Valg med lokale variasjoner

Kapittel i boka Lokalvalgene 2023: maktforskyvning og normalisering

Chapter

Abstract:

The overall aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the 357 municipal council elections in 2023, and to explore local variations. The first part views municipal politics from a national perspective. We first look into changes in party preferences during the election campaign, and then explore the voters’ agendas: Which issues were salient? The voters’ agendas were fragmented and no issues stood out – in contrast to the 2019 ‘green election’. In the second main part, we analyse variations in the parties’ vote shares, especially national trends and local deviations. We also take a closer look at selected municipalities that deviate from national trends. We take a closer look at the municipalities in which each of the parties won or lost most voters, before we discuss developments in the largest cities. Although no issues stood out nationally, different issues were important in different municipalities. For example, the light rail left its mark on the election in Bergen, while free public transport was salient in Stavanger. The third main part deals with municipal coalition formation after the election. Here, we include both the positions of mayor and deputy mayor and at the parties that enter cooperation agreements. Many coalitions differ from what we find in national politics. Cross-bloc and within-bloc coalitions – seen from a national perspective – occur about equally often. Cross-bloc coalitions do not only occur when centrist parties change sides, but also as local cooperation between, among others, Labour and the Conservatives.