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Progress Party (Norway)
Encyclopedia
The Progress Party is a political party in Norway
which identifies as conservative liberal
and libertarian
. The media has described it as conservative
and right-wing populist
. It is currently the second-largest party in the Norwegian Parliament, with 41 seats.
Founded by Anders Lange
in 1973 largely as an anti-tax
movement, the party highly values individual
rights and supports the downsizing of bureaucracy
and increased market economy
, although it also supports an increased use of the uniquely Norwegian Oil Fund
to invest in infrastructure
. The party in addition seeks a more restrictive immigration
policy and tougher integration
and law and order
measures. Long-time chairman Carl I. Hagen
was from 1978 to 2006 the leader and centre of the party, and in many ways personally controlled the ideology and policies of the party. The current leader of the Progress Party is Siv Jensen
, who was the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election
.
In the 1997 parliamentary election
, the party for the first time became the second largest political party in Norway, a position it also held following the elections in 2005
and 2009
. The other parties in parliament have historically refused any formal governmental cooperation with the Progress Party. However, with the recent rise in support, and its steady position as the second largest party in Norway since 2005, the Conservative Party has considered potential governmental cooperation with the party.
Saga Kino in Oslo
on 8 April 1973, attended by around 1,345 persons. The address was held by Anders Lange
, after whom the party was named Anders Lange's Party for a Strong Reduction in Taxes, Duties and Public Intervention, commonly known as Anders Lange's Party, and abbreviated ALP. Lange had some political experience from the interwar era Fatherland League, and was part of the Norwegian resistance movement
during the Second World War
. Since the end of the war, he had worked as an independent right-wing political editor and public speaker. Lange held his first public speech as chairman of ALP at Youngstorget
in Oslo on 16 May the same year. ALP was to a large extent inspired by the Danish Progress Party
, which was founded by Mogens Glistrup
. Glistrup also spoke at the event, which gathered around 4,000 attendees. According to Eschel Rhoodie
, then Secretary of the Department of Information of South Africa
, his department had given financial aid
for a weekly party newspaper and the first election campaign of ALP.
Originally, Anders Lange wanted the party to be an anti-tax protest movement rather than a common political party. The party had a brief political platform on a single sheet of paper that on one side listed ten things the party was "tired of", and on the other side ten things that they were in favour of. The protest was directed against what Lange claimed to be an unacceptable high level of taxes, subsidies
, and foreign aid. In the 1973 parliamentary election
, the party won 5 percent of the vote and gained four seats in the Norwegian parliament. The main reasons for the success has later been seen by scholars as a mixture of tax protests, the charisma of Anders Lange, the role of television
, the aftermath of the 1972 EC membership referendum and the political development in Denmark. The first party conference was held in Hjelmeland
in 1974, where the party established its first political conventions.
, along with some others, broke away and formed the short-lived Reform Party
. The background for this was a criticism of ALPs "undemocratic organisation" and lack of a real party program. Later the same year however, Anders Lange died, which inserted Hagen as a regular Member of Parliament in Lange's place. As a result, the Reform Party merged back into ALP already the following year. The party adopted its current name, the Progress Party, on 29 January 1977, inspired by the great success of the Danish Progress Party. The Progress Party performed poorly in the 1977 parliamentary election
, and was left without parliamentary representation. In the 1978 party convention, Carl I. Hagen was elected as party chairman. Hagen soon started to expand the political program of the party, and build a conventional party organisation, a step to which Lange and some of his followers had opposed. The party's youth organisation, the Progress Party’s Youth, was also established in 1978. Hagen succeeded in sharpening the image of the party as an anti-tax movement. His criticism of the wisdom of hoarding billions of dollars in the "Oil Fund
" hit a nerve due to perceived declines in infrastructure
, school
s, and social services and long queues at hospital
s.
with four representatives. In this election, the political right
in general had a great upturn, which garnered the Progress Party increased support. The ideology of the party was sharpened in the 1980s, and the party officially declared that it was a libertarian party at its national convention in Sandefjord
in 1983. Until then, the party had not had a clearly defined ideology. In the campaign for the 1985 parliamentary election
, the party attacked many aspects of the Norwegian welfare state, and campaigned for privatization of medical care, education and government-owned enterprises, as well as steep cuts in income tax
. In the election, the party lost two of its four members of parliament, but was left with some power as they became the kingmaker
. In May 1986, the party used this position to effectively throw the governing Conservative-led government after it had proposed to increase gas taxes. A minority Labour government was established as a result.
The first real breakthrough for the party in Norwegian politics came in the 1987 local elections
, when the party nearly doubled its support from 6.3% to 12.3% (county results). This was largely as immigration was for the first time seriously taken up as an issue by the party (although Hagen had already in the late 1970s called for a strongly restrictive immigration policy), successfully putting the issue on the national agenda. Its campaign had mainly been focused on the issue of asylum seekers, but was additionally helped by the infamous "Mustafa-letter
", a letter read out by Hagen during the electoral campaign that portrayed the future Islamisation of Norway. In April 1988 the party was for the first time the second largest party in Norway in an opinion poll with 23.5%. In September 1988, the party further proposed in parliament for a referendum on the immigration policy, which was regarded by political scientists as the start of the party's 1989 election campaign. In 1989, the party made its breakthrough in national politics. In the 1989 parliamentary election
, the party obtained 13%, up from 3.7% in 1985, and became the third largest party in Norway. It started to gain power in some local administrations. The first mayor
s from the party were Håkon Rege
in Sola
(1988–1989), Bjørn Bråthen in Råde
(1990–1991) and Peter N. Myhre
in Oslo
(1990–1991).
halved the party's support to 6.3% and ten members of parliament. This drop in support can be seen as the result of an internal conflict within the party that came to a head in 1992, between the more extreme libertarian minority and the majority led by Carl I. Hagen. The libertarians had removed the party's focus on immigration, declaring it a "non-issue" in the early 1990s, which was heavily punished by voters in 1993, as well as 1991. Social conservative policy platforms had also been liberalised and caused controversy, such as accepting homosexual partnership. The party's unclear stance on Norwegian membership of the European Union
also contributed greatly to the setback, by moving the focus away from the party's stronger issues (see also Norwegian European Union membership referendum, 1994).
While many of the libertarians, including Pål Atle Skjervengen
and Tor Mikkel Wara
, had left the party before the 1993 election or had been rejected by voters, the conflict finally culminated in 1994. Following the party conference at Bolkesjø Hotell in Telemark
in April of that year, four MPs of the "libertarian wing" in the party broke off as independents
. This was because Hagen had given them an ultimatum to adhere to the political line of the party majority and parliamentary group, or else to leave. This incident was later nicknamed "Dolkesjø
", a pun
on the name of the hotel, with "dolke" meaning to "lit.
stab (in the back) /betray".
These events have been seen by political scientists as a turning point for the party. Subsequently the libertarians founded a libertarian organisation called the Free Democrats
which tried to establish a political party, but without success. Parts of the younger management of the party and the more libertarian youth organisation of the party also broke away, and even tried to disestablish the entire youth organisation. The youth organisation was however soon running again, this time with more "loyal" members, although it remained more libertarian than its mother organisation. After this, the Progress Party had a more right-wing populist
profile, which resulted in it gaining electoral support.
In the 1995 local elections
the Progress Party regained the level of support seen at the 1987 elections. This was said largely to have been as a result of a focus on Progress Party core issues in the electoral campaign, especially immigration, as well as the party dominating the media picture as a result of the controversy around the 1995 Norwegian Association meeting at Godlia kino. The latter particularly gained the party many sympathy votes, as a result of the harsh media storm targeted against Hagen. In the 1997 parliamentary election
, the party obtained 15.3% of the vote, and for the first time became the second largest political party in Norway. The 1999 local elections
resulted in the party's first mayor as a direct result of an election, Terje Søviknes
in Os
. 20 municipalities also elected a deputy mayor from the Progress Party.
, Hordaland
and Vest-Agder
sometimes resulted in expulsions of local representatives. Eventually Hagen also, in various ways, got rid of the so-called "gang of seven" (syverbanden), which consisted of seven members of parliament. In January 2001, Hagen claimed that he had seen a pattern where these had cooperated on several issues, and postulated that they were behind a conspiracy to eventually get Øystein Hedstrøm
elected as party chairman. The seven were eventually suspended, excluded from or voluntarily left the party, starting in early 2001. They most notably included Vidar Kleppe
(the alleged "leader"), Dag Danielsen
, Fridtjof Frank Gundersen
, as well as Jan Simonsen
(who distinctively did not get excluded until soon after the election). Only Hedstrøm remained in the party, but was subsequently kept away from publicly discussing immigration issues.
