Constitution |
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Norwayportal |
The county governor of Vestland county in Norway represents the central government administration in the county. The office of county governor is a government agency of the Kingdom of Norway; the title was Amtmann (before 1919), then Fylkesmann (from 1919 to 2020), and then Statsforvaltaren (since 2021). [1]
The County Governor of Vestland is a position that was established on 1 January 2019 in preparation for the creation of the new Vestland county which was established on 1 January 2020 when the old Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane counties were merged. The first county governor was Lars Sponheim who previously had served as the County Governor of Hordaland. The County Governor of Vestland is based at Leikanger, but will also have smaller annex offices located in Bergen and Førde. [2]
The county governor is the government's representative in the county. The governor carries out the resolutions and guidelines of the Storting and government. This is done first by the county governor performing administrative tasks on behalf of the ministries. Secondly, the county governor also monitors the activities of the municipalities and is the appeal body for many types of municipal decisions.
The title of the office was originally Fylkesmann i Vestland but on 1 January 2021, the title was changed to the gender-neutral Statsforvaltaren i Vestland.
Vestland county has had the following governors: [3]
County governors of Vestland | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Start | End | Name | ||
1 January 2019 | 1 June 2022 | Lars Sponheim (born 1957) | ||
1 September 2022 | present | Liv Signe Navarsete (born 1958) |
Hordaland was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipality, which is located in Bergen. Before 1972, the city of Bergen was its own separate county, apart from Hordaland. On 1 January 2020, the county was merged with neighbouring Sogn og Fjordane county, to form the new Vestland county.
Sogn og Fjordane was, up to 1 January 2020, a county in western Norway, when it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, Buskerud, and Hordaland, the county administration was in the village of Hermansverk in Leikanger municipality. The largest town in the county was Førde.
Luster is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located at the end of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative centre is the village of Gaupne. Other villages in Luster include Fortun, Hafslo, Indre Hafslo, Jostedal, Luster, Nes, Ornes, Skjolden, Solvorn, and Veitastrond.
Norway is divided into 11 administrative regions, called counties which until 1918 were known as amter. The counties form the first-level administrative divisions of Norway and are further subdivided into 356 municipalities. The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are outside the county division and ruled directly at the national level. The capital Oslo is both a county and a municipality.
Lars Sponheim is a Norwegian politician. He was leader of the Liberal Party from 1996 to 2010. He was a member of the Storting from 1993 to 2009, and a government minister from 1997 to 2000 and from 2001 to 2005. He served as County Governor of Vestland from 2010 to 2022, having served as the County Governor of Hordaland from 2010 until the office was merged with that of neighboring Sogn og Fjordane in 2019.
Bergenhus len was an administrative division of the Kingdom of Norway that existed from 1503 to 1662, with the Bergenhus Fortress in Bergen as its administrative center Norwegian administrative division. The len was changed to an amt (district) in 1662 but it kept its original name and capital until 1919.
The following are lists of county governors of the various counties of Norway. The Norwegian counties are under the supervision of county governors, appointed by the Norwegian government. Historically, there were larger diocesan counties that supervised smaller subordinate counties as well. This distinction was abolished on 1 January 1919. On 1 January 2020, there was a major reorganization and reduction of counties in Norway.
Sogn og Fjordane County Municipality was the regional governing administration of the old Sogn og Fjordane county in Norway. The county municipality was established in its current form on 1 January 1976 when the law was changed to allow elected county councils in Norway. The county municipality was dissolved on 1 January 2020, when Sogn og Fjordane was merged with the neighboring Hordaland county, creating the new Vestland county which is led by the Vestland County Municipality.
Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based, but the County Governor is based in Hermansverk. The county is one of two counties in Norway that have Nynorsk as their official written language form.