– It’s an absolutely fantastic feeling, and I’m really looking forward to it. We are just waiting to start leading Stavanger. That’s what a relieved Sissel Knutsen Hegdal says after the last thousand votes had been counted in Stavanger on Tuesday evening. Because the last votes could have changed the result. But the Labor Party was unable to take a mandate from the Liberal Party, and thus there is still a bourgeois majority in the municipality. – We have many good solutions that we are looking forward to implementing. We can hardly wait to get started. Drama to the end – All votes count, and these thousand votes can decide what the result will be, said the election officer in the municipality, Martha Rødde, before the final numbers were presented. The Liberal Party was in danger of losing a mandate to the Labor Party, which would once again open the door wide open for the red-greens. Both sides would thus have become dependent on getting the Industrial and Business Party on board to form a majority. But after the last votes, it appears that Venstre retains the mandate. – That was as far as it went, and we didn’t have that many votes to go on. It looked like there was a small chance that it would fail, and I was very relieved when I saw that it went well, says group leader in Stavanger Venstre, Mette Vabø. Mette Vabø in Venstre was relieved when she saw that they were allowed to keep their three mandates in the municipal council. Photo: Joachim Goa Steinbru With that, the bourgeois bloc with the Conservative Party, the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party, the Christian People’s Party and the Pensioners’ Party retains the narrow majority with 34 mandates in the municipal council. Kari Nessa Nordtun in the Labor Party realizes that there now seems to be a majority for the new mayor in the oil city. – The voters have given the negotiating parties a majority, and I congratulate them on that. Then we have to wait for the results of the negotiations, she writes to news. Stavanger municipal council Free bus in a pinch One of the issues that has received the most attention during the election campaign in Stavanger concerns the bus service in the city. The governing parties introduced free buses for all residents of the municipality. Sissel Knutsen Hegdal thinks so and the right is a poor priority. – What happens to the free bus? – It’s not free. It costs the municipality NOK 200 million. Stavanger municipality has many other tasks that we must prioritize, she replies. The Kari sensation Although the Labor Party lost the mayoral duel, Kari Nessa Nordtun can look back on a historically good election for the party. In total, Ap received 33.8 percent of support in the municipality. – The Labor Party did sensationally well. It has placed Nessa Nordtun and Stavanger on the Norwegian map as a sensation and a rare example of a successful social democracy. That’s what election researcher and political scientist Svein Tuastad says. – Sissel Hegdal Knutsen and Høyre have done good preparatory work and have established teams early on. This is not bourgeois chaos, but rather a collaboration that already seems quite safe, says Tuastad. According to Tuastad, the citizens will not notice much difference if they get a Conservative mayor. Photo: Josef Benoni Ness Tveit / news
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Sissel Knutsen Hegdal probably new mayor in Stavanger – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