This again caused turmoil within the party; supporters of the excluded members criticed their treatment, some resigned from the party, and some of the party's local chapters were closed. Some of the outcasts ran for office in the 2001 election in several new county lists
, and later some formed a new party called the Democrats, with Kleppe as chairman and Simonsen as deputy chairman. Though the "gang of seven" took controversial positions on immigration, the actions taken against them were also based on internal issues; it remains unclear to what degree the settlement was based primarily on political disagreements or tactical considerations. Hagen's main goal with the "purge" was an attempt to make it possible for non-socialist parties to cooperate in an eventual government together with the Progress Party. In 2007, he revealed that he had received "clear signals" from politicians in among other the Christian Democratic Party, that government negotiations were out of the question so long as certain specific Progress Party politicians, including Kleppe and Simonsen (but not Hedstrøm), remained in the party. The more moderate libertarian minority in Oslo, including Henning Holstad, Svenn Kristiansen
and Siv Jensen
, now improved their hold in the party.
the party lost the gains it had made according to opinion polling but maintained its position from the 1997 election, it got 14.6% and 26 members in the parliament. The election result allowed them to unseat the Labour Party
government of Jens Stoltenberg
and replace it with a three-party coalition led by Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik
. However, the coalition continued to decline to govern together with the Progress Party as they considered the political differences too large. The Progress Party eventually decided to tolerate the coalition, as it promised to invest more in defence, open more private hospital
s and open for more competition in the public sector. In 2002 the Progress Party again advanced in the opinion polls and for a while became the largest party.
The local elections of 2003
were a success for the party. In 36 municipalities, the party gained more votes than any other; it succeeded in electing the mayor in only 13 of these, but also secured 40 deputy mayor positions. The Progress Party had participated in local elections since 1975, but until 2003 had only secured a mayoral position four times, all on separate occasions. The Progress Party vote in Os—the only municipality that elected a Progress Party mayor in 1999—increased from 36.6% in 1999 to 45.7% in 2003. The party also became the single largest in the counties of Vestfold
and Rogaland
.
In the 2005 parliamentary elections
, the party again became the second largest party in the Norwegian parliament, with 22.1% of the votes and 38 seats, a major increase from 2001. Although the centre-right government of Bondevik which the Progress Party had tolerated since 2001 was beaten by the leftist Red-Green Coalition, Hagen had before the election said that his party would no longer accept Bondevik as Prime Minister, following his consistent refusal to formally include the Progress Party in government. For the first time the party was also successful in getting Members of Parliament elected from all counties of Norway, and even became the largest party in three; Vest-Agder
, Rogaland
and Møre og Romsdal
. After the parliamentary elections in 2005, the party also became the largest party in many opinion polls. The Progress Party led November 2006 opinion polls with a support of 32.9% of respondents, and it continued to poll above 25 percent during the following years.
was chosen as his successor, with the hope that she could increase the party's appeal to voters, build bridges to liberal conservative parties, and head or participate in a future government of Norway. Following the local elections of 2007
, Progress Party candidates became mayor in 17 municipalities, seven of these continuing on from 2003. Deputy mayors for the party however decreased to 33. The party in general strongly increased its support in municipalities where the mayor had been elected from the Progress Party in 2003. The best result came in Nordreisa
, where the party held the mayor from the last election, with an increase from 24.6% to 49.3%.
In the months before the 2009 parliamentary elections
, the party had, as in the 2001 election, rated very highly in opinion poll results which however declined towards the actual election. Earlier in the year, the Progress Party had achieved above 30% in some polls which made it the largest party by several percentage points. With such high gains, the election result was in this case relatively disappointing. Before the election the gains continued to decrease, with most of these losses going to the Conservative Party
which had a surprisingly successful campaign. The decline in support over a longer period of time can also be seen as the Labour Party was since 2008 accused of "stealing" policies from the Progress Party. The Progress Party did, regardless, achieve a slight gain from the 2005 election with 22.9%, the best election result in the party's history. It also for the first time got represented in the Sami Parliament of Norway
in 2009
, with three representatives. This made it the fourth largest party in the Sami parliament, and second largest of the nationwide parties. In the informal school elections, the party became the largest party in Norway with 24% of the votes.
Since early 2010, opinion polls regularly showed a majority support for the Progress Party and Conservative Party together. The Progress Party however saw a strong setback for the 2011 local elections
. The 2011 Norway attacks
was pointed out by political scientists as the main catalyst for the result, as it according to them had effectively eliminated two of the party's key issues, anti-establishment and anti-immigration, in the election campaign. The party itself pointed to several unfortunate events over the past year, including the attacks. The party lost 6% in vote share, while the Conservative Party gained 9%. According to political scientists, most of the setback could be explained by a low turnout of Progress Party supporters.
stated that the Progress Party was now such a big party that it "must" be part of any centre-right governmental negotiations after the 2013 elections. At the municipal level, the Progress Party however cooperates with most parties, including the Labour Party
. In 2007 it also attracted some unusual attention when the local Porsgrunn
Progress Party was involved in some limited cooperation with the Socialist Left Party
and the Red Party.
or conservative liberalism
. The party identifies itself in the preamble of its platform as a libertarian party, built on Norwegian and Western tradition
s and cultural heritage
, with a basis in a Christian
understanding of life and humanist
values. Its main declared goal is a strong reduction in taxes and government intervention. The party is today generally considered to be conservative liberal, but has sometimes been described as populist
. While more fundamental libertarianism
was earlier a component of its ideology, this has in practice gradually more or less vanished from the party. As of the late 2000s, the party has also been influenced by Thatcherism
, particularly with Siv Jensen
becoming party leader.
The core issues for the party revolve around immigration
, crime
, foreign aid, the elderly and social security
in regards to health and care for the elderly. The party is regarded as having policies on the right in most of these cases, both fiscally and socially, though in some cases, like care for the elderly, the policy is regarded as being on the left. It has been claimed that the party changed in its first three decades, in turn from an "outsider movement" in the 1970s, to libertarianism in the 1980s, to right-wing populism in the 1990s. From the 2000s, the party has to some extent sought to moderate its profile in order to seek government cooperation with centre-right parties. This has been especially true since the expulsion of certain members around 2001, and further under the lead of Siv Jensen
from 2006, when the party has tried to move and position itself more towards conservatism
and also seek cooperation with such parties abroad.
, wanting to reduce the power of the state and the public sector. It believes that the public sector should only be there to secure a minimum standard of living, and that individuals, businesses and organisations should take care of various tasks instead of the public sector, in most cases. The party also generally advocates the lowering of taxes, various duties
, as well increased market economy
.
The party also notably want to invest more of Norway's oil wealth in infrastructure
(particularly road
s, broadband
capacity, hospital
s, school
s and nursing home
s) and the welfare state. This position, that has used a sense of a welfare crisis to support demands to spend more of the oil fund now rather than later, is part of its electoral success.
The party wants to strongly reduce taxation in Norway, and says that the money Norwegians earn, are their to be kept. They want to remove inheritance tax
and property tax
.
s, the party wants to improve the working environment for teacher
s and student
s by focusing more on order, discipline and class management. The party wants more individual adaptation, to implement grades in basic subjects from fifth grade, open more private schools and decrease the amount of theory in vocational educations.
The party regards the family
to be a natural, necessary and basic element in a free society. It regards the family to be a carrier of traditions and culture, and to have a role in raising and caring for children. The party also wants all children to have a right of visitation and care from both parents, and to secure everyones right to know who their biological parents are. The party strongly opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage
in 2008, questioning how children would "cope" with the law.
The party believes that artist
s should be less dependent on public support, and instead be more dependent on making a living on what they create. The party believes that regular people should rather decide what good culture is, and demands that artists on public support should offer something the audience wants. It also wants to abolish the annual fee for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and privatise the company. Otherwise, the party wants to protect and secure Norwegian cultural heritage.
Since the party distances itself from discrimination and special treatment based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, the party wants to dissolve the Sami Parliament of Norway
, which is based on ethnic classifications. The party wants to uphold Sami culture, but wants to work against any special treatment based on ethnic origin regarding the right of use of water and land.
or right-wing populist
party (or other similar terms), both by opposing politicians, as well as some scholars. Depending on definitions of populism, other scholars have however found that populism is at best a minor element of the party, or that its policies historically have been more consistent than for instance those of the Labour Party
, which moved more towards the Progress Party and neoliberalism
since the 1980s. Political scientist
Anders Todal Jensen has argued that the Progress Party is the only populist party in Norway, with all the other parties in contrast having strong elitist
foundations. He has suggested that the structures of the traditional parties make them poorly able to "listen to the people" in the same manner that the Progress Party may.
forces, and more visible police on the streets. It wants to implement tougher punishments, especially for crime regarding violence
and morality offences. The party also wants to establish an ombudsman
for victims and relatives, as it believes today's supportive concern focus too much on the criminals rather than the victims. It wants the police to be able to use more non-lethal weapons, such as electroshock weapons. It also does not accept any use of religious or political symbols with the police uniform, and wants to expell foreign citizens who are convicted of crime with a frame of more than three months imprisonment.
. During the 1990s the party shifted to focus more on cultural and ethnic issues and conflicts, a development which can also be seen in the general public debate, including among its political opponents. In 1993, it was the first party in Norway to use the notion of "integration politics" in its party programme. While the party has made numerous proposals on immigration in parliament, it has rarely received majority support for them. Its proposals has largely been rejected by the remaining political parties, as well as the mass media
. Although the party's immigration policies have been compared to those of the Danish People's Party
and the Sweden Democrats
, leading party members have rather seen its immigration policies to resemble those of the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
and the Danish Venstre
, when those parties were in government.
