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The Progress Party (Template:Lang-nb, Template:Lang-nn, FrP) is a Norwegian conservative-liberal political party. In the 1997 Norwegian parliamentary elections it became the second largest political party in Norway, a position it also held following elections in 2005 and 2009.

Founded in 1973 largely as an anti-tax movement, the party highly values individual rights, supports the reduction of public spending and the downsizing of bureaucracy. The party also 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 of Norway in the 2009 parliamentary election.

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.

History

Anders Lange's Party (1973–1977)

The Progress Party was founded at a meeting at the movie theater Saga Kino in Oslo on 8 April 1973. The party itself claims that more than 3,000 persons attended the meeting, while others claim that the number was around 1,345. The address was held by Anders Lange, after whom the party took the name Anders Lange's Party for a Strong Reduction in Taxes, Duties and Public Intervention. It was commonly referred to as Anders Lange's Party, or abbreviated ALP. Lange held his first public speech at Youngstorget in Oslo on 16 May the same year. ALP was in large parts inspired by and also copying the Danish Progress Party founded by Mogens Glistrup who 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.

Anders Lange originally wanted the party to be an anti-tax protest movement rather than a regular political party. It 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 favoured. The protest was directed against what he claimed to be an unacceptably high level of taxes, subsidies, and foreign aid. The populist themes helped him win 5% of the vote and gain four seats in the Norwegian parliament after the 1973 parliamentary election. The first party conference was held in Hjelmeland in 1974, where the party established its first political conventions.

New chairman – Carl I. Hagen (late 1970s)

In early 1974, deputy MP Carl I. Hagen, 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 resulted in Hagen replacing him as a regular MP. As a result, by the following year the Reform Party had merged back into ALP. 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, being left without parliamentary representation, and at the party conference of 1978, Carl I. Hagen was elected as 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. In 1978, the party's youth organisation, the Youth of the Progress Party was established.

Carl I. 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 "State Fund" hit a nerve due to perceived declines in infrastructure, schools, and social services and long queues at hospitals.

Establishing the party (1980s)

For the first 26 years of its history, the party enjoyed only modest success in the polls. While it had dropped out of parliament altogether in 1977, the party returned in the next 1981 parliamentary election with four members. In this election, the political right in general had a great upturn, which garnered the Progress Party increased support.

During the 1980s the ideology of the party was sharpened, and the party conference of 1983 resolved that the Progress Party was a libertarian party. Before this the party had not had a clearly defined ideology. For the 1985 parliamentary election campaign, 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 Progress Party used this position to effectively throw out the ruling centre-right 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 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 mayors from the party were Håkon Rege in Sola (1988–1989), and Peter N. Myhre in Oslo (1990–1991).

Schism with libertarians (early 1990s)

The 1993 parliamentary election 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. In 1993, it was however the first party in Norway to use the notion of "integration politics" in its party programme. 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.

Electoral surge (late 1990s)

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 Progress Party dominating the media picture as a result of the controversy around the immigration related 1995 Norwegian League meeting at Godlia kino.

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.

Turmoil and new schism (early 2000s)

Before the 2001 parliamentary election, the Progress Party had seen poll numbers close to 35% around September 2000, but its support fell back to 1997 levels in the actual election. This was largely as its deputy leader Terje Søviknes became involved in a sex scandal, and because of other internal political conflicts and disagreements; 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 Oslo, Hordaland and Vest-Agder led the central administration to send instructions to the local groups, which sometimes resulted in suspensions and exclusions 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. Hagen's "secret strategy" leaked in July 2000; the seven were eventually suspended, excluded from or voluntarily left the party. They most notably included Vidar Kleppe (suspended, left) who was thought of as the leader of the "gang of seven", Dag Danielsen (suspended, left), Fridtjof Frank Gundersen (left), later followed by Jan Simonsen who however did not get excluded until after the election. Only Øystein Hedstrøm of the faction remained in the party, but was subsequently largely kept away from issues regarding immigration.

