2021 Norwegian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 13 September 2021.^[1] All 169 seats in the Norwegian legislature, the Storting, were up for election.^[2]

2021 Norwegian parliamentary election

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All 169 seats in the Storting 85 seats are needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jonas Gahr Støre Erna Solberg Trygve Slagsvold Vedum Party Labour Conservative Centre Leader since 14 June 2014 9 May 2004 7 April 2014 Leader's seat Oslo Hordaland Hedmark Last election 49 seats, 27.4% 45 seats, 25.0% 19 seats, 10.3% Seats won 48 36 28 Seat change 1 9 9 Popular vote 783,394 607,316 402,961 Percentage 26.3% 20.5% 13.6% Swing 1.1 pp 4.5 pp 3.3 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Sylvi Listhaug Audun Lysbakken Bjørnar Moxnes Party Progress Socialist Left Red Leader since 8 May 2021 11 March 2012 6 May 2012 Leader's seat Møre og Romsdal Hordaland Oslo Last election 27 seats, 15.2% 11 seats, 6.0% 1 seat, 2.4% Seats won 21 13 8 Seat change 6 2 7 Popular vote 346,474 228,063 140,931 Percentage 11.7% 7.6% 4.7% Swing 3.5 pp 1.6 pp 2.3 pp
Most voted party by county (left) and municipality (right). Distribution of seats by electoral district.
Prime Minister before election Erna Solberg Conservative Elected Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre Labour

The election was won by a coalition consisting of the social-democratic Labour Party and the agrarian Centre Party that entered into negotiations to form a government.^[3][4] The election also resulted in a majority for the parties that seek to dissolve the unpopular and controversial Viken county.^[5] Jonas Gahr Støre's Labour Party retained its position as Norway's largest party and expanded their lead in seats over the Conservatives, despite a slight drop in its share of votes and the loss of one seat.^[2] Incumbent Conservative Party prime minister Erna Solberg conceded defeat.^[6] Her party ended up with the second-largest number of representatives. Støre aimed to form a majority government with the Centre Party and the Socialist Left Party,^[7][8] but the latter stated they would remain in opposition, citing disagreements over climate and welfare policies,^[9] while remaining open to future negotiations and supporting the government on common ground.^[10] On 14 October, Støre became prime minister of a minority government, the Støre Cabinet.^[11][12]

Background

2017 parliamentary election and aftermath

Main article: 2017 Norwegian parliamentary election

Further information: 2017 Norwegian parliamentary election § Government formation and aftermath

In the 2017 parliamentary election held on 11 September, Erna Solberg of the Conservatives retained her position as prime minister after four years in power. Her premiership additionally received the support of the Progress Party, the Liberals, and the Christian Democrats, who combined secured 88 of the 169 seats in parliament. The opposition, led by Jonas Gahr Støre and his Labour Party, won 81 seats. Other opposition parties included the Centre Party, Socialist Left, the Greens, and the Red Party.^[13]

Christian Democratic Party government accession

The Christian Democrats voted at a party conference to join Solberg's government on 2 November 2018 and on 16 January 2019, Solberg's Conservatives struck a deal with the Christian Democratic Party. This marked the first time since 1985 that Norway would have a majority government representing right-wing parties in the Storting.^[14][15]

Progress Party withdrawal from government

On 20 January 2020, the Progress Party decided to withdraw from the government due to a decision by Solberg to repatriate a woman linked to Islamic State and her children back to Norway. Despite this, Solberg said that she and her party would continue to head a minority government, and the other parties in the coalition (the Christian Democrats and the Liberals) have also stated they would continue to serve in it.^[16][17][18]

Electoral system

Further information: Elections in Norway and Politics of Norway

The election used party-list proportional representation in nineteen multi-member constituencies.^[19] The number of members to be returned from each constituency varies between 4 and 19. 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.^[19]

