Progress Party (Norway)

Template:Infobox Norwegian political party The Progress Party (Bokmål: Fremskrittspartiet, Nynorsk: Framstegspartiet, Norwegian abbreviation: FrP) is a Norwegian right-wing political party. It was the second largest political party in Norway following the 2005 parliamentary elections.

The current leader 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 foreign aid.

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, 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 perceived declines in infrastructure, schools, and social services and 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 increase the party's 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 December 2002.

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 nationalist anti-immigration party called The Democrats, with Vidar Kleppe as chairman and Jan Simonsen as vice-chairman.

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 and asylum policy. Furthermore, the Red-Green government's increase of taxes on petrol and diesel, contributing to perceived high gas prices in Norway (although they are, in fact, some of the lowest in Europe when compensated for general price levels), 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.

Political platform

The Progress Party defines itself as a "liberalistic" party, built on Norwegian and Nordic traditions and cultural heritages, with a basis in a Protestant and humanist understanding of life. Its main declared goal is a strong reduction in taxes and government intervention.

Political platform

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The Progress Party defines itself as a "liberalistic" party[1], built on Norwegian and Western traditions and cultural heritages, with a basis in a Christian and humanist understanding of life. Its main declared goal is a strong reduction in taxes and government intervention.

Specific Issues 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, a fundamental of society. The party does not want the state to solve problems that they claim might be handled better by individuals, private companies or organizations. It also proposes to increase taxation on consumption to compensate for reduced taxation on work, although it has given very high priority to reduction of gas taxes and supported the reduction of food taxes from 24% to 12%. It opposes a recently posed suggestion to raise the taxes by one percent, to 13%.[citation needed] Vote legislation The party promotes decentralisation and binding referendums. In Norway, the result of a referendum is not binding, even if in practice politicians have always followed their indications. Furthermore, it favors abolishing the current laws that make a vote cast in a large Norwegian county carry more weight than one cast in densely populated urban areas such as Oslo. The party wants to abolish the Sami Parliament of Norway and other financial support for the revitalization of the language and culture of the indegenous Sami people. Labour economics The party proposes a deregulation of the job market, so that laws no longer restrict the contract between an employer and employee beyond safety and health requirements. Welfare State The Progress Party wants to reorganize the way welfare is distributed to allow for competition and private production of such services, without reducing the welfare state itself. It has long favoured increased benefits for the elderly, which has become one of their main electoral groups[citation needed]. Death Penalty The Progress Party is the only political party in Norway that supports capital punishment in wartime.

Role of the State

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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 a more controlled 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. An increase in discipline and decrease in social responsibility in Norwegian schools are also often defended. 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. 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 due to the fact that, in Norway, very little of the money collected from toll stations is actually used for road construction and maintenance[citation needed]. Some of its members are not in favour of spending more money, rather spending less money on railways in Norway, even in and around Oslo. Bank of Norway An increased degree of independence for the Bank of Norway is advocated. Outsourcing The party supports outsourcing of some public services.

Criticism The Progress Party has been criticized on several grounds, including for right-wing populism and lack of predictability.[8] The party has also been criticized for their stands on enviromental issues and politics on global warming.[9]

Some scholars classified the Party in the 1990s as an "extreme right", or a "radical right-wing extremist" political movement.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Since then the terms used to describe the Progress Party (and similar parties and movements in Europe) have varied: Describe ranges from conservative-libertarian, to radical right wing populist[17], to xenophobic ethno-nationalist or religious-nationalist.[18][19] The Progress Party rejects all these labels.

Populism Frp are sometimes claimed, mostly by the political left, to be right-wing populist[17], due to their opinions on immigration and means to combat crime.

The former Labour Party secretary Martin Kolberg, former SV chairman Erik Solheim[20] and the former KrF chairman Kjell Magne Bondevik [21] have all accused Frp for right-wing populism. Scholars such as Bernt Hagtvet, Anders Horn og Peter M. Johansen, have also claimed this. In an article on www.forskning.no in February 2003 [22], professor in Political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Anders Todal Jensen, that Frp was the "only populist party in Norway". According to Todal Jensen Carl I. Hagen was a "super-populist", without his "own stands".

Immigration The immigration policy of the Progress party has for a long time been a matter of heated discussion. The policy of the party is to favour immigrants who quickly learn Norwegian and get jobs, while expelling the criminal foreigners. In a speech during opening of the election campaign for the 2007 election, the party chairman Siv Jensen claimed that the present immigration policy is a failure because it lets criminals stay in Norway, while throwing out people who work hard and follow the law. [1]

Critics accuse the party of xenophobia, whereas supporters argue that the policy is to address a real problem as non-European immigrants are overrepresented in some of the crime statistics.[23]

The 2005 Brochure on Immigration During the 2005 electoral campaign, the Progress Party printed a brochure focusing on criminal immigrants. The text on the brochure reads "The perpetrator is of foreign origin ...!" Heavy criticism followed by the other Norwegian parties, centered on the allegation that such an advertisement criminalized immigrants as a group. Prime-minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said that "the Progress Party plays on the fear of foreigners."

The Progress Party protested that the critics were mutilating their message. They pointed out that the next page of the brochure read: "«Those most eager to get rid of criminal immigrants are us honest immigrants!» (Pakistani-born immigrant in Norway)". Frp chairman Hagen argued "Bondevik is wrong here. The brochure says that many immigrants are law-abiding citizens that do a fantastic job for Norway. But unfortunately there are too many who are not. Statistics clearly show that criminality is growing among immigrants."[24]

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. The only Norwegian party to support the U.S led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was the Progress Party .Former party chairman Carl I Hagen sometimes claims that there is a link between Islamist fundamentalism and terror.

Carl I Hagen once said in an interview that "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are Muslim". Upon question of why he did not consider terrorism in the Basque country and Corsica, he replied that these were "national conflicts, and [had] nothing to do with [international terrorism]".[26]

Isolation Since its foundation, other parties have consistently refused the Progress Party's efforts to formally join any governing coalition at the state level, despite the Progress Party having broad popular support.[27]

However, in the wake of the 2005 elections that saw an increase in support for the FrP, the Conservatives stated they wanted to be "a bridge between FrP and the centre".[28]

The support of both The Progress Party and the Conservative Party has increased in the wake of the growing unpopularity of the red-green government[5], and following the government's increase in petrol and diesel fees, a possible Conservative-Progress coalition would according to a poll by VG get 47 percent of the vote, while the current red-green coalition would only get 41 percent.[6]

Party leadership

• Anders Lange (1973 – 1974)
• Eivind Eckbo (1974 – 1975) (interim)
• Arve Lønnum (1975 – 1978)
• Carl I. Hagen (1978 – 2006) (2006 retirement announced in 2003)
• Siv Jensen (2006 – )

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

See also

• Politics of Norway
• Fremskrittspartiets Ungdom ("Youth of the Progress Party")

External links

• Template:No icon Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party) - official site
• Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party) - official site in English
• Template:No icon Official programme, in Norwegian
• The Principles of Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party), the political manifesto of PP.
• History of Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party) 1973-2006
• Template:No icon Fremskrittspartiets ungdom (Youth party) - official site
• Election results for Frp in the 2007 local elections