Generally, the party wants a stricter immigration policy, so that only those who are in need of protection according to the UN Refugee Convention
are allowed to stay in Norway. In a speech in the 2007 election campaign, Siv Jensen claimed that the immigration policy was a failure because it let criminals stay in Norway, while throwing out people who worked hard and followed the law. The party claims the immigration and integration policy to be both naïve and snillistisk. In 2009, the party proposed an official goal of reducing accepted asylum seekers by about 90%, from 1,000 to 100 a month, the standards then said to be used in Denmark
and Finland
, although less than 100 a year was proposed in 2008. In 2008, the party wanted to "avoid illiterates and other poorly resourced groups who we see are not able to adopt in Norway"; which included countries as Somalia
, Afghanistan
and Pakistan
. It also reject that asylum seekers are allowed stay in Norway on humanitarian grounds or due to health issues, and seeks to substantially limit the number of family reunification
s. The party wants to ban the use of hijab
in schools, and to deport parents of children wearing the hijab, citing the hijab to be oppressive to women and children. The party has also called for a referendum
on the general immigration policy.
A poll conducted by Utrop
in August 2009 showed that 10% (14% if the respondents answering "Don't know" are removed) of immigrants in Norway would vote for the Progress Party, only beaten by the Labour Party (38% and 56% respectively), when asked. More specifically, this constituted 9% of both African and Eastern European immigrants, 22% of Western European immigrants and 3% of Asian immigrants. Thus, it was above all immigrants from Western countries that contributed to the Progress Party, whereas those from the Middle East and Asia were very unlikely to support it; however, many immigrants from Africa also voted for the Progress Party. Numerous people of immigrant background are also increasingly active in the party, most notably Iranian-Norwegian Deputy Member of Parliament Mazyar Keshvari
and Indian-Norwegian youth politician Himanshu Gulati.
on Norwegian membership of the European Union
, although only if a majority of the public opinion is seen to favour it beforehand. Currently, the party consider an eventual membership of Norway in the European Union to be a "non-issue", believing there to be no reason for a debate of a new referendum at present. The party's demand that a referendum must be held before eventually applying for membership contrast with the Labour Party and Conservative Party who want to join the EU without any referendum. The party regards NATO to be a positive basic element of Norway's defense, security and foreign policy. It also wants to strengthen transatlantic relations
in general, and Norway's relationship with the United States
more specifically.
The Progress Party is the party in Norway that has shown the strongest support for Israel
. Recently, it has supported the right of Israel to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas
, and was the only party in Norway which supported Israel through the Gaza War (2008–09). The party also want to relocate the Norwegian embassy in Israel
from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem.
The party sees the most viable form of foreign aid policy, to be for developing countries to gradually manage themselves without Western aid. It believes that free trade
is the key for developing countries to gain economic growth, and that "the relationship between aid and development is at best unclear." The party is strongly critical of "forced contribution to government development aid through taxation", which it wants to limit, also as it believe this weakens the individual's personal sense of responsibility and generosity (voluntary aid). The party instead supports an increase in support for global health and vaccination initiatives against global epidemics such as HIV
, AIDS
and tuberculosis
, and to increase the support after emergencies and disasters.
, which ultimately declined, lost parliamentary representation, and fell into the fringes of Danish politics. In recent years, the Norwegian party has rather considered Denmark's Venstre
to be its sister party. Formally, Venstre is aligned with the Norwegian Liberal Party, and as late as 2006 the international secretary of Venstre said that "we have nothing in common with the Norwegian Progress Party". In 2009 however, the leader of Venstre, Inger Støjberg
, had changed and gave her support for the Progress Party, saying there were "great similarities" between the parties, and that Venstre stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the Progress Party, although this position was not universally supported within Venstre.
The party has also been compared to the more national conservative Danish People's Party
(DF), with journalist Lars Halskov suggesting that the great support for the party resulted from a combination of the immigration policies of the DF and the liberalism of Venstre. Political scientist
Cas Mudde
has also regarded the Progress Party to be somewhere in between these two parties. Kristian Norheim
, the international secretary for the Progress Party, in 2008 however distanced himself from DF, citing a right-turn in its immigration policy, and left-turn in its financial policies to be problematic. In 2007, Norheim also claimed that the Progress Party were "globalisation friendly", in contrast to DF, and that DF ideologically and politically was in Norway rather comparable to the Democrats.
. It has even been approached for cooperation by some of these parties, including the Belgian Vlaams Belang
, French Front National and the Freedom Party of Austria. In 2008, the Progress Party international secretary Kristian Norheim however distanced himself from such parties. He regarded many of these parties to be "national social democratic", and stressed their lack of liberalism as inconsistent with the Progress Party's platform.
In 2008 some of the parties that the Progress Party regarded itself as closer to included more conservative parties such as the Czech Civic Democratic Party, the British Conservative Party
, the Spanish People's Party
, the French Union for a Popular Movement
and "partly" the Italian Forza Italia
. It has also given some support for the Danish Venstre
and the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
. In May 2009 the British Conservative Party invited party leader Siv Jensen to hold a lecture in the House of Commons, which was seen as a further recognition of the party internationally, with the approach by the Danish Venstre the previous month.
In the United States
, the Progress Party generally supports the Republican Party
, and was in 2010 called "friends" by the Republican Party Chairman as he said he looked forward to the continued growth of the party and free market conservative principles. For the 2008 US election
, a survey found that the vast majority of Progress Party MPs and county leaders supported Republican Party candidates for president, although a few individuals supported Democratic Party
candidates. The party also has some connections with the American Tea Party movement
.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
which identifies as conservative liberal
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
and libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. The media has described it as conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
and right-wing populist
Right-wing populism
Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects existing political consensus and combines laissez-faire liberalism and anti-elitism. It is considered "right-wing" because of its rejection of social equality and government programs to achieve it, its opposition to social integration, and...
. It is currently the second-largest party in the Norwegian Parliament, with 41 seats.
Founded by Anders Lange
Anders Lange
Anders Sigurd Lange was a Norwegian politician and the eponymous founder of the political party Anders Lange's Party . He was a charismatic right-wing public speaker who objected to high taxes, state-regulations and public bureaucracy.Lange has been described as a man who went his own ways...
in 1973 largely as an anti-tax
Tax resistance
Tax resistance is the refusal to pay tax because of opposition to the government that is imposing the tax or to government policy.Tax resistance is a form of civil disobedience and direct action...
movement, the party highly values individual
Individual
An individual is a person or any specific object or thing in a collection. Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires. Being self expressive...
rights and supports the downsizing of bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
and increased market economy
Market economy
A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...
, although it also supports an increased use of the uniquely Norwegian Oil Fund
The Government Pension Fund of Norway
The Government Pension Fund of Norway comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the Government of Norway:* The Government Pension Fund - Global...
to invest in infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
. The party in addition seeks a more restrictive immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
policy and tougher integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
and law and order
Law and order (politics)
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties...
measures. Long-time chairman Carl I. Hagen
Carl I. Hagen
Carl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Norwegian Parliament. He was the chairman of the Progress Party from 1978 until 2006, when Siv Jensen replaced him as chairman of the party...
was from 1978 to 2006 the leader and centre of the party, and in many ways personally controlled the ideology and policies of the party. The current leader of the Progress Party is Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
, who was the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2009
The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities held open...
.
In the 1997 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 15 September 1997. Before the election, Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland of the Labour Party, issued the 36.9 ultimatum declaring that the government would step down unless it gained 36.9% of the vote, the percentage gained...
, the party for the first time became the second largest political party in Norway, a position it also held following the elections in 2005
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005
Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 12 September 2005. More than 3.4 million Norwegians were eligible for vote for the Storting, the parliament of Norway. The new Storting has 169 members, an increase of four over the 2001 election....
and 2009
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2009
The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities held open...
. The other parties in parliament have historically refused any formal governmental cooperation with the Progress Party. However, with the recent rise in support, and its steady position as the second largest party in Norway since 2005, the Conservative Party has considered potential governmental cooperation with the party.
Anders Lange's Party
The Progress Party was founded at a meeting at the movie theaterMovie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
Saga Kino in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
on 8 April 1973, attended by around 1,345 persons. The address was held by Anders Lange
Anders Lange
Anders Sigurd Lange was a Norwegian politician and the eponymous founder of the political party Anders Lange's Party . He was a charismatic right-wing public speaker who objected to high taxes, state-regulations and public bureaucracy.Lange has been described as a man who went his own ways...
