– It was a good election result and here it was absolutely spectacular, says incumbent mayor of Flekkefjord Torbjørn Klungland (Frp). The Progress Party became Norway’s third largest party, with a total of 11.4 percent of the vote. That is 3.2 percentage points up from the last election. The municipal election summarized for the Progress Party Oppskrift på folkelighet Frp received the greatest support in Flekkefjord with 45.5 percent of the vote. – It is only in a local election that someone can get a threefold increase in votes. It is almost unheard of. Here we have a person who gets almost half of the votes in a relatively large municipality, says Dag Ingvar Jacobsen. He is professor of political science at the University of Agder. Jacobsen believes that Torbjørn Klungland is a recipe for popularity: – He became an icon when he posed with a mayor’s necklace and red-checked flannel shirt in 2019. Klungland is happy that people want him as mayor, but hopes it’s not just because of fun. – I hope it doesn’t just have to do with flannel and mozell, says Klungland. FRP party leader Sylvi Listhaug is very happy with the election result in Flekkefjord. – It is absolutely formidable. It shows that our mayor has done a fantastic job over the last four years. He is a popular and pleasant fellow, who has done a great job. He gets praise from all sides, says Listhaug. Torbjørn Klungland gained national attention when he discreetly took a sip of Mozell while Erna Solberg was being interviewed in 2021. Here the Progress Party became the largest In the 20 municipalities the FRP did best in, six are in Møre and Romsdal. The FRP is also doing very well in Agder and Vestland, which each have three of the largest FRP municipalities. – I think it’s great that we are mostly moving forward across the board, says Listhaug. In these municipalities, the FRP received the greatest support: Flekkefjord: 45.5% Bamble: 36.6% Bjørnafjorden: 35.1% Farsund: 33.8% Flatanger: 33.8% The Progress Party’s support over time 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 0% 10% 20% The graph shows the Progress Party’s support in the last municipal elections, all over the country combined. Had to give up two seats In Flekkefjord, the FRP received 16 mandates for the municipal council. But since the party only had 14 people on the list, they have to give away two places to other parties. Høyre and SV thus get one extra mandate each. – When we ended up with 14 representatives for this election, we thought it was great. At least then we have enough, we thought. But we didn’t have that, says Klungland. – The result is far beyond what they expected. But it is also a reminder that it is important to have enough people on the lists. Especially when we have a popular mayor, who is well liked by the population, says Sylvi Listhaug. Support throughout the country Brakvalg in Bamble Frp received 36.6 percent of the votes in Bamble in Vestfold and Telemark. It is the best choice a party has made in the municipality for a long time. – It’s a bit surreal, actually. We had hoped that we could get close to 8–9 mandates, so we are left with 12. So it is clear that we have a job to do going forward and we will manage it, says Frp’s mayoral candidate in Bamble in Telemark Jon Pieter Flølo. Bamble therefore becomes the second largest FRP municipality in the country. Won the election without a top candidate Alta Frp also made a good choice and received 25.1 percent of the vote. Now there is a civic majority in the municipality, but it is not yet clear who will be the mayoral candidate. The voters will have to decide that. Several of the list candidates for the FRP want the mayoral chain, including Bengt Rune Strifeldt and Odd Eilert Selvaste Persen. Strifeldt, who is a parliamentary representative, says he is willing to take on the dual role. – It will be demanding, but first of all we must see the basis for a bourgeois majority. Then we will probably solve the mayor’s situation as well. Selvaste Persen both disagrees that the people should be allowed to decide the candidate and is critical of Strifeldt’s desire to be both a parliamentary representative and mayor. – To sit in the Storting and be the mayor of Alta, everyone understands that it cannot be done. It’s just like the great seagull, he just eats and eats, he doesn’t treat anyone else to anything, says Selvaste Persen. Bengt Rune Strifeldt (Frp) hopes to combine the role of mayor and the role of parliamentary representative. Photo: Alf Harald Martinsen / news – Not expected In Konsmo in Lyngdal, married couple Unni Nilsen Husøy (Frp) and Eivind Arnt Husøy (Ap) woke up with different moods today. The married couple each top their list in Lyngdal, with very different results, but now one of them can become mayor. The Progress Party made, as in several municipalities in the country, a great election in Lyngdal. The party received a whopping 32.3 percent of the vote. That is an increase of 20.9 percentage points from the election in 2019. – I had thought that we would increase because we have received incredibly good feedback in the election campaign, but that we would make such a big difference as it was not expected, says Unni Nilsen Husøy. The husband’s Labor Party made a worse choice with 10.5 percent. Thus, the atmosphere was not at its best last night. – There wasn’t much dialogue when we got home, but I think we just had to take things in. So we sat in our respective nooks, Unni laughs.
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