2017 Norwegian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 11 September 2017 to elect all 169 members of the unicameral Norwegian Parliament, the Storting. The non-socialist parties retained a reduced majority of 88 seats, allowing Prime Minister Erna Solberg's Conservative-Progress coalition to remain in government. The Liberal Party joined the coalition in January 2018 but it remained a minority cabinet until the Christian Democratic Party joined the coalition in 2019. The three largest centre-left parties won 79 seats. The Green Party retained its single seat, while the Red Party won its first ever seat.
The last parliamentary elections in Norway were held on 9 September 2013. The outcome was a victory for the Conservatives and their populist right-wing allies. The Conservative Party, led by Erna Solberg, and the right-wing populist Progress Party formed a two-party minority government, with Solberg as Prime Minister. The two parties received confidence and supply from two centrist parties, the Liberals and the Christian Democrats.
The election used party-list proportional representation in nineteen multi-member constituencies, one for each of the counties of Norway.
The number of members to be returned from each constituency varies between 4 and 19. To determine the apportionment of the 169 seats amongst the 19 counties, a two-tier formula is used, based on population and geographic size. Each inhabitant counts one point, while each square kilometer counts 1.8 points.
150 of the seats are regular district seats. These are awarded based on the election results in each county, and are unaffected by results in other counties. Nineteen of the seats (one for each county) are leveling seats, awarded to parties who win fewer seats than their share of the national popular vote otherwise entitles them to. A modification of the Sainte-Lague method, where the first quotient for each party is calculated using a divisor of 1.4 instead of 1, is used to allocate both the constituency and leveling seats. A party must win 4% of the popular vote in order to win compensation seats, but may still win district seats even if it fails to reach this threshold. The system for apportioning seats is biased in favour of rural areas since the area of the county is a factor, but the system of compensation seats reduces the effect this has on final party strength.
According to the Norwegian constitution, parliamentary elections must be held every four years. The Norwegian parliament may not be dissolved before such a four-year term has ended, a rather rare trait of a political system found in few, if any democracies besides Norway and the USA.
On 22 April 2016, the Norwegian government announced that the date of the election is set to be Monday, 11 September 2017. Additionally, each municipal council may vote to extend voting by one day, by also opening the polling stations on Sunday, 10 September.
Eight political parties were represented in the Norwegian parliament prior to the election, all of whom went on to contest the 2017 election.
Additionally, the far-left Red Party led by Bjørnar Moxnes secured its first seat via a direct mandate in Oslo district. It had failed to secure representation in previous elections. The party is officially Communist in orientation and is a successor to the Red Electoral Alliance, which had previously won a seat in the 1993 election.
According to Statistisk sentralbyrå, a total of 67.34 million NOK in campaign contributions was raised by all political parties in 2017.
Prime Minister Solberg set out to form a governing coalition between the Conservative Party, Progress Party, Liberal Party, and the Christian Democrats. In late September 2017, the Christian Democrats left coalition talks due to the inclusion of the Progress Party.
On 14 January 2018, a government was formed by the Conservative Party, the Progress Party and the Liberal Party.
The Christian Democrats voted at a party conference to join Solberg's government on 2 November 2018 and on 16 January 2019, Solberg's Conservatives struck a deal with the Christian Democratic Party. This marked the first time since 1985 that Norway would be getting a majority government representing right-wing parties in the Storting.
On 20 January 2020, the Progress Party decided to withdraw from the government due to a decision by Solberg to repatriate a woman linked to Islamic State and her children back to Norway. Solberg said that she would continue to head a minority government and the other parties in the coalition (Liberal Party, Christian Democrats) said they would also continue to serve in it.