(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
“Use your heart. And the head. And the voice. ”
This is how the council's speech to Norway's reigning prime minister sounds before the September 12 election day.
With that slogan, the Christian People's Party gets a good point. Namely, Monday's voting can be decided with the help of both the head and the heart. Or of reason and feelings if you like.
However, it is difficult to see why this election motto should mean that one should vote for Kjell Magne Bondevik. Now it is also not certain that the Prime Minister's party has meant anything like that. After all, no "vote KrF" has been applied after the slogan.
If Bondevik suddenly talk about using his head, the association becomes that Molde Fotballklubb should be better at nodding the ball in goal. It says a little about the legacy of Bondevik, the priest who has ruled Norway for a total of seven years.
Here we touch on a point that should make the desire for a change of power the greater the election day, for those who emphasize using the head. One thing is that based on purely political health criteria, a change of government is now needed: Bondevik III will not lead to new blood, rather to blood clotting. There is no evidence of a sound democratic system to have a prime minister from a party who, by a few percentage points, rises above the threshold.
The time for unstable minority governments at the mercy of the Progress Party should be over.
It is therefore a strength for Norwegian democracy that the red-green parties are now able to stand together on a broader political coalition.
Based on pure reasoning criteria, today's bourgeois government alternative can hardly be defended. A modern democracy should not be based on the undemocratic monarchy tradition. There must also be a distinction between politics and religion, between state and church, as in the examples India, Sweden and Canada. And multicultural and diverse Norway should not be governed by direct or indirect support from a populist and simplicity-seeking Fr.p.
On all these three fundamental points, SV stands as the foremost guarantor of a more modern and democratic Norway, as a counterbalance to the more conservative national forces in the Ap. and Sp.
The main reason for replacing the current bourgeois government should therefore not be that today's ordinary Norwegian is too poor materially. The justification should be sought in something more important, such as in democratic principles. Or in international solidarity. Or in the general struggle to improve the situation for those who are worse off than ourselves.
And then it is appropriate to move from the rational to the more emotional reasons for Monday's voting. In the same way that so-called rational marriages can go hand in hand with emotional marriages, so too can Monday constitute an emotional choice as much as a rational choice.
Just follow the Prime Minister's call: Use your heart on election day. The choice should not be any more difficult for that reason.
The hope is that everything and everyone will vote.
DH
