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The Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet or Framstegspartiet, Frp) is a conservative liberal right-wing political party of Norway. It was founded on April 8, 1973 at a famous address held by the rugged individualist and popular public speaker Anders Lange. The party adopted its current name in 1977. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, it was the second-largest party, with 22.1 % of the votes and 37 seats (up from third-largest with 14.6 % and 26 seats in the 2001 elections). The current chairman is Carl I. Hagen who, as representative of the largest opposition party, is now Vice President (vice speaker) of the parliament, the Storting.

History

Foundation

The founder, Anders Lange, intended the party to be more like a protest movement than a regular political party. The protest was directed against what was perceived to be an unacceptably high level of taxes, subsidies, and regulations, against government interventionism, and against the social democrat "nanny state" (Norwegian: formynderstaten).

It started under the name of Anders Lange's Party for strong reductions of taxes, charges and government intervention or the Anders Lange Party, or ALP.

The objective of Anders Lange was to remind the Conservative Party of Norway of its commitment to rightist values of individual liberty, civil society, and private property rights. According to Lange, the "socialist" government had grown too big, and the conservative party didn't seem to be bent on rolling back "big government". On the contrary, the conservatives had increased taxes and had done nothing to make government smaller, in Lange's view.

Electoral Support

The first election, in 1973, gave Anders Lange 5 %, and four seats in the Norwegian parliament.

Following Lange, there was a brief series of party leaders, until Carl I. Hagen, after the party's poor result in the 1977 election, took control of the party in 1978:

• Anders Lange
• Eivind Eckbo (interim)
• Arve Lønnum
• Carl I. Hagen (the 2006 retreat announced in 2003)

Carl I. Hagen became the chairman of Frp in 1978, and has been practically uncontested. There has never been a really strong opposing candidate. Hagen has been determined to build up a strong party organization, and to move his party into the mainstream of Norwegian politics. Under his leadership Frp has played an increasingly important role in the Politics of Norway. In 2003 he declared that he was going to withdraw as chairman in 2006. His expected successor is the current vice-chairman, the economist Siv Jensen.

In the parliamentary election in 1989, the party obtained 13 %, and became the third largest party in Norway. It started to receive some responsibility in local administrations, but was still mostly insignificant in that scope. In 1990, Peter Myhre, of Frp, became the mayor of Oslo.

Because of inner struggles, the 1993 election halved the party to 6.3 % and 10 representatives. In 1994, four representatives of the "libertarian wing" broke out, formed an independent group in parliament, and founded another party the Fridemokratene.

In the 1997 election, Frp obtained 15.3 %, and it returned to be the third largest party.

In the local election in 1999, the very popular local Progress-Party leader Terje Søviknes was elected mayor of Os. 20 municipalities got a deputy mayor from the Progress Party.

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 "populist" local representatives in Oslo and some parliamentarians resigned from the party. Some "soloists", as they were called, where suspended, including Vidar Kleppe, who was suspended for two years, or expelled, as Jan Simonsen. The "populists" formed a party called The Democrats, with Vidar Kleppe as chairman and Jan Simonsen as vice-chairman.

In the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001, Fr.p. lost the advance it had on polls, but maintained its position from the 1997 election, and got 14.6 % and 26 members in the parliament.

Frp had run a campaign promising to unseat the Labour government of Jens Stoltenberg, and kept that promise by supporting the new minority government of Kjell Magne Bondevik, although the three parties in that coalition declined to govern together with Fr.p., since their policies were considered to be unacceptably populistic in a number of points.

In 2002, the Progress party advanced again in polls, and for a short while it even became the largest party, with a strong margin in December 2002. It has since fallen behind the Norwegian Labour Party, and competes with the Conservative Party for the second position.

The local election in 2003 was a breakthrough for the party as a political player in Norwegian municipalities. 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 mayoral 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.

Program

The party's official program (in Norwegian) can be found at this Website.

Principles

The Progress Party declares itself to be liberalistic, built on Norwegian and western traditions and cultural heritages, with basis in a christian conception of life. Its main declared goal is a strong reduction in taxes, charges, and public intervention.

Society and Economy

The Progress Party places highly in its program the right of the individual to decide about its own life and economy, and claims the individual is, together with the family and the right to own private property, the fundament of society. The party does not want the state to solve problems that can be handled better by individuals, private companies or organisations. It also proposes to increase taxation on consumption to compensate for reduced taxation on work.

