Norway's disturbing lurch to the right ("tea party" to be part of conservative government)

[pampango]

The anti-immigration party's electoral success shows the country has not dealt with the roots of Anders Breivik's crimes

The results from today's Norwegian elections are more or less clear: with some 26.8% of the vote, the Conservative party (Høyre) is poised to head Norway's next coalition government. The first thing to note about Norway's unsettling rightward turn is the fact that the Progress party (Fremskrittspartiet) is set to join as junior partner in a coalition government. Disturbingy, a political party whose platform is marked above all else by an ardent anti-immigration agenda is capable of making such headway little more than two years after neofascist Anders Breivik carried out his heinous terrorist attacks.

The events that left 77 people dead, prompted public debate to focus on a deeply troubling question: what was it about Norwegian society that had made 22/7 possible? Breivik's extensive links to far-right groups and anti-Muslim networks prompted the recognition that his actions and ideology could not be understood in a vacuum. ... This, it was argued, demanded a collective response: Norwegian society had to confront deep-seated xenophobic attitudes and embrace the fact that cultural and ethnic diversity had come to stay.

However, the fact that the party now seems destined to become the second largest player in Norway's new ruling coalition raises the question of why 22/7 failed to become more of a watershed in Norwegian politics. ... Breivik's actions and ideology were quickly pathologised and turned into an aberration – indeed, the court proceedings against him were remarkable for their studious avoidance of questions relating to the broader context in which Breivik had flourished. ... And this should be a matter of great concern for those of us who were hoping for a more tolerant society to emerge from the trauma of 22/7.

But it's not only the advance of the far-right Progress party that gives cause for concern. It is equally disconcerting that victory has been claimed by a conservative political party that advocates tax cuts, privatisation, deregulation, and a substantial reduction of public spending on welfare. This agenda is of course familiar in these austerity-ridden times, but the paradox is this: there is no crisis to warrant such policies. Under its current "red-green" government, Norway has in fact steered clear of the economic and social debacle that has mired the EU project since 2008. Growth rates have been stable over the past five years and unemployment is lower in Norway than in any of the countries in the European Union.


'Anders Breivik's actions and ideology were quickly pathologised and turned into an aberration.'

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/10/norway-lurch-to-right

The conservative ideology of "tax cuts, privatisation, deregulation, and a substantial reduction of public spending on welfare" exists even in 'socialist' Norway. (Of course, in Norway things are much more progressive to begin with.) Now it is joined by the 'right wing populist' anti-immigration folks. We shall see if their corporate-conservatives 'play' the populist 'tea party' types or vice versa.

[Laelth]

1. This is disturbing. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. This Teabagging Sickness Is The Child Of Our Billionaires.

I would bet teabagging politics is somehow linked to the Kochs. They have fathered acolytes in other countries. What is going on is that they somehow have spread their poison within the ranks of the super rich. The leveling of wages through globalization is a cancer that is international in scale.

I am sure a lot of secret money goes abroad from the likes of the Koch's and Devoses. There is a hegemony among the wealthy class. The GOP mantra about "socialist" Europe has gone on unnoticed. Their code is that only the rich should benefit from government and corporate power.

The 99% is everyone in the world not just the US.

[pampango]

3. It is liberals in Europe who support the EU, open trade and immigration. OTOH, the far-right opposes

the EU and wants to restrict immigration and trade. You be the judge as to whether liberals or the far-right is more anti-globalization. If the Koch brothers are funding the European far-right because they think it promotes globalization, they had better do some more reading.

Trade is 50% of Norway's economy (22% in the US) yet their per capita income is higher than the US' and they have one of the most equitable distributions of income in the world.

[Laelth]

4. I am very sad to see this development.

Norway has seemed (so far) to be impervious to the neo-con takeover of the Western republics.

I would hate to see this bastion of freedom and liberalism fall.

-Laelth