The beginning of the end of Scandinavian socialism?

By Jorn K. Baltzersen
web posted February 11, 2002

It was the morning of September 11, 2001 (Central European
Daylight Time). In Norway Election Night was just over. On the
day before the Norwegian electorate had kicked out the socialist
majority in Parliament. The Labor Party had just had its worst
election since 1927. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful day
in more ways than one, until the afternoon came and the beauty
came to an end by that terrible assault on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon.

I am, as I am certain a lot of my fellow Norwegians and
Europeans are, ashamed of my fellow Norwegians and
Europeans who have attacked the United States with words in
the aftermath of this horrible event. The United States sent their
men to Europe to fight back axis powers during World War II.
A lot of Americans gave their lives to set Europe free.
Moreover, the United States placed their men and women in
Europe during the Cold War to protect Western Europe against
the threat of the evil empire of the Soviet Union. We owe the
United States of America an awful lot of gratitude. The least we
can do is to support the United States fully when they and their
people are attacked. I have great sympathy for those Americans
who have lost friends and loved ones in the September 11 act of
war. Also, I am sorry that liberties are being encroached upon as
a result of the September 11 attacks.

As time went by I was eventually able to feel the delight of the
electoral victory. Although the election result was not as good as
several opinion polls had predicted (Opinion polls predicted the
Conservative Party as the largest party in Parliament, a position
lost by the Conservative Party to the Labor Party in 1927, and
held by the Labor Party ever since), the election went well. Ever
since 1935 the Labor Party has been in office, only interrupted
by 15 years in total, of which the two longest interruptions were
4-6 years, about 10 years apart. We now have the most non-
socialist Parliament in decades. We hopefully stand before a
major rollback of the system decades of Labor Party misrule has
created.

After the change of Parliament and Cabinet in Norway in
October came the shift in Denmark in November. For the first
time since 1929 there is a right majority in the Danish Parliament.
The new Danish Cabinet started off well by reducing the number
of Cabinet members from 21 to 18. Moreover, shut down of
more than 100 government bodies has already been announced.
The change in Denmark gives one more right-leaning country in
the socialist dominated European Union.

Norway, as Denmark and Sweden, is an excessive welfare state.
Norway can justly be called the land where Santa Claus comes
to town every single night of the year. Bruce Bawer reported on
Norway in Cato Policy Report May/June 2001, in which he
wrote 'You almost expect to see a sign at Oslo's Gardermoen
Airport reading "Welcome to Norway-A Law for Every
Occasion"'.

The supporters of our collectivist nanny state claim the moral
high ground. Supporters of tax cuts, less statism, and more
power and responsibility to individuals are decried as selfish and
materialist. Of course, this is completely wrong. The statist
supporters of our collectivist socialist state have the moral low
ground.

We can see from the election results that the Norwegian
mentality towards statism and collectivism seems to be changing.
With the political changes in Denmark and Norway there has
been a significant change in Scandinavia. We are now waiting for
the Swedes to oust their socialists from office. We stand before
a great task of reducing statism and collectivism in Scandinavia,
and of rebuilding individual liberty and responsibility and civil
society. However, the Scandinavian mentality and system will not
change over night. Scandinavians have after all been brought up
with collectivist thinking through decades, and the current
Norwegian Cabinet does have members who Americans would
rightly label 'liberals'.

Let's hope that what we have seen recently, and are seeing, is
the beginning of the end of Scandinavian socialism, or at least the
beginning of the beginning of the end. Let's also hope that the
right turn in the United States will affect more European
electorates to turn away from socialism.

Jorn K. Baltzersen (jornbalt@pvv.org) is a Norwegian
conservative. This is his first contribution to Enter Stage Right.

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