OSLO (Reuters) – Norway should continue to explore for oil and gas and will remain a reliable supplier of energy to Europe, the country’s newly reelected Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Tuesday.
The minority Labour Party government won a second term in power on Monday while the populist right achieved its best-ever election result, in a ballot dominated by concerns over rising living costs and wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
With the left-wing election victory, attention turns to how the loose bloc of five political parties, dubbed the “tutti frutti” coalition, will govern fiscal policy, oil and gas production and the country’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund.
“It’s a good result. It’s a clear result. It demonstrates that centre-left social democrats can win elections even when there are winds blowing from the right,” Stoere told reporters outside his official residence in Oslo.
Supplying one third of Europe’s natural gas, Norway should continue to explore for more hydrocarbons, the prime minister added.
“We will continue to be a reliable partner, but also to take forward technological steps, cut emissions and live up to our climate obligations,” he said.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Stine Jacobsen)
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