Fylkestingsvalget 2023 – et reverseringsvalg?

Abstract

The 2023 Norwegian regional election marked a pivotal shift in regional politics, witnessing the Labour Party’s decline as the Conservative Party for the f irst time becoming the largest political party with 25.5 per cent of the national vote. After a reversal of the reform of the county structure, 14 separate county elections were held, coinciding with the re-establishment of several counties. Although the Labour Party and the Centre Party fulfilled campaign promises to reverse mergers, they saw substantial electoral losses, with the Centre Party nearly halving its prior support. Through detailed case studies of Innlandet and Finnmark, the chapter explores the nuances of retrospective versus prospective voting and assesses the applicability of the second-order election model. The f indings suggest that while national dissatisfaction significantly influenced voter behaviour, localized dynamics, such as the rise of The People of the North Party in Finnmark, underscore the complexity of regional elections in Norway.