A total of 150 of the seats are regular district 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 who win fewer seats than their share of the national popular vote otherwise entitles them to. 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 popular vote in order to win compensation seats but may still win district seats even if it fails to reach this threshold. The system for apportioning seats 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 final party strength.^[19]

Electoral reform

On 21 June 2017, Solberg's Cabinet established a committee tasked with reviewing the electoral system used in Norwegian parliamentary elections.^[20] The 17-member committee, which was led by court judge Ørnulf Røhnebæk [no], published its report on the electoral system on 27 May 2020.^[21] The committee agreed that the number of seats should remain at 169. Furthermore, a majority of the committee favoured the retention of the current 19 constituencies, lowering the electoral threshold to 3% and the abolition of the two-tier formula for the apportionment of seats; however, the proposed reforms to the electoral law are planned to be implemented in 2022, meaning that they would only apply from the next parliamentary election in 2025. The reform of the counties and municipalities came into effect on 1 January 2021 and resulted in a reduction in the number of counties from 19 to 11;^[22] the 19 constituencies no longer correspond to the county boundaries.^[23]

Date

As the 2017 election was held on 11 September, the 2021 election was to be held on 13 September. According to the Constitution of Norway, parliamentary elections must be held every four years. The Norwegian parliament may not be dissolved before such a parliamentary four-year term has ended, which in practice makes snap elections impossible.^[24]

Political parties

See also: List of political parties in Norway

Name			Ideology[25]	Position	Leader	2017 result
						Votes (%)	Seats
	Ap	Labour Party Arbeiderpartiet	Social democracy	Centre-left	Jonas Gahr Støre	27.4%	49 / 169
	H	Conservative Party Høyre	Liberal conservatism	Centre-right	Erna Solberg	25.0%	45 / 169
	FrP	Progress Party Fremskrittspartiet	Conservative liberalism	Right-wing	Sylvi Listhaug	15.2%	27 / 169
	Sp	Centre Party Senterpartiet	Agrarianism	Centre	Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	10.3%	19 / 169
	SV	Socialist Left Party Sosialistisk Venstreparti	Democratic socialism	Left-wing	Audun Lysbakken	6.0%	11 / 169
	V	Liberal Party Venstre	Social liberalism	Centre	Guri Melby	4.4%	8 / 169
	KrF	Christian Democratic Party Kristelig Folkeparti	Christian democracy	Centre to centre-right	Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	4.2%	8 / 169
	MDG	Green Party Miljøpartiet De Grønne	Green politics	Centre-left	Une Aina Bastholm	3.2%	1 / 169
	R	Red Party Rødt	Communism	Left-wing to far-left	Bjørnar Moxnes	2.4%	1 / 169

Opinion polls

This section is an excerpt from Opinion polling for the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election § Graphical summary.[edit]

There were several websites tracking party support ahead of the election, using somewhat different methods.^[26][27] Below is a plot of the 30-day moving average of relevant opinion polls.

Debates

2021 Norwegian general election debates
Date	Time	Organizers	P  Present    I  Invitee  N  Non-invitee
			Ap	H	Frp	KrF	Sp	V	Sv	R	MdG	Refs
9 August		Civita (think tank)	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	N Sylvi Listhaug	N Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	N Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	N Guri Melby	N Audun Lysbakken	N Bjørnar Moxnes	N Une Bastholm	[28]
9 August	20.00	Verdens Gang	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	N Sylvi Listhaug	N Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	N Guri Melby	N Audun Lysbakken	N Bjørnar Moxnes	N Une Bastholm	[29]
16 August	21:20	NRK	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	P Sylvi Listhaug	P Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	P Guri Melby	P Audun Lysbakken	P Bjørnar Moxnes	P Une Bastholm	[30]
31 August	?????	TV 2	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	P Sylvi Listhaug	P Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	P Guri Melby	P Audun Lysbakken	P Bjørnar Moxnes	P Une Bastholm	[31]
2 September	21:20	NRK	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	N Sylvi Listhaug	N Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	N Guri Melby	N Audun Lysbakken	N Bjørnar Moxnes	N Une Bastholm	[32]
8 September	???	TV 2	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	P Sylvi Listhaug	P Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	P Guri Melby	P Audun Lysbakken	P Bjørnar Moxnes	P Une Bastholm	[33]
9 September	20:00	NRK	P Ingvild Kjerkol, Eva Kristin Hansen	P Linda Hofstad Helleland, Elin Agdestein	P Sivert Bjørnstad	P Øyvind Håbrekke	P Ola Borten Moe, Marit Arnstad	P Jon Gunnes	P Lars Haltbrekken, Siv furunes	P Hege Bae Nyholt	P Ask Ibsen Lindal	[34]
10 September	19:40	NRK	P Jonas Gahr Støre	P Erna Solberg	P Sylvi Listhaug	P Kjell Ingolf Ropstad	P Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	P Guri Melby	P Audun Lysbakken	P Bjørnar Moxnes	P Une Bastholm	[35]

