OSLO: Norway is having its own Yellow Vest moment as a growing backlash against road tolls threatens to overwhelm the political establishment.
What started as local protest against a proliferation in toll stations has become a movement that’s even polling first in a key city ahead of nationwide municipal elections in September. It’s also posing a danger to the cohesion of Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s ruling bloc with growing turmoil within the Progress Party, led by Finance Minister Siv Jensen.
The pro-motorist, anti-tax group is sinking in the polls as its supporters feel betrayed amid rising commuting costs across the sparsely populated country. The uproar has prompted Jensen to call a special gathering for her party this week to calm the uproar. In a worst case scenario, party grassroots could force her to threaten to quit the Conservative-led coalition after almost six years in power.
Divisive climate crisis
The climate crisis is becoming an increasingly important issue for voters but is also deepening divisions in oil-rich Norway and across Europe. Green parties scored major gains in last month’s European Parliament elections, while the far-right is tapping dissatisfaction over the rising costs of protecting the environment. France’s Yellow Vest movement started in opposition to higher gasoline taxes.
"Many of the same kind of people are protesting this in Norway as in France and other countries,” said Sivert Bjornstad, a key Progress Party lawmaker. "It’s the middle class and regular workers who all of a sudden are having to pay many thousands more a year, which is significant part of their disposable income.”
The construction of new roads, bridges and tunnels in Norway is to a large extent financed by road tolls. About 13 billion kroner (RM6.3bil) is estimated to be collected from tolls this year, up about 40% over the past four years.
The growth has been needed to pay for investments in public transport to cut emissions and meet population growth in the biggest cities. The government also boosted spending on infrastructure to stimulate the economy after an oil price crash in 2014, which dealt a massive blow to the nation’s biggest industry. Investments in transportation is seen rising to 73 billion kroner this year, up more than 75% since the government took power in 2013.
Wealth fund
The pressure is now on the government to seek a solution and calm the nerves of angry voters. Last month, the Progress Party even proposed taking 100 billion kroner (RM48bil) directly from the nation’s oil income to wipe out the need for toll roads.
The proposal was met with scepticism from leading economists and party leaders since the government has already pushed fiscal spending to its limits.
Another proposal, also from the Progress Party, was to cut back on the benefits on zero-emission cars, which has made Norway one of the world’s top adopters of electric vehicles and one of tesla Inc.’s biggest markets. That would go against the government’s current promises this government term.
"We know that the electric car benefits will be phased out from 2021, so if we instead start doing this next year it would reduce the fees for everyone,” Bjornstad said. But it’s clear that several parties are against this and it would require the renegotiation of parts of the political platform that was agreed on in January, he said.
That means a tense party meeting on Wednesday for Jensen, who must find a solution that is both acceptable for the her party and her coalition partners.
"The point is not how we solve this, only that it gets solved,” Bjornstad said.
