Vestfold og Telemark
Vestfold og Telemark (lit. "Vestfold and Telemark"), also known as Telemark og Vestfold (lit. "Telemark and Vestfold"),[1] is a Norwegian county under establishment that will consist of two distinct and separate traditional regions, Telemark and most of Vestfold. The county capital will be in Skien, which is also the future county's largest city. While Skien is set to be the capital, Tønsberg is set to be office of the county governor. Telemark voted against the merger, on the basis that the regions have nothing in common and do not constitute a natural geographical, cultural, social or political entity; regardless the Storting voted on 7 January 2018 to merge the counties by force, and the merger will take effect on 1 January 2020.
As Vestfold was forcibly merged with Telemark, Svelvik municipality decided to vote for a merger with Drammen municipality, which would lead Svelvik to leave Vestfold (Vestfold og Telemark in 2020) county and join Buskerud county. The referendum was successful, and Svelvik will merge with Drammen on 1 January 2020.
History
The region of Vestfold and Telemark will consist of the two former counties of Telemark and Vestfold.
Telemark County was established in 1919 as a continuation of the former Bratsberg amt, which had been a len and amt since the union with Denmark. Bratsberg amt and the later Telemark county consist of several partly overlapping historic districts. The name Telemark itself did not originally cover the coasts, and the minority at the Storting therefore proposed the name Grenland-Telemark when the modern county was established.
Vestfold County was established in 1919 as a continuation of the former Jarlsberg and Larviks amt. The latter was established in 1821 when the counties of Laurvig and Jarlsberg were dissolved and merged into a common county.
The merging process
A possible merger of the counties has been discussed for several years with different constellations. Telemark County Council voted in April 2017 against a merge with Vestfold. Vestfold County Council voted for a merge with both Telemark and Buskerud. The Storting decided a merger of Telemark and Vestfold on 8 June 2017 with effect from 1 January 2020.
The Language Council of Norway (Språkrådet) recommended the name Telemark and Vestfold as the name of the new region. Telemark County Council decided that the name Telemark under any circumstances had to be included in the new name, while Vestfold suggested the name of Vest-Viken, which was criticized because the name was originally created by the Nazi Quisling regime during World War 2 and because Telemark County is mostly located outside the historical Viken area; at best the small coastal area of the county may be included in the periphery of Viken. Media in Norway, such as the state broadcaster NRK, mocked the proposal Vest-Viken as a "Nazi name."[2] On 10 November 2017 Vestfold withdrew the proposal of Vest-Viken and it became apparent that both counties supported the Language Council's proposal on Telemark and Vestfold. Eventually the local politicians agreed on Vestfold og Telemark as a compromise, although Telemark politicians stated that Telemark should be the first part of the name, both for alphabetical reasons and because of the Telemark name's iconic status in Norway and internationally, a status that the Vestfold name lacks.[3][2][4] As of 2018 Telemark og Vestfold is already the name of the relevant branches of several government agencies[1] and both name forms are widely used.