A video of the event can be found below the introduction on this page.
About this event
With Social Democratic Prime Ministers across Scandinavia for the first time in 20 years, after Norway’s elections this week, Nordic Horizons returned with a Zoom event to examine the changing political mood amongst our Nordic neighbours.
Eight years of Conservative Government in Norway have ended as a centre – left coalition has taken over. If Iceland also goes left in their elections next week, all Nordic states will have social democratic governments again, remarkably for the first time in 20 years. With the SNP and Scottish Green Party establishing a cooperation agreement for government in Scotland and the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru discussing similar arrangements for the Welsh Senedd, can we see the revival of social democratic governments in the Nordic countries having lessons for us here?
What are the drivers behind this apparent swing back to the left? How important are environmental issues across the Nordic countries in these changes? Can the arc of prosperity to the north show the way forward to achieve the fairer, greener Scotland promised in the Programme for Government?
To answer these questions and explore the reasons behind the moves across the Nordic countries, Nordic Horizons invited you to participate in this event. It was chaired by journalist and NH Director, Lesley Riddoch, and featured three former Nordic Horizons speakers who individually and collectively have a wealth of knowledge and experience of society and developments to enliven the discussion:
Katrín Oddsdóttir is a human rights lawyer and Chairperson of the Icelandic Constitutional Society (promoting the crowdsourced constitution)
Øivind Bratberg is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
Lesley Riddoch is a journalist and Director of Nordic Horizons
