KrF’s new alliance in Norway is reshaping the debate on the centre-right after party leader Dag-Inge Ulstein said he wants closer cooperation with the Centre Party, the Conservatives and the Progress Party, but not with the Liberal Party.
KrF looks to Sp for a new parliamentary majority
The Christian Democratic Party (Kristelig Folkeparti, KrF) is promoting what Ulstein calls a “common sense alliance” (Sunn fornuft-alliansen). The proposed grouping would bring together KrF, the Centre Party (Senterpartiet, Sp), the Conservative Party (Høyre) and the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet, FrP).
The choice is politically significant because it leaves out the Liberal Party (Venstre), KrF’s traditional partner in several centre-right arrangements. Ulstein argues that Venstre has had opportunities to join several of the votes where the four parties have found common ground, but has instead “defined itself outside” those majorities.
The four parties already hold enough seats to matter. In the current Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), FrP has 47 seats, Høyre 24, Sp 9 and KrF 7. Together they control 87 of 169 seats, above the threshold needed for a majority when they vote as a bloc. Venstre, by contrast, has only three seats after falling below the electoral threshold in the 2025 parliamentary election.
Venstre rejects Ulstein’s “common sense” label
Venstre leader Guri Melby dismissed the new political label, saying the proposed alliance does not improve people’s lives and does not offer a coherent answer to Norway’s major challenges. She argued that it looks more like a list of individual cases where the parties have happened to vote together than a serious governing project.
The disagreement also reflects a deeper conflict over the future of Norway’s non-socialist side. Venstre says it wants to replace Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s Labour government, but insists that any alternative government should be led by Høyre, not by FrP leader Sylvi Listhaug.
FrP, meanwhile, has said its goal is a government made up of FrP and Høyre. If the election result requires it, Listhaug has left open the possibility of negotiating with other parties to secure a parliamentary basis for such a government.
Immigration, schools and values bring four parties together
Ulstein’s argument is based on a series of votes in which KrF, Sp, Høyre and FrP have already formed majorities. One of the clearest examples is family immigration, where the parties have backed stricter income and integration requirements.
They have also converged on issues linked to schools, local communities and cultural policy. According to NRK, the four parties supported a proposal requiring schools to offer church services during school hours if local congregations invite them. They also backed efforts to stop the state administrator in Agder from overturning several local decisions on construction in the shoreline zone.
Another recent vote concerned the possibility of expanding restrictions on full-face coverings after a review. In that case, the four parties also had support from Labour.
For KrF, these issues help frame the alliance as practical rather than ideological. Ulstein says the parties are finding “solutions that go straight into people’s everyday lives” and that go beyond symbolic politics.
Sp’s position makes Norway’s bloc politics less predictable
The Centre Party is the most politically delicate part of Ulstein’s project. Sp governed with Labour from 2021 until it left Støre’s cabinet in February 2025. Since then, it has increasingly used its position in the Storting to build majorities outside the red-green camp.
That shift became especially visible when Sp joined non-socialist parties to push through fuel-tax cuts after breaking with the red-green budget line. The group behind that vote was nicknamed the “diesel friends” (dieselkameratene), a label Ulstein does not reject, although he says “common sense alliance” better describes what he wants to build.
Sp leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum has avoided presenting this as a new government project. He says his party is “for the welfare state and against the bureaucracy state” and wants to use its parliamentary position to shape policy case by case. He also points out that Høyre and FrP have long supported centralisation and municipal mergers, two issues where Sp strongly disagrees with them.
A test for Norway’s centre-right before 2029
The debate matters because Norway’s party system is entering a less stable phase. Labour remains the largest party after the 2025 election, but FrP has become the dominant force on the non-socialist side, while Høyre is smaller than in previous terms. KrF survived above the threshold, while Venstre was reduced to three seats.
Ulstein’s proposal is therefore not just about one parliamentary tactic. It is a signal that KrF may prefer a more conservative and rural-oriented bloc with Sp and FrP rather than a liberal-centrist arrangement with Venstre.
Whether this can become a durable governing alternative remains uncertain. The four parties agree on immigration, fuel taxes and some value-based issues, but differ on centralisation, public spending, climate policy and relations with the European Economic Area. For now, the “common sense alliance” is best understood as a working majority in the Storting, and as an early sign of how Norway’s right and centre may reposition themselves before the next election.
