A concise overview of political parties in Denmark-Norway.
The following is a list of the parties which so far have announced that they will be running in the forthcoming elections. After the name of the party is listed their current number of seats in Parliament.
Norwegian Independence Party (NIP) 0 seats
The Conservatives (C) - 27 seats (18%)
The Progress Alliance (PA) 15 seats (10%)
The Peoples Party (PP) 16 seats (11%)
The Socialists (S) 8 seats (5%)
The Party for Royal Restoration (PRR) 9 seats (6%)
The Fatherland Party (FP) 47 seats (31%)
The Peasants Hearth (PH) 29 seats (19%)
The Parliament in Copenhagen consists of 151 seats. In order to form a government a party need to either control or have support from at least 50% of the seats. The mandates are divided according to the representative system, meaning that if you get 8% of the votes, you will also get 8% of the seats. A party requires to get 5% or more of all votes though in order to gain entry.
Norwegian Independence Party.
A small party whose primary policy is to make Norway independent from Denmark. So far they have had little luck though and at present they are represented in Parliament. At the last elections they gained only about 2,5% of the votes. This must of course be seen in proportion with the number of voters in Norway, which is about 35% of all eligible voters. In other words this means they have about 8% support in Norway.
They have not had much support lately partly due to the fact that Norway didnt see any warfare during the conflict with Sweden and partly due to the fact that Norwegians are well respected and represented in official positions. The current Grand Admiral and both the minister of Fishing and the minister of Trade are all Norwegians.
The Conservatives.
The party of the aristocracy. Basically against all moves that undermines their traditional powerbase. They are for the restoration of the monarchy such as it used to be and strongly oppose the social reforms initiated by the current government. They are little loved by the commoners, but since you need to be at least 26 years to vote, be free of debts and also own values for at least 1000 crowns, they have managed to avoid losing too much power. At present that have 27 seats and are part of the government. The minister of Foreign affairs are from this party.
The Progress Alliance.
The alliance goals are to increase the wealth of Denmark through trade and then use it for investment in industry and infrastructure. They are strongly against wars and have traditional backing from many merchants. Many teachers and minor officials are also voting for this party as one of their core issues is raising education in order to get a better workforce. They believe this will further strengthen the nation. Lately they have gained much support as they were influential in the creation of many new jobs in Jutland and the construction of a whole new town. They are expected to have a good election and improve on their current 15 seats. They are currently part of the government. The minister of Trade is a member of the PA.
The Peoples Party
The PPs main goals are the equal rights for all people. Earlier governments often chose officials from only the aristocracy, and even then mainly from the Danish aristocracy. This caused many groups of people to feel discontent. Both skilled and well-educated persons, but also Norwegians who felt overlooked. This has been remedied to a large extent by the present government and thus a poor election is expected for them. Many of their traditional Norwegian voters are expected to drift to other parties. They mainly voted PP because they felt unjustly treated, but didnt want to split the nation. Now, no one knows how they will vote, not even the Norwegians themselves.
In order to gain votes they have struck upon the ideas of lowering the election age and property demands and allowing women to vote.
The Socialists are expected to profit mainly from the partys expected loss as are the Progress Alliance and the Fatherland Party. In the last elections the party got 16 seats.
The Socialists.
Also known as the workers party. Their main policies are to improve the conditions for the workers, including salaries, and also improve living standards. With the drop in living standards in recent years they are expected to have a good election. They are also in favour of Danish neutrality. At the last elections they got a meagre 8 seats, but this is expected to improve.
The Party for Royal Restoration.
This party has only one goal on the agenda, namely making the monarch the leader of Denmark-Norway once again. They have some support from the poorer parts of the aristocracy as well as older citizens who remember the days of kings. Their support has been dwindling though and it is doubtful that theyll be able to retain their 9 seats or even manage to get into Parliament again.
The Fatherland Party.
The current leaders of the government led by Prime Minister Thomas Lentz. They won the last elections in a landslide by promising to retake the ancestral Danish lands of Skane, Halland and Blekinge and prevent Denmark-Norway ever falling under the sway of Sweden again. Theyve managed to achieve the first part and, presumably, also the second part. After their successful war theyve started focusing on the conditions of the people and tried to make Denmark-Norway stronger by starting massive social reforms. With the successful war behind them they are favourites to retain the office of Prime Minister.
The Peasants Hearth.
The traditional peasants party focusing on improvement for the peasants. As other demographic groups are growing stronger it is doubtful that theyll do just as well this time.
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@das
Should any other parties wish to run you can either just add them yourself or PM me. Then I'll add them to the list. I realise the next update is a week away, but I figured you might as well get some extra time to think about the results of the elections
- do you have MSN so we can discuss this?