, after whom the party was named Anders Lange's Party for a Strong Reduction in Taxes, Duties and Public Intervention, commonly known as Anders Lange's Party, and abbreviated ALP. Lange had some political experience from the interwar era Fatherland League, and was part of the Norwegian resistance movement
Norwegian resistance movement
The Norwegian resistance to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:...
during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Since the end of the war, he had worked as an independent right-wing political editor and public speaker. Lange held his first public speech as chairman of ALP at Youngstorget
Youngstorget
Youngstorget is a square and marketplace in Oslo, Norway.It is located on the street Torggata, between Storgata and Møllergata. The square was traditionally used as a market place for trade with agricultural produce. It is named for merchant Jørgen Young . It was named Nytorvet in 1852, which was...
in Oslo on 16 May the same year. ALP was to a large extent inspired by the Danish Progress Party
Progress Party (Denmark)
The Progress Party is a political party in Denmark, which was founded in 1972. Its founder, the former lawyer Mogens Glistrup, gained huge popularity in Denmark after he appeared on Danish television, showing that he paid 0 % in income tax...
, which was founded by Mogens Glistrup
Mogens Glistrup
Mogens Glistrup was a controversial Danish politician, lawyer, and member of the Danish parliament and founder of the Progress Party....
. Glistrup also spoke at the event, which gathered around 4,000 attendees. According to Eschel Rhoodie
Eschel Rhoodie
Eschel Mostert Rhoodie was a South African politician, public relations man and spin doctor most famous as being one of the key players in the 1978-79 Information Scandal, also known as "Infogate" or "Muldergate"...
, then Secretary of the Department of Information of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, his department had given financial aid
Aid
In international relations, aid is a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country....
for a weekly party newspaper and the first election campaign of ALP.
Originally, Anders Lange wanted the party to be an anti-tax protest movement rather than a common political party. The party had a brief political platform on a single sheet of paper that on one side listed ten things the party was "tired of", and on the other side ten things that they were in favour of. The protest was directed against what Lange claimed to be an unacceptable high level of taxes, subsidies
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
, and foreign aid. In the 1973 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1973
-Results:¹A coalition of the Socialist People's Party , the Communist Party of Norway , and anti-European Economic Community individuals from the Labour Party. The coalition evolved into the Socialist Left Party in 1975....
, the party won 5 percent of the vote and gained four seats in the Norwegian parliament. The main reasons for the success has later been seen by scholars as a mixture of tax protests, the charisma of Anders Lange, the role of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, the aftermath of the 1972 EC membership referendum and the political development in Denmark. The first party conference was held in Hjelmeland
Hjelmeland
is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. Hjelmeland was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Two other municipalities were later separated from it: Årdal and Fister , but these were both again merged with Hjelmeland on 1 January 1965.Hjelmeland is known for their fruit and fish...
in 1974, where the party established its first political conventions.
Progress Party and Carl I. Hagen
In early 1974, Kristofer Almås, Deputy Member of Parliament Carl I. HagenCarl I. Hagen
Carl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Norwegian Parliament. He was the chairman of the Progress Party from 1978 until 2006, when Siv Jensen replaced him as chairman of the party...
, along with some others, broke away and formed the short-lived Reform Party
Reform Party (Norway, 1974)
The Reform Party was a short-lived political party in Norway. The party was founded in 1974 by "moderate" defectors from the Anders Lange's Party. Led by Carl I...
. The background for this was a criticism of ALPs "undemocratic organisation" and lack of a real party program. Later the same year however, Anders Lange died, which inserted Hagen as a regular Member of Parliament in Lange's place. As a result, the Reform Party merged back into ALP already the following year. The party adopted its current name, the Progress Party, on 29 January 1977, inspired by the great success of the Danish Progress Party. The Progress Party performed poorly in the 1977 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1977
-Results:...
, and was left without parliamentary representation. In the 1978 party convention, Carl I. Hagen was elected as party chairman. Hagen soon started to expand the political program of the party, and build a conventional party organisation, a step to which Lange and some of his followers had opposed. The party's youth organisation, the Progress Party’s Youth, was also established in 1978. Hagen succeeded in sharpening the image of the party as an anti-tax movement. His criticism of the wisdom of hoarding billions of dollars in the "Oil Fund
The Government Pension Fund of Norway
The Government Pension Fund of Norway comprises two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds owned by the Government of Norway:* The Government Pension Fund - Global...
" hit a nerve due to perceived declines in infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s, and social services and long queues at hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s.
1980s: Establishing the party
While the Progress Party dropped out of parliament altogether in 1977, it returned in the following 1981 parliamentary electionNorwegian parliamentary election, 1981
-Results:...
with four representatives. In this election, the political right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
in general had a great upturn, which garnered the Progress Party increased support. The ideology of the party was sharpened in the 1980s, and the party officially declared that it was a libertarian party at its national convention in Sandefjord
Sandefjord
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sandefjord. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838...
in 1983. Until then, the party had not had a clearly defined ideology. In the campaign for the 1985 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1985
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 9 September 1985.-Results:...
, the party attacked many aspects of the Norwegian welfare state, and campaigned for privatization of medical care, education and government-owned enterprises, as well as steep cuts in income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
. In the election, the party lost two of its four members of parliament, but was left with some power as they became the kingmaker
Kingmaker scenario
A kingmaker scenario, in a game of three or more players, is an endgame situation where a player unable to win has the capacity to determine which player among others is the winner. Said player is referred to as the kingmaker or spoiler...
. In May 1986, the party used this position to effectively throw the governing Conservative-led government after it had proposed to increase gas taxes. A minority Labour government was established as a result.
The first real breakthrough for the party in Norwegian politics came in the 1987 local elections
Norwegian local elections, 1987
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1987. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:...
, when the party nearly doubled its support from 6.3% to 12.3% (county results). This was largely as immigration was for the first time seriously taken up as an issue by the party (although Hagen had already in the late 1970s called for a strongly restrictive immigration policy), successfully putting the issue on the national agenda. Its campaign had mainly been focused on the issue of asylum seekers, but was additionally helped by the infamous "Mustafa-letter
Mustafa-letter
The Mustafa-letter was a controversial letter which the chairman of the Progress Party, Carl I. Hagen, used in the electoral campaign for the 1987 local elections. The letter was signed Mohammad Mustafa, a Muslim immigrant to Norway, but the media soon claimed they could prove the letter was false...
", a letter read out by Hagen during the electoral campaign that portrayed the future Islamisation of Norway. In April 1988 the party was for the first time the second largest party in Norway in an opinion poll with 23.5%. In September 1988, the party further proposed in parliament for a referendum on the immigration policy, which was regarded by political scientists as the start of the party's 1989 election campaign. In 1989, the party made its breakthrough in national politics. In the 1989 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1989
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 11 September 1989.-Results:1 This list was a cooperation between the Norwegian Communist Party, Workers' Communist Party, Red Electoral Alliance and independent socialists....
, the party obtained 13%, up from 3.7% in 1985, and became the third largest party in Norway. It started to gain power in some local administrations. The first mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
s from the party were Håkon Rege
Håkon Rege
Håkon Rege is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party, currently as mayor of Sola.Rege was originally a member of the Progress Party, and became the party's first mayor in 1988, of the municipality Sola. In 1995 he however had "had enough of the party", and resigned and went over to the...
in Sola
Sola
Sola is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is part of the region of Jæren. The old municipality of Håland was divided into Sola and Madla in 1930....
(1988–1989), Bjørn Bråthen in Råde
Råde
Råde is a municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Karlshus. The parish of Raade was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 ....
(1990–1991) and Peter N. Myhre
Peter N. Myhre
Peter Nicolai Myhre is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party.-Early life and career:Myhre is the son of tobacco merchant Gunnar Peter Myhre and Gunhold Nordlid. He married Marie Françoise Millou in 1985. He graduated from upper secondary school in 1973, attended military academy in 1974,...
in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
(1990–1991).
1990s: Libertarian schism, consolidation
The 1993 parliamentary electionNorwegian parliamentary election, 1993
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 13 September 1993. The Labour Party won a plurality of seats, and Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland remained in office. The Centre Party was particularly successful, gaining 21 seats....
halved the party's support to 6.3% and ten members of parliament. This drop in support can be seen as the result of an internal conflict within the party that came to a head in 1992, between the more extreme libertarian minority and the majority led by Carl I. Hagen. The libertarians had removed the party's focus on immigration, declaring it a "non-issue" in the early 1990s, which was heavily punished by voters in 1993, as well as 1991. Social conservative policy platforms had also been liberalised and caused controversy, such as accepting homosexual partnership. The party's unclear stance on Norwegian membership of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
also contributed greatly to the setback, by moving the focus away from the party's stronger issues (see also Norwegian European Union membership referendum, 1994).
While many of the libertarians, including Pål Atle Skjervengen
Pål Atle Skjervengen
Pål Atle Skjervengen is a retired Norwegian politician.He was born in Oslo as a son of a police inspector. He finished secondary education in 1979, and briefly studied law, then business administration at the Norwegian School of Management. From 1982 to 1984 he worked in the party newspaper...
and Tor Mikkel Wara
Tor Mikkel Wara
Tor Mikkel Wara is a former Norwegian politician.Wara was born in Karasjok, and was a member of the Oslo municipality council between 1987 and 1989. During the same period he was the chairman of the Youth of the Progress Party, and became known as a young rising star within the party...
