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Venstre (Norway)

Encyclopedia : V : VE : VEN : Venstre (Norway)

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Venstre (sometimes referred to as the Liberal Party of Norway in international context) is a liberal party in Norway, subscribing to social-liberalism. It is the oldest political party in Norway, founded in 1884. The leader is Lars Sponheim, since 1996. At the 2005 elections Venstre won 5,9% of the votes, and 10 seats in the Storting. Internationally, Venstre is a member of the Liberal International and an affiliate member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.

Contents

Policies

Venstre is a social-liberal and centrist party. Through its history it has taken part in both center-right and pure centrist coalition governments. From 2001 to 2005, it was in a centre-right coalition government with Høyre and Kristelig Folkeparti, after the last election, it is now in opposition. Since the early 1970s, environmental issues have been the policy area most associated with the party. In the last few election campaigns, Venstre's main focus has been on environmental issues, education, small-business and social issues. The party advocates a reform of the norwegian welfare state through a guaranteed minimum income (Borgerlønn) for all citizens. Some other issues Venstre advocate are increased labour immigration, abolition of the Church of Norway as the State church, an approach to a system of Flat tax with deductions and more power to local authorities (kommuner.) At the national convention in 2005, Venstre decided with a margin of only nine votes to still be opposed to Norway joining the European Union. It prefers continued membership in the European Economic Area.

History

The party Venstre was formed in 1884 in connection with the dispute about whether or not to introduce parliamentarism in Norway. Venstre (which means Left in Norwegian) was the party advocating parliamentarism, whereas the conservatives, who opposed parliamentarism, formed the party Høyre (which means Right). When the fight for parliamentarism was won, Venstre's leader Johan Sverdrup became the first Norwegian prime minister to be appointed on the basis of having the support of a majority in the Storting. Later, Venstre advocated universal suffrage for men, which was achieved in 1898, the break-up of the Swedish-Norwegian Union, which happened in 1905, and universal women's suffrage, which was introduced in 1913. In the first decades after 1884, Venstre formed several governments, interspersed with periods of Høyre-governments. Six different Prime Ministers of Norway have come from Venstre, all of them before 1935. With the growth of Arbeiderpartiet(the labour party), Venstre gradually lost ground. The election of 1915 was the last in which Venstre was the largest party and won an outright majority in the Storting. Venstre was further weakened with the formation of Bondepartiet (the farmers' party, the present day Senterpartiet) in 1920, and Kristelig Folkeparti (christian peoples' party) in 1933, both of which were formed partly by former Venstre-members. After World War II, Venstre has been part of four coalition governments, the most recent one being the second government of Kjell Magne Bondevik from 2001 to 2005.

A dispute over Norwegian membership in the European Community, now the European Union, made the party split up at Røros in 1972, with the people favoring EC membership departing, and forming Det Liberale Folkepartiet (The Liberal People's Party). These included the party leader, Helge Seip, and 9 of the 13 members of parliament. Since then, Venstre has been a fairly small party. The parliamentary group was reduced to two after the 1973 election.

In 1974, Venstre elected the first female leader of a political party in Norway, Eva Kolstad.

Election results continued to be poor for Venstre. Before the 1985 elections, the party announced for the first, and so far only, time that they would support a Labour Party government. At the following election they lost their two remaining seats, and were without representation in the Norwegian Parliament for the first time. In 1988, Venstre was re-united with the splinter party from 1972, now calling itself Det Liberale Folkepartiet (the Liberal People's Party), but at the elections of 1989, the re-united party again failed to win parliamentary seats. In 1993 the party again failed to achieve the 4% threshold which would make them eligible for the "equalizing" seats in parliament, but Lars Sponheim was elected directly from Hordaland county. (Before the election, Sponheim had made the wager that he would walk across the mountains from his home in Ulvik to the parliament in capital city Oslo if elected—a wager he delivered on, to much good-humoured interest from the press.)

In 1997, Venstre passed the 4% threshold, increasing their seats in parliament to six. In 2001, Venstre again narrowly failed to reach the threshold, but got two representatives, Sponheim and Odd Einar Dørum. However, due to Venstre becoming part of the second coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik, with Sponheim and Dørum entering the cabinet, the two were represented in parliament by deputies. The party also got a third member of the cabinet, with the appointment of Torild Skogsholm as Minister of Transport and Communications.

The 2005 elections gave Venstre 5.9% of the vote, their best result since the split up in 1972. Thanks to the 4%+ equalizing system, the party currently holds ten out of 169 seats in the parliament. Due to the majority of the Red-Green Coalition, Venstre are now an opposition party, and it looks like they will remain so for the next four years.

Name of the party

While the name of the party means Left in Norwegian, the party refers to itself as a centrist party. Since the Senterpartiet (The Centre Party) is a component of the governing left alliance, and Venstre is part of the "non-socialist" opposition, a situation has been produced where the centre party is more on the left than Left itself. When the name Left was chosen in 1884, the word did not refer to socialism in the way "Left wing" does today. It meant liberal or radical in comparison to the conservatives on the right. The use of the word for "left" in the names of the Danish political parties Venstre and Radikale Venstre is also meant to refer to Liberalism and not Socialism.

Party leaders

Prime ministers from Venstre

Election results, parliamentary elections 1906-2005

Year Percentage of votes Number of representatives in the Storting
1906 45,4% 73
1909 30,7% 46
1912 40,2% 76
1915 33,3% 74
1918 28,3% 52
1921 20,1% 37
1924 18,6% 34
1927 17,3% 30
1930 20,2% 33
1933 17,1% 24
1936 16,0% 23
1945 13,8% 20
1949 13,1% 21
1953 10,0% 15
1957 9,7% 15
1961 8,8% 14
1965 10,4% 18
1969 9,4% 13
1973 3,5% 2
1977 3,2% 2
1981 3,9% 2
1985 3,1% 0
1989 3,2% 0
1993 3,6% 1
1997 4,5% 6
2001 3,9% 2
2005 5,9% 10

See also

External link


Norwegian parliamentary political parties
Parties in the Stoltenberg government
Labour

Socialist Left

Centre

Opposition parties
Conservative

Christian
Democratic

Liberal
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