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, while others formed the conservative anti-immigration party called the Democrats, with Vidar Kleppe as chairman and Jan Simonsen as vice-chairman. Though the "gang of seven" took controversial positions against 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 centre and centre-right parties to cooperate in an eventual government together with the Progress Party. The more moderate libertarian minority in Oslo, including Henning Holstad, Svenn Kristiansen and Siv Jensen, now improved their hold in the party. The conflict has by some been compared with that within the Danish Progress Party around 1995, when members such as its leader Pia Kjærsgaard broke away and formed the national conservative Danish People's Party, which the Norwegian Democrats have regarded as a sister party.

In the 2001 election 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 support the coalition, as it promised to invest more in defence, open more private hospitals 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.

Final breakthrough (mid 2000s)

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 three 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 supported 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.

Siv Jensen (2006–present)

In 2006, after 27 years as leader of the party, Hagen 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 increase the party's appeal to voters, build bridges to liberal conservative parties, and head or participate in a future government of Norway. In the late 2000s, the Progress Party has been noted for having among the most loyal voters (voters voting for the same party in consecutive elections) of all the parties in parliament.

Following the local elections of 2007, Progress Party candidates became mayor in 17 (by 2008, 18) 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 however, and during the four week election campaign, the party dropped 3.5% in the polls on average. Most of these losses went to the Conservative Party which had a surprisingly successful campaign. The decline in support can also partly be seen as the Labour Party was since 2008 accused of "stealing" policies from the Progress Party (such as promoting stricter immigration policies and allocating more funds to building roads). 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.

The party also notably for the first time got represented in the Sami Parliament of Norway in 2009, with three representatives, and with the main political goal of disestablishing the Sami parliament. This made them the fourth largest party in the Sami parliament, and second largest of the nationwide parties represented in the Parliament of Norway. In the school elections, where students at upper secondary schools all over the country cast their pretend votes (in practice, an election survey carried out among students in order to monitor young people's attitudes to elections and politics) the Progress Party continued the success from the 2005 election and again became the largest party in Norway with 24% of the votes.

In April 2010, the monthly average of nine separate national opinion polls for the first time suggested high enough levels of support for the Progress Party and Conservative Party that, were an election held at that time, they would have received a majority seats in parliament. This was also repeated in June.

Isolation

Ever since its foundation, other parties have consistently refused the Progress Party's efforts to formally 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.

Recently though, after the 2005 elections which saw a further increase in support for the Progress Party, the Conservative Party stated they wanted to be "a bridge between the Progress Party and the centre". This is because the two remaining parliamentary parties to the right of the Red-Green government, the 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 they themselves aren't a part of. In July 2010, the Conservative Party went even further, with its leader Erna Solberg stating 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 centre-left 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 Red (Norway).

Ideology

The Progress Party currently regards itself to be a "libertarian people's party", and its ideology to be classical liberalism or conservative liberalism. The party identifies itself in the preamble of its platform as a libertarian party, built on Norwegian and Western traditions 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 revolves 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. A 2007 survey of party supporters found that 74% considered themselves to be on the political right, 18% in the centre and 8% on the left. The party is traditionally presented as the most right-wing in Norway, however Hagen in 2001 claimed that this position was more appropriate for the Conservative Party, and that the Progress Party could rather be found between the Conservative and Labour Party.

History

It has been claimed that the party during the 1980s moved more away from populism towards libertarianism, and that since the 1990s, the importance of libertarianism in the party again decreased. Further, also that the first three decades of the party changed, in turn from an "outsider movement", to libertarianism, to right-wing populism. The party has since the 1990s also tried, to some degree, to moderate some of its policies and views to seek government cooperation with centre-right parties. This has been especially true since the suspension and exclusion 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 liberal conservatism and also seek cooperation with such parties abroad.

Society and economy

The party is strongly individualistic, 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, different duties, as well as a considerable free market. Perhaps most important however, is its call to invest more of Norway's oil wealth in infrastructure 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.

Populism

The Progress Party is traditionally, and has a history of being portrayed externally as, a populist 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.

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 state. 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. While the party has made numerous proposals on immigration in parliament, often controversial ones, 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.

Generally the party want a stricter immigration policy, so that only people who are in need of protection according to the UN Refugee Convention are allowed to stay in Norway. In a speech opening the 2007 election campaign, the party chairman 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 claim the immigration and integration policy to be both naïve and snillistisk.