Results

See also: List of members of the Parliament of Norway, 2021–2025

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Labour Party	783,394	26.25	48	–1
	Conservative Party	607,316	20.35	36	–9
	Centre Party	402,961	13.50	28	+9
	Progress Party	346,474	11.61	21	–6
	Socialist Left Party	228,063	7.64	13	+2
	Red Party	140,931	4.72	8	+7
	Liberal Party	137,433	4.61	8	0
	Green Party	117,647	3.94	3	+2
	Christian Democratic Party	113,344	3.80	3	–5
	Democrats in Norway	34,068	1.14	0	0
	Pensioners' Party	19,006	0.64	0	0
	The Christians	10,448	0.35	0	0
	Industry and Business Party	10,031	0.34	0	New
	Center Party	7,836	0.26	0	New
	Health Party	6,490	0.22	0	0
	Patient Focus	4,950	0.17	1	New
	Capitalist Party	4,520	0.15	0	0
	People's Action No to More Road Tolls	3,435	0.12	0	New
	Alliance – Alternative for Norway	2,489	0.08	0	0
	Pirate Party	2,308	0.08	0	0
	Communist Party of Norway	301	0.01	0	0
	Feminist Initiative	275	0.01	0	0
	Generation Party	199	0.01	0	New
	Coastal Party	171	0.01	0	0
	Save Nature	97	0.00	0	New
Total		2,984,187	100.00	169	0
Valid votes		2,984,187	99.36
Invalid/blank votes		19,103	0.64
Total votes		3,003,290	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,891,736	77.17
Source: valgresultat.no

Voter demographics

Cohort	Percentage of cohort voting for
	Ap	H	Sp	FrP	Sv	R	V	MDG	KrF	Others
Total vote	26.25%	20.35%	13.50%	11.61%	7.64%	4.72%	4.61%	3.94%	3.80%	2.18%
Gender
Females	27.5%	19.6%	12.9%	8.2%	10.7%	5.4%	5.2%	3.7%	3.9%	2.9%
Males	25%	21.1%	14.1%	14.8%	5%	4.1%	4%	4.1%	3.6%	4.2%
Age
18–30 years old	15.1%	14.5%	13.2%	12.6%	17.6%	5%	9.4%	10.7%	1.3%	0.6%
30–59 years old	27.1%	20%	14.5%	11%	6.3%	4.7%	4.8%	3.5%	4%	3.1%
60 years old and older	29.4%	23.6%	12.2%	12.2%	5.6%	4.8%	2.1%	1.9%	4.5%	3.7%
Work
Low income	23.6%	13.9%	16.4%	15%	9.4%	6.7%	3.6%	3.9%	2.2%	5.3%
Average income	30.6%	19.2%	11.9%	11.2%	7%	4.1%	3.4%	4.1%	5.1%	3.4%
High income	23.7%	28.5%	12.3%	8.7%	6.4%	3.6%	7%	4.2%	3.4%	0.2%
Education
Primary school	29.7%	13.7%	18.3%	21.1%	3.4%	2.9%	1.1%	1.7%	1.7%	6.4%
High school	21.1%	23.8%	15.2%	14.9%	6%	5.4%	3.3%	3%	3.3%	4%
University/college	27.9%	20.3%	11.5%	6.8%	10%	5.1%	6.3%	5.3%	4.3%	2.5%
Source: Norwegian Institute for Social Research[36][37]

