
Centre Party | Hele Norge | All of Norway | |
Progress Party | For folk flest | For most people | |
Socialist Left Party | For de mange – ikke for de få | For the many – not for the few | |
Red Party | Fordi fellesskap fungerer[61] | Because community works | |
Liberal Party | Tenk nytt for Norge | Think new for Norway | |
Green Party | Det ER mulig | It IS possible | |
Christian Democratic Party | Bygge på verdier – skape verdier[62] | Building on values – creating values |
Debates
[edit]![]() | This section needs to be updated.(August 2025) |
2025 Norwegian general election debates | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Time | Organisers | P Present S Surrogate N Non-invitee | |||||||||
Ap | H | Sp | FrP | SV | R | V | MDG | KrF | Refs | |||
18 December 2024 | 14:40 | NRK | P Jonas Gahr Støre |
N Erna Solberg |
N Trygve Slagsvold Vedum |
P Sylvi Listhaug |
N Kirsti Bergstø |
N Marie Sneve Martinussen |
N Guri Melby |
N Arild Hermstad |
N Dag-Inge Ulstein |
[63] |
14 January 2025 | 21:15 | NRK | P Jonas Gahr Støre |
N Erna Solberg |
N Trygve Slagsvold Vedum |
P Sylvi Listhaug |
N Kirsti Bergstø |
N Marie Sneve Martinussen |
N Guri Melby |
N Arild Hermstad |
N Dag-Inge Ulstein |
[64] |
30 January 2025 | 21:15 | NRK | P Jonas Gahr Støre |
P Erna Solberg |
P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum |
P Sylvi Listhaug |
P Kirsti Bergstø |
P Marie Sneve Martinussen |
S Sveinung Rotevatn |
S Ingrid Liland |
P Dag-Inge Ulstein |
[65] |
6 February 2025 | 21:15 | NRK | P Jonas Gahr Støre |
P Erna Solberg |
N Trygve Slagsvold Vedum |
P Sylvi Listhaug |
N Kirsti Bergstø |
S Sofie Marhaug |
N Guri Melby |
N Arild Hermstad |
N Dag-Inge Ulstein |
[66] |
Opinion polls
[edit]
The following is the average of all polls published in August 2025.[67]
Parties | Vote share | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|
Labour Party | 27.3% | 51 | |
Progress Party | 21.2% | 41 | |
Conservative Party | 15.3% | 28 | |
Socialist Left Party | 6.3% | 10 | |
Centre Party | 6.2% | 9 | |
Red Party | 6.1% | 9 | |
Christian Democratic Party | 4.6% | 7 | |
Green Party | 4.3% | 7 | |
Liberal Party | 4.2% | 7 | |
Others | 4.5% | 0 | |
Blocs | |||
Red Bloc | 50.2% | 86 | |
Blue Bloc | 45.3% | 83 |
References
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