In the so-called "Hundred day program", released before the 2009 election, the party set an official goal of reducing the flow of new asylum seekers by about 90%, from 1,000 to 100 a month, the standards then said to be used in Denmark and Finland. In 2008, the party's Spokesperson on Immigration Issues Per-Willy Amundsen said that the party wanted to limit the number of accepted asylum seekers to less than 100 a year. Amundsen further said the party want to "avoid illiterates and other poorly resourced groups who we see are not able to adopt in Norway", giving examples of countries of origin that included Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Amundsen and party leader Jensen also thought it was wrong that asylum seekers could stay in Norway on humanitarian grounds or because of health issues. The party seeks to substantially limit the number of family reunifications, (particularly from countries outside the EU and EEA) by most importantly introducing the 24 year rule, demands of attachment to Norway, increased demands on parents' ability to support their families and prohibit marriage between cousins. In 2010, Amundsen has also proposed to put the immigration policy up for a referendum.

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, when asked. More specifically, this constituted 9% of both African and Eastern European immigrants, 22% of Western European immigrants and 3% of Asian immigrants. Numerous people of immigrant background are also increasingly active in the party, most notably Iranian-Norwegian Deputy MP Mazyar Keshvari and Indian-Norwegian youth politician Himanshu Gulati.

Foreign policy

European Union

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, although it assures it would respect the result of one. The party demand that a referendum must be held before eventually applying for membership, in contrast to the Labour Party and Conservative Party who want to join without any referendum. Recent polls have found that a slight majority of both voters and MPs of the party oppose membership.

Transatlantic relations

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.

Middle East

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 (although it underlines that Israel should do what it can to avoid civilian losses), and was the only party in Norway which supported Israel through the Gaza War (2008–09).

International affiliation

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 Party, 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 said that the DF "belongs to a group of parties we in the Progress Party do not want any contact with whatsoever", largely as the DF had moved to the "far-right" in its immigration policy, and to the centre in its financial policies. In 2007 it was also claimed by Norheim that the Progress Party were "globalisation friendly", in contrast to the DF, and that the 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 Austria. 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, considered these, along with the Danish People's Party and the Sweden Democrats to have "murky", "anti-liberal and nationalist foundations". He stated that "we are worried by the development of such parties and strongly distance ourselves from the values they stand for", and further, that the Progress Party was a "liberal conservative party which don't share the nationalist approach which these murky parties have to for instance the immigration and integration policy". 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 liberal 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. 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. In April 2010, Tim Phillips, the leader of Americans for Prosperity, and a leading figure of the Tea Party movement, attended and gave a speech at the Progress Party National Convention 2010. Bård Hoksrud of the Progress Party noted that the movement had similarities to the early protest movement of Anders Lange, which eventually developed into a political party. In August 2010, party leader Siv Jensen, at the invitation of Phillips, who had been very impressed by the party in April, spoke at several Tea Party arrangements in Washington D.C. around the time of the Restoring Honor rally.

Party leadership

Party leaders

• Anders Lange (1973–1974)
• Eivind Eckbo (1974–1975) (interim)
• Arve Lønnum (1975–1978)
• Carl I. Hagen (1978–2006)
• Siv Jensen (2006–)

Parliamentary leaders

• Anders Lange (1973–1974)
• Erik Gjems-Onstad (1974–1976)
• Harald Bjarne Slettebø (1976–1977)
• Carl I. Hagen (1981–2005)
• Siv Jensen (2005–)

Deputy party leaders

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Election results

Parliamentary elections

Local elections

See also

• Politics of Norway
• Youth of the Progress Party
• List of Progress Party (Norway) MPs

Notes

1. Coined by the former chairman of the Progress Party, the neologism snillisme literally translates as "kindism", meaning "kindness to a fault" or "foolish generosity". It was also notably used by Labour Party politican Rune Gerhardsen in the 1991 election campaign.

