Siv Jensen | |
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Minister of Finance | |
In office 16 October 2013 –24 January 2020 | |
Prime Minister | Erna Solberg |
Preceded by | Sigbjørn Johnsen |
Succeeded by | Jan Tore Sanner |
Leader of the Progress Party | |
In office 6 May 2006 –8 May 2021 | |
First Deputy | Per Sandberg Sylvi Listhaug |
Second Deputy | Per Arne Olsen Ketil Solvik-Olsen Terje Søviknes |
Preceded by | Carl I. Hagen |
Succeeded by | Sylvi Listhaug |
First Deputy Leader of the Progress Party | |
In office 2 May 1999 –6 May 2006 | |
Leader | Carl I. Hagen |
Preceded by | Lodve Solholm |
Succeeded by | Per Sandberg |
Parliamentary Leader of the Progress Party | |
In office 28 January 2020 –8 May 2021 | |
Leader | Herself |
Preceded by | Hans Andreas Limi |
Succeeded by | Sylvi Listhaug |
In office 5 October 2005 –17 October 2013 | |
Leader | Carl I. Hagen Herself |
Preceded by | Carl I. Hagen |
Succeeded by | Harald T. Nesvik |
Member of the Norwegian Parliament | |
In office 1 October 1997 –30 September 2021 | |
Deputy | Mazyar Keshvari |
Constituency | Oslo |
Deputy Member of the Storting | |
In office 1 October 1993 –30 September 1997 | |
Constituency | Oslo |
Personal details | |
Born | Oslo,Norway | 1 June 1969
Political party | Progress |
Alma mater | Norwegian School of Economics |
Siv Jensen (born 1 June 1969) is a Norwegian politician who served as the leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2021. She also held the position as Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2020 in the Solberg Cabinet. She was also a member of the Norwegian parliament from Oslo from 1997 to 2021.
Born and raised in Oslo,Jensen graduated with a degree in business studies from the Norwegian School of Economics. She was first elected to parliament in the 1997 parliamentary election,and has later been re-elected for four consecutive terms. She chaired the parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs from 2001 to 2005,and in 2006 succeeded long-time chairman Carl I. Hagen as leader of the Progress Party.
Jensen was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election,which saw record high results for the party. For the 2013 parliamentary election she supported prospects of a coalition government headed by the Conservative Party,and led her party into the Solberg Cabinet,the Progress Party's first ever government participation.
Jensen became Norway's longest-serving Minister of Finance since World War II in October 2019. [1]
Siv Jensen was born in Oslo to self-employed Tore Jensen (1926–1989),and Monica Kjelsberg (born 1939), [2] owners of a shoe store during her childhood. While she holds that her neighbourhood was a nice place to grow up,her home was the scene of numerous burglaries. [3] Her parents were divorced around 1980, [4] and her father soon moved to Sweden. [5] Her mother was for a short while active in the Ullern Progress Party,until finding out that politics was "not her thing". [6]
After completing Marienlyst elementary school in 1985,Jensen attended upper secondary school at Oslo Commerce School in Oslo's Frogner district,graduating in 1988. Afterwards she enrolled in the Norwegian School of Economics,receiving her degree in business studies in 1992. [2] She worked as a sales consultant for Radio 1 from 1992,until dedicating her professional life to politics full-time in 1994. [7]
Her political interest was according to herself sparked at her elementary school Marienlyst where discussions were common in class. These discussions would include two students who were members of the Socialist Youth,one being her socialist-turned best friend. [5] Jensen however soon found herself strongly opposed to their views. [8] She joined the Progress Party in 1988, [5] in part having been introduced to the party through her mother. [6] Sometime before joining the party,she had briefly been a member of the Young Conservatives,for about a week. [5] [8]
Jensen has been a member of the Storting from the Oslo constituency since first being elected in 1997,while having served as a deputy representative from 1993 to 1997. As she was appointed to the government cabinet in 2013,deputy representative Mazyar Keshvari has met as a regular member in her place. [2] From 2001 to 2005 Jensen chaired the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs,having been a member of the committee since 1997,and from 2005 to 2013 she was a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. [9] She played a central role in budget negotiations with the centrist government of Kjell Magne Bondevik,and her work chairing the Finance Committee led her to become increasingly more profiled as a leader-figure within her party. [7]
