Labour wins by landslide in wake of Breivik crisis

Norway’s ruling Labour Party won its best local election result in more than two decades yesterday and the anti-immigrant Progress Party plummeted in support two months after attacks by a right-wing fanatic killed 77 people.

Riding a wave of sympathy, Labour won 33.2 per cent of the vote while the Conservatives jumped to second place with 27.7 per cent, with 99 per cent of the votes counted yesterday in county and municipal elections. The right-wing Progress Party sunk to 11.8 per cent from 18.5 per cent in the 2007 election.

The election came seven weeks after anti-Muslim extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 people at a Labour youth camp and set off a car bomb outside government offices killing another eight people. Breivik confessed to the 22 July killings but denies criminal responsibility, saying he was in a state of war against Norway’s immigration policies, which he largely blames on the Labour Party.

Analysts said, although Progress Party support had started to wane a few years ago, its election showing was definitely harmed by the terror attacks.

“The party feared it would become associated with Breivik,” said Anders Todal Jenssen, professor in political science at Trondheim university. “The drop in their support is partly a result of 22 July.”

Breivik belonged to the Progress Party from 1999 to 2006 but said he grew disillusioned with it and concluded that the only way to stop the “Islamisation” of Europe was through armed struggle.

After the terror attacks, the Progress Party moderated its anti-immigrant stance.

Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labour Party gained from his handling of the terror crisis.

“Labour gained from a sympathy effect, but also the way Stoltenberg handled the terror tragedy,” Mr Todal Jenssen said.

Mr Stoltenberg told jubilant supporters that Labour won because it persevered through difficult times. “We have been victorious because we have risen up and finished the race,” he said.

The local elections – for 430 municipalities and 19 counties – are not expected to have a significant impact on government policy in the nation of five million people.