By electoral district

Below is the percentage of vote each party earned in each electoral district.^[2]

Electoral district	Ap	H	Sp	Frp	SV	R	V	MDG	KrF	PF
Østfold	30.6	18.7	14.2	12.8	5.9	4.5	2.8	2.9	3.3	–
Akershus	26.0	27.7	8.9	10.6	6.6	3.9	6.6	4.6	2.1	–
Oslo	23.0	23.6	3.1	6.0	13.3	8.3	10.0	8.5	1.8	–
Hedmark	33.3	10.6	28.3	8.5	6.7	3.3	2.2	2.0	1.6	–
Oppland	35.2	12.5	26.2	8.6	5.3	3.7	2.3	2.2	1.6	–
Buskerud	28.5	22.1	16.2	12.3	5.5	3.4	3.5	2.9	2.3	–
Vestfold	27.0	25.2	10.0	12.5	6.0	4.4	4.0	3.8	3.5	–
Telemark	31.0	15.7	16.6	12.8	5.9	4.6	2.2	2.7	4.5	–
Aust-Agder	24.6	20.3	13.6	13.4	5.4	3.7	3.1	2.9	8.8	–
Vest-Agder	20.8	21.4	10.4	13.3	5.2	3.2	3.5	3.0	13.9	–
Rogaland	22.4	24.0	10.5	16.9	4.9	3.7	3.4	2.4	8.1	–
Hordaland	22.8	24.6	9.9	12.7	8.8	4.6	4.2	3.8	4.9	–
Sogn og Fjordane	26.5	13.9	28.7	9.4	5.6	4.0	3.3	2.3	3.9	–
Møre og Romsdal	20.2	16.3	17.6	22.3	6.1	3.3	2.8	2.3	5.4	–
Sør-Trøndelag	30.0	16.5	15.1	8.7	9.0	5.6	4.3	4.7	2.2	–
Nord-Trøndelag	33.7	10.6	29.1	8.1	5.5	3.9	2.0	1.7	2.3	–
Nordland	29.0	15.4	21.3	12.3	6.9	5.4	2.4	2.2	2.0	–
Troms	27.2	13.7	19.1	14.1	10.6	4.7	2.4	2.9	2.2	–
Finnmark	31.6	6.8	18.3	10.9	5.9	4.9	1.4	2.2	1.6	12.7
Total	26.3	20.5	13.6	11.7	7.5	4.7	4.5	3.8	3.8	0.2

Below is the number of district seats for each party, with the party winning the most votes coloured in.^[2] The party earning the leveling seat^[38] in each district is marked by (*).

Electoral district	AP	H	Sp	Frp	SV	R	V	MDG	KrF	PF	Total
Østfold	3	2	2	1	1*	–	–	–	–	–	9
Akershus	5	6*	2	2	1	1	1	1	–	–	19
Oslo	4	5	–	1	3	2	3*	2	–	–	20
Hedmark	3	1	2	1*	–	–	–	–	–	–	7
Oppland	2	1	2	1*	–	–	–	–	–	–	6
Buskerud	3	2	1	1	1*	–	–	–	–	–	8
Vestfold	2	2	1	1	1*	–	–	–	–	–	7
Telemark	2	1	1	1	–	1*	–	–	–	–	6
Aust-Agder	1	1	1	1*	–	–	–	–	–	–	4
Vest-Agder	1	1	1	1	–	–	1*	–	1	–	6
Rogaland	3	4	2	2	1	1*	–	–	1	–	14
Hordaland	4	4	2	2	1	1	1*	–	1	–	16
Sogn og Fjordane	1	1	1	–	–	–	1*	–	–	–	4
Møre og Romsdal	2	1	2	2	1*	–	–	–	–	–	8
Sør-Trøndelag	3	2	2	1	1	1*	–	–	–	–	10
Nord-Trøndelag	2	–	2	–	–	–	1*	–	–	–	5
Nordland	3	1	2	1	1	1*	–	–	–	–	9
Troms	2	1	1	1	1*	–	–	–	–	–	6
Finnmark	2	–	1	1*	–	–	–	–	–	1	5
Total	48	36	28	21	13	8	8	3	3	1	169

By municipality

• 
  Labour
• 
  Conservative
• 
  Centre
• 
  Progress
• 
  Socialist Left
• 
  Red
• 
  Liberal
• 
  Green
• 
  Christian Democratic
• 
  Patient Focus

Aftermath

After the announcement of the results, Conservative Party prime minister Erna Solberg conceded defeat to opposition leader Jonas Gahr Støre. Solberg thanked her supporters and said she was proud of the government's achievements throughout eight years of centre-right rule. On her way to the podium to deliver her concession speech, Solberg told reporters that she had called Jonas Gahr Støre, the head of the Labour Party, to congratulate him on his victory. Addressing a crowd shortly after Solberg conceded, Støre said: "We have waited, we have hoped and worked so hard, and now we can finally say, we did it."^[3]

International reactions

International news outlets commented that following the elections, all five Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, now had left-leaning prime ministers or were to be ruled by left-wing-led governments simultaneously for the first time since 1959.^{[7][8][nb 1]}

Disestablishment of Viken

The parties that seek to dissolve the unpopular and controversial Viken county, formed in 2020 by the forced merger of Akershus, Buskerud, and Østfold, won a majority, and as a result the county executive initiated the formal process to dissolve the county and divide it back into its original constituent counties.^[5]

Government formation

Government pre-negotiations took place at Hurdalsjøen Hotel in Hurdal municipality after Trygve Slagsvold Vedum and the Centre Party opted for pre-negotiations with the Socialist Left Party before subsequent government negotiations. These negotiations began on 23 September and lasted until 29 September (excluding the weekend), when the Socialist Left Party, led by Audun Lysbakken, withdrew from negotiations citing their disagreement with the Labour Party and the Centre Party, in particular over issues of petroleum and welfare.^[9] To the press, he reassured that the party was open for future negotiations and would be going into opposition for the time being.^[10] At a press conference later that day, along with Vedum, Støre announced that the Labour Party and the Centre Party had started negotiations for a minority government.^[41] On 8 October, Støre and Vedum announced that the new government's platform (Hurdalsplattformen [no]) would be presented on 13 October and that they were ready to form a government,^[42] which was formalized for 14 October,^[43] and the Støre Cabinet was formed that day.^[11]

As a minority coalition, the government has to rely on opposition parties to pass budget motions. For both the 2021 and 2022 budgets, the government was able to come to an agreement with the Socialist Left Party.

Donations

According to Statistisk sentralbyrå, a total of 94.98 million NOK in campaign contributions was raised by all political parties in 2021.^[44]

Party		Donations (NOK)
	Labour Party	31,277,077
	Conservative Party	20,679,650
	Socialist Left Party	12,951,033
	Centre Party	7,369,400
	Progress Party	5,563,750
	Green Party	4,507,123
	Christian Democratic Party	4,275,500
	Liberal Party	3,954,298
	Red Party	2,929,285

See also

• 2021 Icelandic parliamentary election
• 2021 Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election

Notes

1. The government in Iceland has been headed by a centre-left–centre-right coalition, which was confirmed in November 2021, and is headed by left-leaning prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir since 2017.^[39][40]