Norway: Conservative, Progressive parties form coalition government

After two weeks of intense negotiations with three other right-wing parties, the Progress Party, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Party, the leader of Norway's Conservative Party, Erna Solberg, announced on the evening of September 30 that her party and the Progress Party agreed to cooperate to form a new coalition government.

The statement was made at a press conference after the final round of negotiations between the four parties. Although the Christian Democrats and the Liberals decided not to join Norway's new government, they still pledged to support the Conservative Party in the Knesset.

Leader of Norway's opposition Conservative Party Erna Solberg. (Source: AFP/VNA)

In an interview with the press, Ms. Solberg expressed her respect for the decision of the two parties, the Christian Democrats and the Freedom Party. She also assessed that the consensus of support of the four parties, with two parties participating in the ruling coalition, would be the beginning of a cooperative relationship between the parties.

In previous rounds of negotiations, due to different positions on a number of issues, the Conservative Party could not reach an agreement with the Christian Democratic Party and the Liberal Party.

The two parties are pursuing an agenda that includes amnesty for children of refugee families and a moratorium on oil exploration off the coast of Loftoten and Vesteraalen.

In addition, the Christian Democrats also want to continue the program of subsidizing Norwegian farmers against foreign competition by maintaining government subsidies and high tariffs on imported agricultural products.

According to the results of the Norwegian parliamentary election held on September 9, the Conservative Party led with 48 seats, the Progressive Party got 29 seats, the Christian Democratic Party and the Liberal Party got 10 and 9 seats respectively.

The Conservative and Progressive parties have 77 out of 169 seats in the National Assembly, at least 9 seats short of a majority./.

According to (TTXVN) - DT