, had left the party before the 1993 election or had been rejected by voters, the conflict finally culminated in 1994. Following the party conference at Bolkesjø Hotell in Telemark
Telemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
in April of that year, four MPs of the "libertarian wing" in the party broke off as independents
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
. This was because Hagen had given them an ultimatum to adhere to the political line of the party majority and parliamentary group, or else to leave. This incident was later nicknamed "Dolkesjø
1994 Progress Party national convention
The 1994 national convention of the Progress Party of Norway was held from 15 April to 17 April at the hotel Bolkesjø Turisthotell in Bolkesjø, Telemark...
", a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
on the name of the hotel, with "dolke" meaning to "lit.
Literal translation
Literal translation, or direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" rather than conveying the sense of the original...
stab (in the back) /betray".
These events have been seen by political scientists as a turning point for the party. Subsequently the libertarians founded a libertarian organisation called the Free Democrats
Free Democrats (Norway)
The Free Democrats is a political organization formed by former members of the Progress Party of Norway in 1994.The 1993 election saw the support of the Progress Party halved...
which tried to establish a political party, but without success. Parts of the younger management of the party and the more libertarian youth organisation of the party also broke away, and even tried to disestablish the entire youth organisation. The youth organisation was however soon running again, this time with more "loyal" members, although it remained more libertarian than its mother organisation. After this, the Progress Party had a more right-wing populist
Right-wing populism
Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects existing political consensus and combines laissez-faire liberalism and anti-elitism. It is considered "right-wing" because of its rejection of social equality and government programs to achieve it, its opposition to social integration, and...
profile, which resulted in it gaining electoral support.
In the 1995 local elections
Norwegian local elections, 1995
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1995. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:...
the Progress Party regained the level of support seen at the 1987 elections. This was said largely to have been as a result of a focus on Progress Party core issues in the electoral campaign, especially immigration, as well as the party dominating the media picture as a result of the controversy around the 1995 Norwegian Association meeting at Godlia kino. The latter particularly gained the party many sympathy votes, as a result of the harsh media storm targeted against Hagen. In the 1997 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 15 September 1997. Before the election, Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland of the Labour Party, issued the 36.9 ultimatum declaring that the government would step down unless it gained 36.9% of the vote, the percentage gained...
, the party obtained 15.3% of the vote, and for the first time became the second largest political party in Norway. The 1999 local elections
Norwegian local elections, 1999
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1999. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:...
resulted in the party's first mayor as a direct result of an election, Terje Søviknes
Terje Søviknes
Terje Søviknes is a Norwegian politician, and the first politician of the Progress Party to become mayor of a Norwegian municipality, namely Os, Hordaland...
in Os
Os, Hordaland
Os is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. Due to its proximity to Bergen, Os is experiencing strong population growth. -History:...
. 20 municipalities also elected a deputy mayor from the Progress Party.
Turmoil and new expulsions
While the Progress Party had witnessed close to 35% support in opinion polls in late 2000, its support fell back to 1997 levels in the upcoming election in 2001. This was largely a result of turmoil surrounding the party. The party's deputy leader Terje Søviknes became involved in a sex scandal, and internal political conflicts came to the surface; Hagen had already in 1999 tried to quiet the most controversial immigration opponents in the parliamentary party, who had gained influence since the 1994 national convention. In late 2000 and early 2001, opposition to this locally in OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, Hordaland
Hordaland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark and Rogaland. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county administration is located in Bergen...
and Vest-Agder
Vest-Agder
In the 16th century, Dutch merchant vessels began to visit ports in southern Norway to purchase salmon and other goods. Soon thereafter the export of timber began, as oak from southern Norway was exceptionally well suited for shipbuilding...
sometimes resulted in expulsions of local representatives. Eventually Hagen also, in various ways, got rid of the so-called "gang of seven" (syverbanden), which consisted of seven members of parliament. In January 2001, Hagen claimed that he had seen a pattern where these had cooperated on several issues, and postulated that they were behind a conspiracy to eventually get Øystein Hedstrøm
Øystein Hedstrøm
Øystein Hedstrøm is a Norwegian politician. He was a Member of Parliament from Østfold for the Progress Party from 1989 to 2005, after which he declined renomination.-Early and personal life:...
elected as party chairman. The seven were eventually suspended, excluded from or voluntarily left the party, starting in early 2001. They most notably included Vidar Kleppe
Vidar Kleppe
Vidar Sveinung Kleppe is a Norwegian politician. He was a Member of Parliament and deputy chairman of the Progress Party until being suspended and left the party in 2001...
(the alleged "leader"), Dag Danielsen
Dag Danielsen
Dag Danielsen is a Norwegian politician. He was a Storting representative between 1997–2001, representing Fremskrittspartiet...
, Fridtjof Frank Gundersen
Fridtjof Frank Gundersen
Fridtjof Frank Gundersen was a Norwegian professor of jurisprudence and politician. He worked as a lector at the Faculty of Law of the University of Oslo from 1965 to 1975...
, as well as Jan Simonsen
Jan Simonsen
Jan Simonsen is a Norwegian writer, freelance journalist and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1989 until 2005. He was elected with the Progress Party, until being excluded in 2001. From 2003 to 2004 he was vice chairman of the newly founded Democrats.Since then he has largely...
(who distinctively did not get excluded until soon after the election). Only Hedstrøm remained in the party, but was subsequently kept away from publicly discussing immigration issues.
This again caused turmoil within the party; supporters of the excluded members criticed their treatment, some resigned from the party, and some of the party's local chapters were closed. Some of the outcasts ran for office in the 2001 election in several new county lists
County lists for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001
The county lists for the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001 was a group of nine political lists, or parties, which under different names ran for the 2001 parliamentary election in Norway...
, and later some formed a new party called the Democrats, with Kleppe as chairman and Simonsen as deputy chairman. Though the "gang of seven" took controversial positions on immigration, the actions taken against them were also based on internal issues; it remains unclear to what degree the settlement was based primarily on political disagreements or tactical considerations. Hagen's main goal with the "purge" was an attempt to make it possible for non-socialist parties to cooperate in an eventual government together with the Progress Party. In 2007, he revealed that he had received "clear signals" from politicians in among other the Christian Democratic Party, that government negotiations were out of the question so long as certain specific Progress Party politicians, including Kleppe and Simonsen (but not Hedstrøm), remained in the party. The more moderate libertarian minority in Oslo, including Henning Holstad, Svenn Kristiansen
Svenn Kristiansen
Svenn Erik Kristiansen is a Norwegian teacher turned politician. He served as deputy mayor of Oslo for a period before becoming mayor of Oslo for a period in 2007, when Per Ditlev-Simonsen resigned. Following the Norwegian local elections, 2007 Kristiansen did not continue as mayor.-References:*...
and Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
, now improved their hold in the party.
Early 2000s: Bondevik II years
In the 2001 parliamentary electionNorwegian parliamentary election, 2001
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on September 10, 2001. The Labour Party won a plurality of votes and seats, closely followed by the Conservative Party...
the party lost the gains it had made according to opinion polling but maintained its position from the 1997 election, it got 14.6% and 26 members in the parliament. The election result allowed them to unseat the Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
government of Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg
is a Norwegian politician, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and the current Prime Minister of Norway. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg previously served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001....
and replace it with a three-party coalition led by Christian Democrat Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
. However, the coalition continued to decline to govern together with the Progress Party as they considered the political differences too large. The Progress Party eventually decided to tolerate the coalition, as it promised to invest more in defence, open more private hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s and open for more competition in the public sector. In 2002 the Progress Party again advanced in the opinion polls and for a while became the largest party.
The local elections of 2003
Norwegian local elections, 2003
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 15, 2003. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently. In addition, several municipalities held direct mayoral...
were a success for the party. In 36 municipalities, the party gained more votes than any other; it succeeded in electing the mayor in only 13 of these, but also secured 40 deputy mayor positions. The Progress Party had participated in local elections since 1975, but until 2003 had only secured a mayoral position four times, all on separate occasions. The Progress Party vote in Os—the only municipality that elected a Progress Party mayor in 1999—increased from 36.6% in 1999 to 45.7% in 2003. The party also became the single largest in the counties of Vestfold
Vestfold
is a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg.Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates. It includes many smaller, but well-known towns in Norway, such as Larvik, Sandefjord, Tønsberg and Horten. The river Numedalslågen runs...
and Rogaland
Rogaland
is a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...
.
In the 2005 parliamentary elections
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005
Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 12 September 2005. More than 3.4 million Norwegians were eligible for vote for the Storting, the parliament of Norway. The new Storting has 169 members, an increase of four over the 2001 election....
, the party again became the second largest party in the Norwegian parliament, with 22.1% of the votes and 38 seats, a major increase from 2001. Although the centre-right government of Bondevik which the Progress Party had tolerated since 2001 was beaten by the leftist Red-Green Coalition, Hagen had before the election said that his party would no longer accept Bondevik as Prime Minister, following his consistent refusal to formally include the Progress Party in government. For the first time the party was also successful in getting Members of Parliament elected from all counties of Norway, and even became the largest party in three; Vest-Agder
Vest-Agder
In the 16th century, Dutch merchant vessels began to visit ports in southern Norway to purchase salmon and other goods. Soon thereafter the export of timber began, as oak from southern Norway was exceptionally well suited for shipbuilding...
