TWO Scandinavian countries, Norway and Sweden, have elections this autumn. Both have long and deep-rooted social-democratic traditions - to the extent that even when a bourgeois coalition is in office its room for manoeuvre is limited.
But as in other. West countries, these elections showed a shift to the right.
In Sweden the general election saw the bourgeois coalition retain office for another four-year period. A slight increase votes for the Democratic Party and Communist Party still left them one seat behind the bourgeois majority in the National Assembly.
Moderates But the most significant change occurred within the bourgeois coalition. parties lost out heavily to Sweden's major right-wing party, the Moderates, who for the first time are now the biggest party within the bloc.
A similar rightward shift was also recognisable in the recent Sweden's neighbour, Norway. Because Norway is a less centralised state, local elections are a better indication there than in Britain of the national political situation.
. was mainly apparent in Norway. was the weakness disintegration social-democratic Labour Party. The drop in its vote, though not so marked in these elections. continued a clear downward trend resulting pro-capitalist policies in government. Failed The Norwegian Socialist Party, which enjoyed support in the early 1970s, has failed in its declared role as a check on the Labour Party and a promoter socialist progress.
As in Sweden, the chief gains in the Norwegian local elections were made by the rigbr-wing party, ibe Righi Party, and de set more etirtane both had European the Left three-party The two centre bourgeois local and of the Peoples Party.
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