References

1. "FrP vokser og vokser" (in Norwegian). FrP.no. 7 September 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
2. ^ "Ideology and Principles of the Progress Party" (PDF). FrP.no. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
3. ^ "Norway - Political parties" (in Norwegian). Nosk samfunnsvitenskapelig datatjeneste. Retrieved 22 March 2010.
4. ^ "Kommunestyre- og fylkestingsvalget 2007" (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway. Retrieved 6 December 2009.
5. ^ Overland, Jan-Arve; Tønnessen, Ragnhild. "Hva står de politiske partiene for?". Nasjonal Digital Læringsarena (in Norwegian). Retrieved 27 August 2010.
6. ^ Forr, Gudleiv. "Carl I Hagen" (in Norwegian). SNL.no. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
7. ^ Meland, Astrid (8 April 2003). "I kinosalens mørke". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 27 August 2010.
8. Stanghelle, Harald (September 6, 2010). "De oversettes opprør". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Retrieved September 7, 2010.
9. "Andre toner på Youngstorget". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). 16 May 1973. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
10. Hugaas, Jon Vegar (30 August 2007). "Frps skygger fra fortiden". Stavanger Aftenblad (in Norwegian). Retrieved 27 August 2010.
11. Jorde, Sigurd (22 April 2008). "Apartheidregimet ga penger til Frp-forløper". Verdensmagasinet X (in Norwegian). Retrieved 27 August 2010.
12. Arter 1999, p. 105
13. "Anders Lange's speech at Saga Kino, 8 April 1973" (in Norwegian). Virksomme Ord. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
14. Sandnes, Børge (30 April 2003). "Fremskrittspartets historie" (in Norwegian). Svelvik FrP. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
15. ^ Løset, Kjetil (15 June 2009). "FrPs historie" (in Norwegian). TV2. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
16. ^ Tvedt, Knut Are (29 September 2009). "Fremskrittspartiet – Frp". SNL.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 11 November 2009.
17. Arter 1999, p. 106
18. ^ "Fremskritt fra dag en". Dagbladet Magasinet (in Norwegian). 5 March 2001. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
19. ^ Magnus, Gunnar (4 May 2006). "Fra parentes til mektig partieier". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). Retrieved 27 August 2010.
20. ^ Simonsen 2007, p. 40
21. ^ Martinsen, Vegard (May 2003). "EU og globalisering Fredsbevegelsen Velferdsstatens moralske tåkeslott Liberalismens historie i Norge, del 2" (PDF). Tidsskriftet Liberal for individuell frihet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 23 March 2010.
22. "Ruling coalition takes narrow win over left in Norwegian election". The Montreal Gazette. 10 September 1985. p. 58. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
23. Hagelund 2005, p. 152
24. ^ Hagelund 2005, p. 155
25. "Rege tar gjenvalg". Stavanger Aftenblad (in Norwegian). 16 August 2006. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
26. "Tidligere ordførere" (in Norwegian). Oslo municipality. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
27. Olaussen, Lise Merete. "Siv Jensen" (in Norwegian). SNL.no. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
28. ^ Simonsen 2007, p. 5
29. "Det nye landet: Kampen", 26 January 2010. Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (television).
30. "Gratulerer FpU" (in Norwegian). Youth of the Progress Party. Retrieved 27 August 2010.
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Bibliography

• Arter, David (1999). Scandinavian politics today. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719051339.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Gingrich, André; Banks, Marcus (2006). Neo-nationalism in Europe and beyond: perspectives from social anthropology. Berghahn Books. ISBN 1845451902.
• Hagelund, Anniken (2005), Rydgren, Jens (ed.), Movements of exclusion: radical right-wing populism in the Western world, Nova, ISBN 1594540969{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Mjelde, Hilmar Langhelle (2008). Explaining Membership Growth in the Norwegian Progress Party from 1973 to 2008 (Master thesis). University of Bergen.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Simonsen, Tor Espen (2007). Høyrepopulismens politiske metamorfose på 1990-tallet. En komparativ studie av tre nordiske partier: Fremskridtspartiet, Dansk Folkeparti og Fremskrittspartiet (Master thesis). CULCOM.
• Skjørestad, Anna (2008). Et liberalistisk parti? Fremskrittspartiets politiske profil fra 1989 til 2005 (Master thesis). University of Bergen.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

External links

• Template:No icon Progress Party (FrP) - official site
• Progress Party (FrP) - official site in English
• Template:No icon Official programme, in Norwegian
• Template:No icon Youth of the Progress Party (FpU) - official site

• Progress Party (Norway)
• Political parties in Norway
• Political parties established in 1973
• 1973 establishments in Norway
• 1970s in Norwegian society
• 1980s in Norwegian society
• 1990s in Norwegian society
• 2000s in Norwegian society
• Classical liberal parties
• Libertarian parties