, Rogaland
Rogaland
is a county in Western Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%...
and Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal
is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.-The name:...
. After the parliamentary elections in 2005, the party also became the largest party in many opinion polls. The Progress Party led November 2006 opinion polls with a support of 32.9% of respondents, and it continued to poll above 25 percent during the following years.
Present: Siv Jensen
In 2006, after 27 years as leader of the party, Hagen stepped down to become Vice President of the Norwegian parliament Stortinget. Siv JensenSiv Jensen
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
was chosen as his successor, with the hope that she could increase the party's appeal to voters, build bridges to liberal conservative parties, and head or participate in a future government of Norway. Following the local elections of 2007
Norwegian local elections, 2007
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 10, 2007, with some areas polling on September 9 as well. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently...
, Progress Party candidates became mayor in 17 municipalities, seven of these continuing on from 2003. Deputy mayors for the party however decreased to 33. The party in general strongly increased its support in municipalities where the mayor had been elected from the Progress Party in 2003. The best result came in Nordreisa
Nordreisa
Nordreisa is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Storslett.The municipality consists of the valley of Reisadalen, with the Reisa river and deep pine forests, surrounded by mountains and high plateaus. Most people live in...
, where the party held the mayor from the last election, with an increase from 24.6% to 49.3%.
In the months before the 2009 parliamentary elections
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2009
The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities held open...
, the party had, as in the 2001 election, rated very highly in opinion poll results which however declined towards the actual election. Earlier in the year, the Progress Party had achieved above 30% in some polls which made it the largest party by several percentage points. With such high gains, the election result was in this case relatively disappointing. Before the election the gains continued to decrease, with most of these losses going to the Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Norway
The Conservative Party is a Norwegian political party. The current leader is Erna Solberg. The party was since the 1920s consistently the second largest party in Norway, but has been surpassed by the growth of the Progress Party in the late 1990s and 2000s...
which had a surprisingly successful campaign. The decline in support over a longer period of time can also be seen as the Labour Party was since 2008 accused of "stealing" policies from the Progress Party. The Progress Party did, regardless, achieve a slight gain from the 2005 election with 22.9%, the best election result in the party's history. It also for the first time got represented in the Sami Parliament of Norway
Sami Parliament of Norway
The Sami Parliament of Norway is the representative body for people of Sami heritage in Norway. It acts as an institution of cultural autonomy for the indigenous Sami people....
in 2009
Norwegian Sami parliamentary election, 2009
The 2009 Sami parliamentary election was held in Norway on September 14, 2009. Voters elected 39 members for the Sami Parliament of Norway.The election saw significant losses for the two dominant parties in the Sami Parliament, the Norwegian Labour Party and Norwegian Sami Association...
, with three representatives. This made it the fourth largest party in the Sami parliament, and second largest of the nationwide parties. In the informal school elections, the party became the largest party in Norway with 24% of the votes.
Since early 2010, opinion polls regularly showed a majority support for the Progress Party and Conservative Party together. The Progress Party however saw a strong setback for the 2011 local elections
Norwegian local elections, 2011
Nationwide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on 12 September 2011. Several municipalities also opened the polling booths on 11 September. For most polling stations this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections...
. The 2011 Norway attacks
2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks were two sequential terrorist attacks against the government, the civilian population and a summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011....
was pointed out by political scientists as the main catalyst for the result, as it according to them had effectively eliminated two of the party's key issues, anti-establishment and anti-immigration, in the election campaign. The party itself pointed to several unfortunate events over the past year, including the attacks. The party lost 6% in vote share, while the Conservative Party gained 9%. According to political scientists, most of the setback could be explained by a low turnout of Progress Party supporters.
Isolation
Ever since its foundation, other parties have consistently refused the Progress Party's efforts to join any governing coalition at the state level. The reasons have mainly included concerns about the party's alleged irresponsibility and its position on immigration issues. Following the increased support and importance of the Progress Party in the 2005 elections, the Conservative Party stated they wanted to be "a bridge between the Progress Party and the centre." This is because the centrist Liberal Party and Christian Democratic Party reject the possibility of participating in a government coalition together with the Progress Party. In addition, the Progress Party does not want to support a government coalition that it itself is not a part of. In 2010, the Conservative Party went even further when its leader Erna SolbergErna Solberg
Erna Solberg is a Norwegian politician, and current leader of the Conservative Party of Norway. She was the Municipal and Regional Minister in Kjell Magne Bondevik's second government, 19 October 2001 until 17 October 2005. In 2005, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of St. Olav.-Early...
stated that the Progress Party was now such a big party that it "must" be part of any centre-right governmental negotiations after the 2013 elections. At the municipal level, the Progress Party however cooperates with most parties, including the Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
. In 2007 it also attracted some unusual attention when the local Porsgrunn
Porsgrunn
is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Porsgrunn....
Progress Party was involved in some limited cooperation with the Socialist Left Party
Socialist Left Party (Norway)
The Socialist Left Party or SV, is a Norwegian left-wing political party. At one point one of the smallest parties in Parliament, it became the fourth-largest political party in Norway for the first time in the 2001 parliamentary election, and has been so ever since...
and the Red Party.
Ideology
The Progress Party currently regards itself to be a "libertarian people's party", and its ideology to be libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
or conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
. The party identifies itself in the preamble of its platform as a libertarian party, built on Norwegian and Western tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
s and cultural heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
, with a basis in a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
understanding of life and humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
values. Its main declared goal is a strong reduction in taxes and government intervention. The party is today generally considered to be conservative liberal, but has sometimes been described as populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. While more fundamental libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
was earlier a component of its ideology, this has in practice gradually more or less vanished from the party. As of the late 2000s, the party has also been influenced by Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
, particularly with Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
becoming party leader.
The core issues for the party revolve around immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
, foreign aid, the elderly and social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
in regards to health and care for the elderly. The party is regarded as having policies on the right in most of these cases, both fiscally and socially, though in some cases, like care for the elderly, the policy is regarded as being on the left. It has been claimed that the party changed in its first three decades, in turn from an "outsider movement" in the 1970s, to libertarianism in the 1980s, to right-wing populism in the 1990s. From the 2000s, the party has to some extent sought to moderate its profile in order to seek government cooperation with centre-right parties. This has been especially true since the expulsion of certain members around 2001, and further under the lead of Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
from 2006, when the party has tried to move and position itself more towards conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
and also seek cooperation with such parties abroad.
Economy
The party is strongly individualisticIndividualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
, wanting to reduce the power of the state and the public sector. It believes that the public sector should only be there to secure a minimum standard of living, and that individuals, businesses and organisations should take care of various tasks instead of the public sector, in most cases. The party also generally advocates the lowering of taxes, various duties
Duty (economics)
In economics, a duty is a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law. It is a tax on certain items purchased abroad...
, as well increased market economy
Market economy
A market economy is an economy in which the prices of goods and services are determined in a free price system. This is often contrasted with a state-directed or planned economy. Market economies can range from hypothetically pure laissez-faire variants to an assortment of real-world mixed...
.
The party also notably want to invest more of Norway's oil wealth in infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
(particularly road
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
s, broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
capacity, hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
s, school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s and nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s) and the welfare state. This position, that has used a sense of a welfare crisis to support demands to spend more of the oil fund now rather than later, is part of its electoral success.
The party wants to strongly reduce taxation in Norway, and says that the money Norwegians earn, are their to be kept. They want to remove inheritance tax
Inheritance tax
An inheritance tax or estate tax is a levy paid by a person who inherits money or property or a tax on the estate of a person who has died...
and property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
.
Society
In schoolSchool
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s, the party wants to improve the working environment for teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
s and student
Student
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
s by focusing more on order, discipline and class management. The party wants more individual adaptation, to implement grades in basic subjects from fifth grade, open more private schools and decrease the amount of theory in vocational educations.
The party regards the family
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
to be a natural, necessary and basic element in a free society. It regards the family to be a carrier of traditions and culture, and to have a role in raising and caring for children. The party also wants all children to have a right of visitation and care from both parents, and to secure everyones right to know who their biological parents are. The party strongly opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in Norway
Same-sex marriage became legal in Norway on January 1, 2009 when a gender neutral marriage bill was enacted after being passed by the Norwegian legislature in June 2008...
in 2008, questioning how children would "cope" with the law.
The party believes that artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s should be less dependent on public support, and instead be more dependent on making a living on what they create. The party believes that regular people should rather decide what good culture is, and demands that artists on public support should offer something the audience wants. It also wants to abolish the annual fee for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and privatise the company. Otherwise, the party wants to protect and secure Norwegian cultural heritage.
Since the party distances itself from discrimination and special treatment based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, the party wants to dissolve the Sami Parliament of Norway
Sami Parliament of Norway
The Sami Parliament of Norway is the representative body for people of Sami heritage in Norway. It acts as an institution of cultural autonomy for the indigenous Sami people....
, which is based on ethnic classifications. The party wants to uphold Sami culture, but wants to work against any special treatment based on ethnic origin regarding the right of use of water and land.
