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Progress Party (Norway)
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The Progress Party (Bokmål: Fremskrittspartiet, Nynorsk: Framstegspartiet, Norwegian abbreviation: FrP) is a Norwegian political party. It was the second largest political party in Norway following the 2005 parliamentary elections.
The current chairman of the Progress Party is Siv Jensen.
Progress Party was founded on April 8, 1973 with an address held by Anders Lange. Anders Lange intended the party to be more like an anti-tax protest movement than a regular political party.
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Encyclopedia
The Progress Party (Bokmål: Fremskrittspartiet, Nynorsk: Framstegspartiet, Norwegian abbreviation: FrP) is a Norwegian political party. It was the second largest political party in Norway following the 2005 parliamentary elections.
The current chairman of the Progress Party is Siv Jensen.
History
Foundation
The Progress Party was founded on April 8, 1973 with an address held by Anders Lange. Anders Lange intended the party to be more like an anti-tax protest movement than a regular political party. The protest was directed against what he claimed to be an unacceptably high level of taxes, subsidies, and fuel costs in an oil and gas producing country like Norway.
The party's original name was "Anders Lange's Party for strong reductions of taxes, charges and government intervention", but usually referred to as "Anders Lange' Party", or "ALP". It adopted its current name on January 29, 1977.
The populist themes helped him win 5% of the vote and gain four seats in the Norwegian parliament Stortinget in the 1973 election. But already before his death his intemperate and unpredictable behavior, and his frequent violent outbursts was beginning to damage the party.
Role of Carl I. Hagen
Following Anders Lange's death in 1974, two persons lead the party during a brief period of time. The party performed poorly in the 1977 election, which led to Carl I. Hagen taking control of the party in 1978:
- Anders Lange (1973 – 1974)
- Eivind Eckbo (1974 – 1975) (interim)
- Arve Lønnum (1975 – 1978)
Carl I. Hagen, a gifted speaker with an intuition for moods and popular sentiment succeeded in sharpening the image of the party as an anti-tax movement. His criticism of the wisdom of hoarding billions of dollars worth in the “State Fund” hit a nerve due to infrastructure, schools, and social services declining including months long queues at hospitals. In 2006, after 27 years as leader of the party, he stepped down to become Vice President of the Norwegian parliament Stortinget. The then 36 year old Siv Jensen was elected as his successor with the hope that she could carry the torch onwards with increasing appeal to voters, build bridges to liberal-conservative parties, and head or participate in a future government of Norway.
Election results
For the first 26 years of its history, the party enjoyed only modest success in the polls. In 1977 it dropped out of parliament all together. In 1981 they came back with four MP's, and they won two in the next election in 1985.
In 1989, the party made its breakthrough in national politics. In the parliamentary election in 1989, the party obtained 13%, and became the third largest party in Norway. It started to gain power in some local administrations. In 1990, Peter N. Myhre, of FrP, became the mayor of Oslo.
The 1993 election halved the party's support to 6.3% and 10 representatives. In 1994, four representatives of the "libertarian wing" broke out, formed an independent group in parliament, and founded the libertarian organization Fridemokratene which tried to organize like a political party, but without success.
In the 1997 election, FrP obtained 15.3%, and was again the third largest party.
The 1999 local elections resulted in the first mayor being elected from the party, Terje Søviknes in Os. 20 municipalities got a deputy mayor from the Progress Party.
In the 2001 parliamentary election FrP 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 declined to govern together with the Progress Party as they considered the political differences too large.
In 2002 the Progress Party again advanced in the opinion polls and for a short while became the largest party, and with a strong margin in .
The local elections in 2003 were a success for FrP. In 30 municipalities, the party gained more votes than any other, but it succeeded to elect the mayor only in 13 of these. The Progress Party has participated in local elections since 1975, but until 2003 the party has only gained the mayor position twice. 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 gained ground across the country, but more so in municipalities where the party had the mayor or the deputy mayor.
In the 2005 parliamentary elections, it was the second largest party in Storting, with 22.1% of the votes and 38 seats (up from third-largest with 14.6% and 26 seats in the 2001 elections).
Expulsion of certain members
Before the 2001 election, Frp enjoyed a high level of popular support in 1999–2000, but its support fell back to 1997 levels in the actual election, following both internal turmoil (the then second vice-chairman of the party, Terje Søviknes, was involved in a sex scandal) and internal disagreements. This time, several local representatives in Oslo and some parliamentarians "resigned" from the party. Some "populists", as they were called, were suspended, including Vidar Kleppe, who was suspended for two years, or expelled, as was Jan Simonsen. The "populists" formed a right-wing party called The Democrats, with Vidar Kleppe as chairman and Jan Simonsen as vice-chairman. The remaining populists still form the hard core of the party.
Recent popular support
After the parliamentary elections in 2005, Frp was the largest party in many opinion polls. The FrP led November 2006 opinion polls with a support of 32.9% of respondents, and it has continued to poll above 25 percent dring the following years.
The party's popular support has to a great extent been attributed to its restricive immigration policy. Furthermore, the Red-Green government's increase of taxes on petrol and diesel, contributing to perceived high gas prices in Norway, is believed to improved the popular support for the party. Another important factor is that the Progress Party is the only parliamentary party in Norway which has never been in government, whereas the other six parties are either part of the current coalition, or was part of the previous one.
Party leadership
Parliamentary election results
| Year | % of votes | Members of the Storting |
|---|
| 1973 | 5.0 | 4 | | 1977 | 1.9 | – | | 1981 | 4.5 | 4 | | 1985 | 3.7 | 2 | | 1989 | 13.0 | 22 | | 1993 | 6.3 | 10 | | 1997 | 15.3 | 25 | | 2001 | 14.6 | 26 | | 2005 | 22.1 | 38 |
Criticism
The South African Eschel Rhoodie wrote about this in his book The Real Information Scandal (1983), a book about his career in the South Africa Department of Information in the seventies. The Department of Information was a South African organization working to increase the reputation of the Apartheid Regime in Europe and USA.
See also
External links
- - official site
- - official site in English
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- , the political manifesto of PP.
- - official site
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