Democracy

The party suggests to introduce decentralisation and binding referenda (in Norway, the result of a referendum is not binding, even if in practice politicians follow their indications). Furthermore, it is for an abolition of the current laws that make a vote cast in a large Norwegian county more important than one cast in Oslo. Since it is considered a entity based on ethnicity, the party wants to abolish the Norwegian branch of the Sami parliament.

Labour economics

The party proposes a deregulation in the job market, so that laws shall not pose any limit on the type of contract that employer and employee want, except for safety and health requirements.

Welfare State

Compared to many similar parties in other European countries, the Progress Party is not for a reduction of the welfare state, but does suggest an increased use of control to check whether these services are actually needed for their beneficiaries. The Progress Party has also long been known to be in favour of increased support for the elderly, that have become one of their main electoral groups.

Ecology

The Party has not had ecology as a main issue, but does maintain to be in favour of sustainable development.

Role of the State

The role of the state is considered to be limited to a few areas:

Military

With a close cooperation with NATO;

Foreign policy

Based on the protection of Norwegian interests, with closer cooperation with the United States and closer relationship with Israel, and abolition of state-financed help to third-world countries.

Judiciary

The party proposes a simplification and update of laws in form and content, and reduction of the use of wiretapping, that should be limited to serious crimes and threats to the state's security.

Education

The main point of difference with other parties is the support for state funding of private schools and universities, in order to provide equal conditions.

Social responsibility

The party declares its principle to be "helping people help themselves". It is in favour of using money to help the families of the ill, instead of financing public institutions for education of the young and care for the sick or elderly. A notable point is the connection of such right to citizenship, since many immigrants do not have it.

Transport

The Progress Party has often been considered "the motorist's party". They are for increased spending in road building and maintenance, and are against the commonplace system of financing public roads with tolls.

Bank of Norway

An increased degree of independence for the Bank of Norway is advocated.

Outsourcing

The party supports outsourcing of some public services.

Reasons for Success

Frp is an atypical party in many ways in Norwegian politics. Its success during the last decade have been attributed to a series of causes.

• Usage of television as a communication channel; the 1973 election campaign was the first to be covered by nationwide television, which functioned as an effective medium for Anders Lange's Party, that could not have the grassroot structure of other traditional parties since it had just been founded.
• Discontent by voters who considered Norwegian taxes to be excessive. Tax breaks have long been a main theme in Frp's program.
• In the aftermath of the 1972 EU-membership referendum, when most political parties indicated yes whereas the population voted no, it was felt there was a gap between party-leaders and voters.
• Personal charisma of Carl Hagen.
• Drain of dissatisfied voters from other parties.

Controversy

The differences between the Progress party and other parties can be stark in many areas, and of all Norwegian parties the Progress party is likely the one that inspires the most opinionated comments, in one way or another.

Populism

As the party was founded just after the political upheaval that followed the 1972 EU referendum, the party was believed to be an ephemeral phenomenon. The now-legendary leader of the Conservative Party Kåre Willoch characterized it as a "mayfly party", implying that it would disappear as fast as it appeared. Ironically, in the 2005 election the Progress Party surpassed the Conservative Party in electoral support, gaining 22.1% of the popular vote, against only 14.1% to the Conservatives.

Some of its critics lump it together with right-wing populism in Europe, because, they argue, like those parties it is sceptical towards immigration, tough on crime, sceptical towards bureaucracy and governmental control, and it works for reduction of taxes and charges.

According to professors P. A. Pettersen and L. E. Rose, the average Frp voter is a young man with low education and income. This is in contrast with the average voter of the Conservative party, characterised by higher education and income. It also appears that the Progress party is especially weak in academic circles.

Immigration

The immigration policy of the Progress party has for a long time been a matter of heated discussion. On one end, critics accuse the party of xenophobia, whereas supporters argue their positions are based on facts, such as overrepresentation of (non-european) immigrants in crime statistics and that only part of refugees are actually entitled political asylum.

The Guardian once described Progress party as far-right and included them in their special report on Europe's far right . Brookings Institution used the term "far-right extremist" .

The most anti-immigration elements in the Progress party, such as Jan Simonsen, left the party (or were expelled, as in Simonsen's case) in 2001 and founded a far-right, clearly xenophobic movement, The Democrats. Since then, the Progress party has attained an image more acceptable to other parties. However, as late as 2004, Halvor Hulaas and Karina Udnæs, the Frp representative and deputy leader in Kristiansand, asked for a ban on Islam, making it "punishable in the same way as Nazism" ; this had however no consequence on a national basis.

