Prime Minister of Norway

This is a descriptive article. For a list, see List of heads of government of Norway.

Prime Minister of Norway
Norges statsminister (Norwegian Bokmål) Noregs statsminister (Norwegian Nynorsk)
Coat of arms of Norway
Incumbent Erna Solberg since 16 October 2013
Style	Her Excellency (diplomatic)
Residence	Inkognitogata 18
Seat	Office of the Prime Minister at: Regjeringskvartalet (formerly) Akershus Fortress (temporary) Oslo, Norway
Appointer	The monarch
Term length	No term limits. General elections are held every four years. The prime minister is by convention the leader of the party with majority support in parliament.
Inaugural holder	Frederik Stang (generally regarded as the first incumbent)
Formation	1873
Salary	210,714 USD annually
Website	Government official homepage

The prime minister of Norway (Norwegian: statsminister, literally the "minister of state") is the head of government of Norway and the most powerful person in Norwegian politics. The prime minister and Cabinet (consisting of all the most senior government department heads) are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the monarch, to the Storting (Parliament of Norway), to their political party, and ultimately the electorate. In practice, since it is nearly impossible for a government to stay in office against the will of the Storting, the prime minister is primarily answerable to the Storting. The prime minister is almost always the leader of the majority party in the Storting, or the leader of the senior partner in the governing coalition.

Norway has a constitution, which was adopted on 17 May 1814. The position of prime minister is the result of legislation. Modern prime ministers have few statutory powers, but provided they can command the support of their parliamentary party, they can control both the legislature and the executive (the cabinet) and hence wield considerable de facto powers. As of 2024, the prime minister of Norway is Erna Solberg, of the Conservative Party.

Unlike their counterparts in the rest of Europe, Norwegian prime ministers do not have the option of advising the king to dissolve the Storting and call a snap election. The constitution requires that the Storting serve out its full four-year term. If the prime minister loses the confidence of the Storting, they must resign.

Longest-serving prime ministers

Nr.	Prime minister	Party	Days	Years, months, days
1.	Einar Gerhardsen	Labour Party	6226	17 years and 17 days
2.	Johan Nygaardsvold	Labour Party	3750	10 years, 3 months and 5 days
3.	Gro Harlem Brundtland	Labour Party	3691	10 years, 1 month and 9 days
4.	Jens Stoltenberg	Labour Party	3518	9 years, 7 months and 17 days
5.	Gunnar Knudsen	Liberal Party	3383	9 years, 3 months and 4 days
6.	Johan Ludwig Mowinckel	Liberal Party	2517	6 years, 10 months and 21 days
7.	Erna Solberg	Conservative Party	3865	10 years and 7 months
8.	Kjell Magne Bondevik	Christian Democratic Party	2341	6 years, 4 months and 29 days
9.	Johannes Steen	Liberal Party	2311	6 years, 3 months and 30 days
10.	Per Borten	Centre Party	1982	5 years, 5 months and 5 days
11.	Odvar Nordli	Labour Party	1847	5 years and 20 days

Living former prime ministers

As of 2018 five former prime ministers are alive:

• Living former prime ministers
• 
  Kåre Willoch
  born (1928-10-03) 3 October 1928
  served 1981–1986
• 
  Gro Harlem Brundtland
  born (1939-04-20) 20 April 1939
  served 1981, 1986–1989 and 1990–1996
• 
  Kjell Magne Bondevik
  born (1947-09-03) 3 September 1947
  served 1997–2000 and 2001–2005
• 
  Thorbjørn Jagland
  born (1950-11-05) 5 November 1950
  served 1996–1997
• 
  Jens Stoltenberg
  born (1959-03-16) 16 March 1959
  served 2000–2001 and 2005–2013

See also

• List of heads of government of Norway
• Regjeringskvartalet

External links

• Government Official Homepage