news.cenet.topNorway's Labour government has narrow poll lead ahead of September's election

Desmond Milligan · August 6

OSLO (Reuters) -Norway's ruling Labour Party government and its left-leaning allies are favourites to win next month's parliamentary election, albeit with a reduced majority of seats in what is likely to be a narrow vote, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.

Labour Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who governs in a minority with support from smaller parties, hopes to secure a second four-year term in office and prevent the populist right-wing Progress Party or the Conservatives from taking power.

In a surprise move, Stoere in February named former NATO boss and ex-prime minister Jens Stoltenberg as his minister of finance, bolstering Labour's standing in the polls among voters concerned by the war in Ukraine and turmoil in global trade.

Labour and smaller groups on the left look set to win 88 seats in the 169-seat assembly, down from 100 in 2021 but ahead of the 81 seats seen for the centre-right opposition, the poll by the Opinion agency for ABC Nyheter and Altinget showed.

Labour's support in the July 28-August 3 poll stood at 26.7%, in line with the 26.3% it won in 2021 and ahead of the Progress Party, which seeks tax cuts and lower immigration, on 23.6% and the centre-right Conservatives on 15.8%.

Norway shares a near-200 km (120 mile) Arctic border with Russia, and the prime minister believes the war in Ukraine has made Norwegians concerned.

"The impact of war being fought out there is making a deep impression on people," Stoere told a roundtable with foreign correspondents in May.

Topics expected to influence the September 8 election also include the economy, education and healthcare, analysts have said.

But unlike in some European countries, none of the parties that are expected to win seats have sought the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump or his movement.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Alison Williams)

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