Forget Borgen, the brilliant Danish TV political drama which put even The West Wing into the shade. If you want a real-life Scandi thriller, tune into Norway’s general election, which takes place today.
It is shaping up to be the most gripping cliffhanger of a vote since the Second World War, with the Labour government close to being trounced.
As one top pollster excitedly told the Dagsavisen newspaper: ‘Not even Alfred Hitchcock could have written anything as thrilling as this.’
Central to the drama is the furore over Norway’s punitive wealth tax, which has driven hundreds of the country’s richest business leaders to flee overseas.
It is also why the Norwegian Labour party’s fate is being so closely watched by politicians across Europe – including our own leaders – who are clamouring for new wealth taxes to shore up their finances.
They should resist. Rather than raise taxes, the new levy in Norway has seen a collapse in start-ups and fresh investment.
Flag day: If you want a real-life Scandi thriller, tune into Norway’s general election
Talk about a double-whammy – flight of humans and capital. Norwegians may be among the most egalitarian people on earth but a growing number agree the tax is unfair to domestic owners who have to pay a levy while foreigners who own businesses in Norway do not.
Understandably, this has undermined support for the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Store.
His Labour party knows it has a problem. Finance minister Jens Stoltenberg, the popular former PM and Nato chief for a decade, who was brought in earlier this year to sprinkle a little stardust over the government, has promised to review all taxes if Labour is re-elected.
Labour is still the biggest single party in Norway with about 26 per cent of the vote in most polls. But it would need backing from the country’s smaller parties on the Left to form a new government.
Pollsters reckon the swing could be enough to allow the Progress Party (think Reform-lite), now the second-biggest with 21 per cent, and the Conservatives, to form a centre-Right coalition.
Both parties have campaigned on removing the tax over time, with Progress leader Sylvi Listhaug running on the slogan: ‘Your money, your freedom.’
High immigration is another heated election issue – Listhaug has called for net zero immigration.
Norway’s usually apolitical $2 trillion sovereign wealth oil fund has also been dragged into the election fever. This follows public outrage after news earlier this summer that the fund had increased its stake in an Israeli jet parts maker.
The outcry was such that the government ordered a review of the fund’s 65 investments in Israel and any company with links to Israeli activities in the West Bank or Gaza.
The fund has since divested its shares in Israeli banks and companies with interests related to Israel, on the grounds of ‘unacceptable risk’, drawing accusations of political interference from the opposition.
And fury from across the Atlantic. The Trump administration is considering retaliatory action against Norway after the fund sold $1billion worth of shares in Caterpillar, the US construction machinery giant, last week, claiming its machinery is used to destroy buildings in Gaza.
Expect more fireworks. Later this autumn the Nobel Peace Prize committee in Oslo will decide on this year’s winner. And we know who wants it the most. The scriptwriters are on standby.
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This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .