GRONLAND, a bustling neighbourhood in central Oslo, may be the Platonic ideal of European multiculturalism. Outside a polling station on a pedestrian square, young couples—some Norwegian, others immigrants from Pakistan, Syria, Poland and Somalia—strolled along pushing prams. Ayaan Aden, a 28-year-old student in a black headscarf, had just cast her vote for the opposition Labour Party. She was angry at the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Norway’s immigration minister, who belongs to the populist Progress Party (FrP). “They’re saying we’re forced to wear the hijab,” Ms Aden said. “It’s my own decision!”
The immigration minister, Sylvi Listhaug, had spiced up an otherwise dull campaign by travelling to Sweden and impugning its laxness towards migrants. Labour, traditionally Norway’s largest party, hoped her polarising rhetoric would turn voters away from the government, a minority coalition between the Conservatives and Progress. It also promised a 15bn kroner ($1.9bn) tax hike...Continue reading
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