Populism
The Progress Party has historically sometimes been portrayed externally as a populistPopulism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
or right-wing populist
Right-wing populism
Right-wing populism is a political ideology that rejects existing political consensus and combines laissez-faire liberalism and anti-elitism. It is considered "right-wing" because of its rejection of social equality and government programs to achieve it, its opposition to social integration, and...
party (or other similar terms), both by opposing politicians, as well as some scholars. Depending on definitions of populism, other scholars have however found that populism is at best a minor element of the party, or that its policies historically have been more consistent than for instance those of the Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
, which moved more towards the Progress Party and neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
since the 1980s. Political scientist
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
Anders Todal Jensen has argued that the Progress Party is the only populist party in Norway, with all the other parties in contrast having strong elitist
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
foundations. He has suggested that the structures of the traditional parties make them poorly able to "listen to the people" in the same manner that the Progress Party may.
Law and order
The party supports an increase in policePolice
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
forces, and more visible police on the streets. It wants to implement tougher punishments, especially for crime regarding violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
and morality offences. The party also wants to establish an ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
for victims and relatives, as it believes today's supportive concern focus too much on the criminals rather than the victims. It wants the police to be able to use more non-lethal weapons, such as electroshock weapons. It also does not accept any use of religious or political symbols with the police uniform, and wants to expell foreign citizens who are convicted of crime with a frame of more than three months imprisonment.
Immigration
From the second half of the 1980s the economic and welfare aspects of immigration policy were mainly a focus of Progress Party criticism, including the strains placed by immigration on the welfare stateWelfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
. During the 1990s the party shifted to focus more on cultural and ethnic issues and conflicts, a development which can also be seen in the general public debate, including among its political opponents. In 1993, it was the first party in Norway to use the notion of "integration politics" in its party programme. While the party has made numerous proposals on immigration in parliament, it has rarely received majority support for them. Its proposals has largely been rejected by the remaining political parties, as well as the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. Although the party's immigration policies have been compared to those of the Danish People's Party
Danish People's Party
The Danish People's Party is a political party in Denmark which is frequently described as right-wing populist by political scientists and commentators. The party is led by Pia Kjærsgaard...
and the Sweden Democrats
Sweden Democrats
The Sweden Democrats is a political party in Sweden, founded in 1988. SD describes itself as a nationalist movement although others use the term far-right. Since 2005, its party chairman is Jimmie Åkesson, while Björn Söder is the party secretary and parliamentary group leader. An Anemone...
, leading party members have rather seen its immigration policies to resemble those of the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
and the Danish Venstre
Venstre (Denmark)
VenstreThe party name is officially not translated into any other language, but is in English often referred to as the Liberal Party. Similar rules apply for the name of the party's youth wing Venstres Ungdom. , full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti , is the largest political party in Denmark...
, when those parties were in government.
Generally, the party wants a stricter immigration policy, so that only those who are in need of protection according to the UN Refugee Convention
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees is an international convention that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum. The Convention also sets out which people do not...
are allowed to stay in Norway. In a speech in the 2007 election campaign, Siv Jensen claimed that the immigration policy was a failure because it let criminals stay in Norway, while throwing out people who worked hard and followed the law. The party claims the immigration and integration policy to be both naïve and snillistisk. In 2009, the party proposed an official goal of reducing accepted asylum seekers by about 90%, from 1,000 to 100 a month, the standards then said to be used in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, although less than 100 a year was proposed in 2008. In 2008, the party wanted to "avoid illiterates and other poorly resourced groups who we see are not able to adopt in Norway"; which included countries as Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. It also reject that asylum seekers are allowed stay in Norway on humanitarian grounds or due to health issues, and seeks to substantially limit the number of family reunification
Family reunification
Family reunification is a recognized reason for immigration in many countries. The presence of one or more family members in a certain country, therefore, enables the rest of the family to immigrate to that country as well....
s. The party wants to ban the use of hijab
Hijab
The word "hijab" or "'" refers to both the head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women and modest Muslim styles of dress in general....
in schools, and to deport parents of children wearing the hijab, citing the hijab to be oppressive to women and children. The party has also called for a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on the general immigration policy.
A poll conducted by Utrop
Utrop
Utrop is a Norwegian biweekly, multicultural newspaper.It was established in 2001 as the first online newspaper for minorities in Norway. The newspaper was expanded to a paper version in June 2004. Editor-in-chief is Majoran Vivekananthan....
in August 2009 showed that 10% (14% if the respondents answering "Don't know" are removed) of immigrants in Norway would vote for the Progress Party, only beaten by the Labour Party (38% and 56% respectively), when asked. More specifically, this constituted 9% of both African and Eastern European immigrants, 22% of Western European immigrants and 3% of Asian immigrants. Thus, it was above all immigrants from Western countries that contributed to the Progress Party, whereas those from the Middle East and Asia were very unlikely to support it; however, many immigrants from Africa also voted for the Progress Party. Numerous people of immigrant background are also increasingly active in the party, most notably Iranian-Norwegian Deputy Member of Parliament Mazyar Keshvari
Mazyar Keshvari
Mazyar Keshvari is an Iranian-Norwegian politician of the Progress Party of Norway.Keshvari, who was born in Iran, and his family emigrated to Norway in 1986. He has made his mark in the Norwegian public sphere as a staunch opponent of the Iranian theocracy. He also supports gay rights and defends...
and Indian-Norwegian youth politician Himanshu Gulati.
Foreign policy
The Progress Party is in principle open to a referendumReferendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on Norwegian membership of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, although only if a majority of the public opinion is seen to favour it beforehand. Currently, the party consider an eventual membership of Norway in the European Union to be a "non-issue", believing there to be no reason for a debate of a new referendum at present. The party's demand that a referendum must be held before eventually applying for membership contrast with the Labour Party and Conservative Party who want to join the EU without any referendum. The party regards NATO to be a positive basic element of Norway's defense, security and foreign policy. It also wants to strengthen transatlantic relations
Transatlantic relations
Transatlantic relations refers to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes specifically those between the United States, Canada and the countries in Europe, although other meanings are possible.There are a...
in general, and Norway's relationship with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
more specifically.
The Progress Party is the party in Norway that has shown the strongest support for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Recently, it has supported the right of Israel to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, and was the only party in Norway which supported Israel through the Gaza War (2008–09). The party also want to relocate the Norwegian embassy in Israel
Positions on Jerusalem
There are differing legal and diplomatic positions on Jerusalem held within the international community. Governments and scholars alike are divided over the legal status of Jerusalem under international law. Most countries of the world do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Many do not...
from Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
to Jerusalem.
The party sees the most viable form of foreign aid policy, to be for developing countries to gradually manage themselves without Western aid. It believes that free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
is the key for developing countries to gain economic growth, and that "the relationship between aid and development is at best unclear." The party is strongly critical of "forced contribution to government development aid through taxation", which it wants to limit, also as it believe this weakens the individual's personal sense of responsibility and generosity (voluntary aid). The party instead supports an increase in support for global health and vaccination initiatives against global epidemics such as HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
, AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, and to increase the support after emergencies and disasters.
International relations
The Progress Party does not belong to any international political groups, and does not have any official sister parties. Historically the party has not compared itself to other European parties, and has sought to rather establish its own identity. In 2008 however, the party for the first time set out to build its international reputation by hiring two international secretaries to travel internationally and establishing contact with politicians and parties abroad. This was cited especially to "not risk being declared as extremists by opponents the day we form a government". An international secretary for the party in the same year said that the party had been connected with a "misunderstood right-wing radical label", partly because people with nationalistic and "hopeless attitudes" had previously been involved in the party. Such persons were said no longer to be involved.Denmark
The Progress Party was originally inspired by its Danish counterpart, the Progress PartyProgress Party (Denmark)
The Progress Party is a political party in Denmark, which was founded in 1972. Its founder, the former lawyer Mogens Glistrup, gained huge popularity in Denmark after he appeared on Danish television, showing that he paid 0 % in income tax...
, which ultimately declined, lost parliamentary representation, and fell into the fringes of Danish politics. In recent years, the Norwegian party has rather considered Denmark's Venstre
Venstre (Denmark)
VenstreThe party name is officially not translated into any other language, but is in English often referred to as the Liberal Party. Similar rules apply for the name of the party's youth wing Venstres Ungdom. , full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti , is the largest political party in Denmark...
to be its sister party. Formally, Venstre is aligned with the Norwegian Liberal Party, and as late as 2006 the international secretary of Venstre said that "we have nothing in common with the Norwegian Progress Party". In 2009 however, the leader of Venstre, Inger Støjberg
Inger Støjberg
Inger Støjberg is a Danish member of parliament since the 2001 elections for the party Venstre. She has been Minister of Employment.-Personal life:...
, had changed and gave her support for the Progress Party, saying there were "great similarities" between the parties, and that Venstre stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the Progress Party, although this position was not universally supported within Venstre.
The party has also been compared to the more national conservative Danish People's Party
Danish People's Party
The Danish People's Party is a political party in Denmark which is frequently described as right-wing populist by political scientists and commentators. The party is led by Pia Kjærsgaard...
