Center-Right Coalition Replaces Labor Government in Norway

A new center-right coalition took power in Norway on Friday after the nation’s traditional political powerhouse, the Labor Party, was humiliated in elections last month.

Many Norwegians hope that the new government will ease some of Europe’s highest taxes on income, cars, alcohol and tobacco while improving the services of the welfare state.

Lutheran clergyman Kjell Magne Bondevik of the Christian Democratic Party officially took office as prime minister after an afternoon meeting with King Harald V.

The outgoing Labor premier, Jens Stoltenberg, handed Bondevik a key after the audience with the king. “Welcome back to the prime minister’s office,” Stoltenberg said. Bondevik served as premier in a coalition that was ousted in March 2000.

The platform of Bondevik’s new coalition includes tax cuts, greater privatization, better welfare, health and education, and more spending of the vast surplus revenue Norway has as the world’s second-largest oil exporter. However, it has few definite proposals, mainly calling for studies of various options.

Bondevik presented a new government that consisted of six Christian Democratic ministers, 10 from the Conservative Party and three from the Liberal Party. Like his previous government, it holds only a minority of seats in parliament.

“We have a good political platform,” Bondevik said. “We are going to work from a long-term perspective, but as a minority government, we always have to be ready to leave.”

Bondevik, 54, took 3 1/2 weeks of sick leave in 1998 during his last term as prime minister after suffering severe depression from overwork.

But many in this tolerant Scandinavian country of 4.5 million praised his openness. Bondevik now says the experience made him stronger and taught him how to conserve his time and emotional energy.