They survived Anders Breivik’s deadly attack against the party he blamed for the “Islamisation” of Norway, but the three young Labour politicians elected this month worry that the multicultural society they treasure could now be under threat from the incoming right-wing government.
Elections last week ousted the Labour Party after eight years in power, with the victorious Conservative Party now crafting a coalition government which will for the first time include the anti-immigration Progress Party, which won 16 per cent of the vote.
Progress Party politicians insist they are not xenophobic, but during election campaigning the deputy party leader presented a paper which proposed halving the immigrant population and dramatically slashing the number of asylum seekers in Norway.
“The Progress Party has been very clear that they want to challenge international law and human rights regarding immigration,” said Stine Renate Håheim, 29, who survived Breivik’s slaughter on Utoya [sic] Island two years ago by leaping into the cold fjord. “If the Progress Party is included in the government it will be the most right-wing government in Europe and that frightens at least me.” » | Charlotte McDonald-Gibson | Friday, September 13, 2013