(DF), with journalist Lars Halskov suggesting that the great support for the party resulted from a combination of the immigration policies of the DF and the liberalism of Venstre. Political scientist
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
Cas Mudde
Cas Mudde
Cas Mudde is a Dutch academic who studies the Extreme Right in Europe. As of 2010 he is a visiting scholar at the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics and visiting associate professor at the political science department DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana...
has also regarded the Progress Party to be somewhere in between these two parties. Kristian Norheim
Kristian Norheim
Kristian Norheim is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. He is currently an advisor for the parliamentary group of the party, and an international secretary.Norheim was born in Porsgrunn...
, the international secretary for the Progress Party, in 2008 however distanced himself from DF, citing a right-turn in its immigration policy, and left-turn in its financial policies to be problematic. In 2007, Norheim also claimed that the Progress Party were "globalisation friendly", in contrast to DF, and that DF ideologically and politically was in Norway rather comparable to the Democrats.
Other
While the Progress Party has never been part of any international groups, it has by some been compared to parties such as the Dutch Pim Fortuyn List, French Front National and the Freedom Party of AustriaFreedom Party of Austria
The Freedom Party of Austria is a political party in Austria. Ideologically, the party is a direct descendant of the German national liberal camp, which dates back to the 1848 revolutions. The FPÖ itself was founded in 1956 as the successor to the short-lived Federation of Independents , which had...
. It has even been approached for cooperation by some of these parties, including the Belgian Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang is a Belgian far-right political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels that advocates the independence of Flanders and strict limits on immigration, whereby immigrants would be obliged to adopt Flemish culture and language...
, French Front National and the Freedom Party of Austria. In 2008, the Progress Party international secretary Kristian Norheim however distanced himself from such parties. He regarded many of these parties to be "national social democratic", and stressed their lack of liberalism as inconsistent with the Progress Party's platform.
In 2008 some of the parties that the Progress Party regarded itself as closer to included more conservative parties such as the Czech Civic Democratic Party, the British Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, the Spanish People's Party
People's Party (Spain)
The People's Party is a conservative political party in Spain.The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance , a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship...
, the French Union for a Popular Movement
Union for a Popular Movement
The Union for a Popular Movement is a centre-right political party in France, and one of the two major contemporary political parties in the country along with the center-left Socialist Party...
and "partly" the Italian Forza Italia
Forza Italia
Forza Italia was a liberal-conservative, Christian democratic, and liberal political party in Italy, with a large social democratic minority, that was led by Silvio Berlusconi, four times Prime Minister of Italy....
. It has also given some support for the Danish Venstre
Venstre (Denmark)
VenstreThe party name is officially not translated into any other language, but is in English often referred to as the Liberal Party. Similar rules apply for the name of the party's youth wing Venstres Ungdom. , full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti , is the largest political party in Denmark...
and the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
. In May 2009 the British Conservative Party invited party leader Siv Jensen to hold a lecture in the House of Commons, which was seen as a further recognition of the party internationally, with the approach by the Danish Venstre the previous month.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the Progress Party generally supports the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, and was in 2010 called "friends" by the Republican Party Chairman as he said he looked forward to the continued growth of the party and free market conservative principles. For the 2008 US election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, a survey found that the vast majority of Progress Party MPs and county leaders supported Republican Party candidates for president, although a few individuals supported Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
candidates. The party also has some connections with the American Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
.
Party leaders
- Anders LangeAnders LangeAnders Sigurd Lange was a Norwegian politician and the eponymous founder of the political party Anders Lange's Party . He was a charismatic right-wing public speaker who objected to high taxes, state-regulations and public bureaucracy.Lange has been described as a man who went his own ways...
(1973–1974) - Eivind EckboEivind EckboEivind Eckbo is a Norwegian politician, lawyer and farmer.While working as a lawyer in Bø i Telemark, he stood as the second candidate of Anders Lange's Party on the Telemark ballot in the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1973. He was the interim chairman of Anders Lange's Party from the death of...
(1974–1975) (interim) - Arve LønnumArve LønnumArve Johannes Lønnum was a Norwegian professor of medicine and politician for the Progress Party.He was born in Egge. He took the cand.med. degree in 1945 and the dr.med. degree in 1966...
(1975–1978) - Carl I. HagenCarl I. HagenCarl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Norwegian Parliament. He was the chairman of the Progress Party from 1978 until 2006, when Siv Jensen replaced him as chairman of the party...
(1978–2006) - Siv JensenSiv JensenSiv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
(2006–)
Parliamentary leaders
- Anders LangeAnders LangeAnders Sigurd Lange was a Norwegian politician and the eponymous founder of the political party Anders Lange's Party . He was a charismatic right-wing public speaker who objected to high taxes, state-regulations and public bureaucracy.Lange has been described as a man who went his own ways...
(1973–1974) - Erik Gjems-OnstadErik Gjems-OnstadErik-Ørn Gjems-Onstad, MBE was a Norwegian resistance member, officer, lawyer, politician and anti-immigration activist. When Nazi Germany invaded Norway in 1940, Gjems-Onstad travelled to England to join the Norwegian resistance movement...
(1974–1976) - Harald Bjarne SlettebøHarald Bjarne SlettebøHarald Bjarne Slettebø is a Norwegian school worker and politician .Slettebø received his cand.real. from the University of Oslo in 1946. He worked as a teacher in Stavanger and Haugesund, and in 1959 he became rektor of Stord gymnas, a position he held until 1989...
(1976–1977) - Carl I. HagenCarl I. HagenCarl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Norwegian Parliament. He was the chairman of the Progress Party from 1978 until 2006, when Siv Jensen replaced him as chairman of the party...
(1981–2005) - Siv JensenSiv JensenSiv Jensen is a Norwegian conservative-liberal politician, and the current leader of the Progress Party. She was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election.-Early and personal life:...
(2005–)
Deputy party leaders
Parliamentary elections
| Year | Total votes | Overall vote | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1973 -Results:¹A coalition of the Socialist People's Party , the Communist Party of Norway , and anti-European Economic Community individuals from the Labour Party. The coalition evolved into the Socialist Left Party in 1975.... |
107,784 | 5.0% | 4 |
| 1977 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1977 -Results:... |
43,351 | 1.9% | 0 |
| 1981 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1981 -Results:... |
109,564 | 4.5% | 4 |
| 1985 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1985 A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 9 September 1985.-Results:... |
96,797 | 3.7% | 2 |
| 1989 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1989 A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 11 September 1989.-Results:1 This list was a cooperation between the Norwegian Communist Party, Workers' Communist Party, Red Electoral Alliance and independent socialists.... |
345,185 | 13.0% | 22 |
| 1993 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993 A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 13 September 1993. The Labour Party won a plurality of seats, and Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland remained in office. The Centre Party was particularly successful, gaining 21 seats.... |
154,497 | 6.3% | 10 |
| 1997 Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997 A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 15 September 1997. Before the election, Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland of the Labour Party, issued the 36.9 ultimatum declaring that the government would step down unless it gained 36.9% of the vote, the percentage gained... |
395,376 | 15.3% | 25 |
| 2001 Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001 A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on September 10, 2001. The Labour Party won a plurality of votes and seats, closely followed by the Conservative Party... |
369,236 | 14.6% | 26 |
| 2005 Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005 Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 12 September 2005. More than 3.4 million Norwegians were eligible for vote for the Storting, the parliament of Norway. The new Storting has 169 members, an increase of four over the 2001 election.... |
582,284 | 22.1% | 38 |
| 2009 Norwegian parliamentary election, 2009 The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities held open... |
614,717 | 22.9% | 41 |
Local elections
| Year | Vote (county) | Vote (municipal) |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 Norwegian local elections, 1975 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1975. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently. This was also the first time ever county elections were held in... |
1.4% | 0.8% |
| 1979 Norwegian local elections, 1979 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1979. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:... |
2.5% | 1.9% |
| 1983 Norwegian local elections, 1983 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1983. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:... |
6.3% | 5.3% |
| 1987 Norwegian local elections, 1987 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1987. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:... |
12.3% | 10.4% |
| 1991 Norwegian local elections, 1991 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1991. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:... |
7.0% | 6.5% |
| 1995 Norwegian local elections, 1995 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1995. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:... |
12.0% | 10.5% |
| 1999 Norwegian local elections, 1999 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway in 1999. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently.-Municipal elections:... |
13.4% | 12.1% |
| 2003 Norwegian local elections, 2003 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 15, 2003. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently. In addition, several municipalities held direct mayoral... |
17.9% | 16.4% |
| 2007 Norwegian local elections, 2007 Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 10, 2007, with some areas polling on September 9 as well. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently... |
18.5% | 17.5% |
| 2011 Norwegian local elections, 2011 Nationwide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on 12 September 2011. Several municipalities also opened the polling booths on 11 September. For most polling stations this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections... |
11.8% | 11.4% |
External links
Progress Party (FrP) - official site- Progress Party (FrP) - official site in English Official programme, in Norwegian Youth of the Progress Party (FpU) - official site