The 2005 Brochure on Immigration

During the 2005 electoral campaign, the Progress Party printed a brochure focusing on criminal activities committed by immigrants. The text on the brochure reads «The assailant is of foreign origin!». The smaller text under the headline is «headline we often read».

Heavy criticism followed, centered on the allegation that such an advertisement criminalized immigrants as a group. All other parties represented in the Norwegian parliament criticised the advertisement, and it also prompted response from anti-racist organizations (including a humorous one by SOS Rasisme ).

Actual Occurrence of the Headline

The "headline" in the form presented in the advertisement has never been printed in the Norwegian press, and of all Norwegian pages on the Internet that mention "rape", "murder" or "robbery" , only a small fraction contains the expression "foreign origin" , about 0.04%: for sake of comparison, about 8% of the Norwegian population consists of immigrants .

In the case of newspapers, this rarity of the term is probably due to the ethic norms of the Norwegian press , that in point 4.3 state that one should "how respect for the individuality, private life, race, nationality and conception of life of people. Do not highlight personal and private information when this is irrelevant to the issue."

Response of the Progress Party

The Progress Party protested that the critics were mutilating their message. The header on the next page of the on-line version of the brochure read: "«Those most eager to get rid of criminal imigrants are us honest immigrants!» ( Pakistani born immigrant in Norway)". This was not present in the paper version , but the two versions were released at approximately the same time.

The Progress Party maintains that it has nothing against law-abiding immigrants who are in Norway on legal premises, and they reject discrimination based on colour, race, cultural, ethnic or religious affiliation.

War on Terror

Although the war on terror is not an issue the Progress Party promotes a lot, they have a clear position in support of the United States. Party chairman Carl I Hagen sometimes goes far in claiming that there is a link between Islam and terror. This position receives particularly broad support among conservative Christian communities.

On July 13, 2004 Carl I Hagen held a speech in one such community, the Living Word Bible Center in Bergen. He was quoted saying: "We Christians are deeply concerned with children. Jesus said, let the small children come to me. I can't imagine that Muhammed could have said the same thing. If he had, it would have been Let the small children come to me, so I can exploit them in my struggle to Islamify the world". Supporters of Hagen reject that, and claim that the particular quote was cited out of context. Critics reply back that the complete speech contained various implications of Christianity being morally superior to Islam.

Carl I Hagen once said in an interview that "Not all muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are muslim". Upon question of why he did not consider terrorism in the Basque country and Northern Ireland, he replied that these were "national conflicts, and nothing to do with this".

Flip-flop Party

Some of the opponents claim that Fr.p. chairman Carl I. Hagen is often changing the party's political views towards the popular opinion, and that it has helped increase Frp's electoral support. The decision not to have a position about the EU-membership issue was criticised especially from this point of view.

Isolation

Since its foundation, the Progress party has profiled itself in a radically different way from other Norwegian parties. This has resulted in a long isolation, as other political parties deem the Progress Party's policies as too different politically. Other parties consistently refused the Progress Party to formally join any governing coalition, despite the Progress Party having broad popular support.

This often led to tensions, and even to a personal rivalry between the Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen and the Christian Democrat former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. However, in the wake of the 2005 elections, that saw a wide increase in support for the Frp, the Conservatives stated they wanted to be "a bridge between Frp and the centre".

See also

• Politics of Norway
• Carl I. Hagen
• Neoliberalism
• Right-wing politics
• Libertarian perspectives on immigration

References

• Yes to more Frp, interview with liberal leader Lars Sponheim from Aftenposten.
• The Norwegian Progress Party: Building Bridges across Old Cleavages by Tor Bjørklund and Jo Saglie, Norwegian Institute for Social Reseach, PDF file.
• Predestined parties? organizational change in Norwegian political parties, by Knut Heidar and Jo Saglie. The Causes and Consequences of Organisational Innovation in European Political Parties at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Grenoble, April 11, 2001.
• Jensen likely to take over Progress Party, from Aftenposten, October 6 2003.
• Losers vote for Frp, article in Utrop magazine, April 30, 2004.
• Descriptive article on the Progress Party by Aslak Bonde, political journalist of Aftenposten.
• Populism—a breath of health, by NTNU journalist Even Gran.
• Carl I. Hagen's speech at Levende Ord.
• Hagen: all terrorists are muslim, from Aftenposten, August 26, 2005.

External links

• Template:No icon Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party) - official site
• Template:No icon Fremskrittspartiets ungdom (Youth party) - official site

• Political parties in Norway