Over two-thirds of respondents to a poll conducted by Kantas for TV2 said they believe Erna Solberg would continue as prime minister after the September 11th election, while the poll also showed an overall majority for the conservative parliamentary bloc.
Solberg’s Høyre (Conservative) party gained 1.1 points in the poll, while Labour dropped 1 percent in comparison to the previous poll conducted by the station – leaving both parties with 26.1 percent.
This represents a catastrophe for Labour, usually Norway’s biggest party, and would mean that conservative parties would win an overall parliamentary majority.
Venstre over sperregrensa, borgarleg fleirtal. Ei veke igjen no! pic.twitter.com/1abQerhBCt
— Sveinung Rotevatn (@Rotevatn) September 3, 2017
Other recent polls have shown a similar trend, with confidence that Labour will form a new government slipping at the crucial time for leader Jonas Gahr Støre.
Conservative Foreign Minister Børge Brende wrote on Twitter that he believed the Conservative advance was a result of a negative campaign by the Labour Party against Solberg.
Støre hit out at Solberg's leadership in a television debate last week, in the wake of controversy over a cancelled meeting between the nationalist Progress Party's immigration minister Sylvi Listhaug and her Swedish counterpart Helene Fritzon.
“The TV2 poll confirms the reaction to Labour’s negative campaign against Erna. Unemployment and healthcare waiting times are going down and the economy is growing,” Brende wrote.
TV2 målingen bekrefter vel reaksjon på Aps negativ kampanje moy Erna. Ledigheten og helsekøene går ned og økonomien vokser.
— Børge Brende (@borgebrende) September 3, 2017