During the early 1990s,conflict within the party between the younger libertarians and party chairman Carl I. Hagen,Jensen stood on the side of Hagen. [5] She also supported Hagen in the 2001 internal conflict,and stated the same year that Hagen had been like a father figure for her. [4] She became first deputy chairman of the Progress Party in 1998,and parliamentary leader of the party in 2005. In 2006,Carl I. Hagen,chairman of the party since 1978 resigned to become vice president of parliament,and Jensen assumed leadership of the Progress Party to no internal opposition. [7] While many had been speculating about the viability of the party and its future after Hagen resigning,a 2004 survey showed that Jensen enjoyed better general support than him,which was explained by her not being as controversial. [10] Many had also predicted a more moderate course for the party with her being the leader,but she stood firmly by the policies of the party. [5] Her leadership-style has however been considered to be softer than that of Hagen. [7]
In May 2009,Jensen held a lecture in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the invitation of Conservative Party MP Malcolm Rifkind. Media director Alex Try of the think tank Henry Jackson Society,who was responsible for the arrangement,said that the main background for the invitation was her "engagement in questions about terrorism and challenges attached to the multicultural society." Up to one-hundred MP's,business leaders and key persons in British politics was expected to show up at the arrangement. Jensen said that "we have much to learn from the British,but when it comes to the immigration policy I think Britain has failed completely". [11]
As leader of the Progress Party,Jensen took the initiative to talks with Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg in early 2007,seeking to build a broad centre-right coalition for the 2009 election. [5] Amid unresolved dispute among the centre-right parties, [12] she launched herself as candidate for Prime Minister for the 2009 election and received a record share of the vote of 22.9%,although the parties combined ultimately lost out to the centre-left coalition. [7]
In 2011,newspaper Aftenposten wrote that the Progress Party during Jensen's leadership,had experienced their "two best national elections". [13] Ahead of the 2013 election Jensen continued working for a broad centre-right coalition,and endorsed Erna Solberg for Prime Minister. Although seeing its vote drop significantly,she led the Progress Party into government coalition talks for the first time in its history. [7]
Following the other coalition parties’decision to bring home an ISIS related woman and her sick child,Jensen announced on 20 January 2020 that her party was withdrawing from government in protest to the decision. Other reasons cited was that the party been unable to promote their policy in government,and Jensen stated "it’s not worth continuous losses". She,along with the other Progress Party ministers officially withdrew from the government on 24 January,marking the first time a party had withdrawn from government. [14]
On 18 February 2021,Jensen announced that she would step down as party leader after a new one is elected at the party convention in May. She also said she would not be running for re-election in the September election. She cited her reasons to be to focus more on her personal life and family and pointed to Sylvi Listhaug as her preferred successor. [15] Listhaug was subsequently designated her successor in late March,and was officially elected at the party convention on 8 May. [16]
On 16 October 2013,Jensen was appointed Minister of Finance as the Progress Party joined a minority coalition government led by the Conservative Party,the party's first ever government participation. [17] Jensen's first national budget included proposals of cutting taxes,and spending more of Norway's oil wealth,and she also appointed a committee to consider changes to the 4% budgetary rule of Oil Fund spending. [18]
In August 2021,it was announced that Jensen had accepted to lead an organisation working with drowning prevention initiated by the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue. The umbrella organisation was in June 2022 revealed to be named Flyte. [19] She stepped down from the role in January 2024 in order to become a political advisor. [20]
Jensen has described her party to be a "classical liberal party and also a very democratic party",and that its "basic main focus areas are individual freedom,individual rights,less state and more individual freedom",also that the party is "in favor of more competition instead of less. Because we fight state monopolies because they don't do good for competition,for price levels,for people's ability to choose between different distributors. That's our basic ideology behind the party". [21]
Having been called a "Norwegian Margaret Thatcher" in the British press,Jensen has said she views former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as one of her "political heroes". [22] Considering Thatcher "a controversial politician who dared to stand for something," Jensen has expressed support for Thatcherite policies such as "there is no alternative (to market economy)". [23]
Jensen is a staunch supporter of Israel,and has stated that she is "not afraid to defend Israel's right to defend itself." She visited the Israeli city of Sderot in the summer of 2008 and experienced Hamas bombing first hand,forcing her and her company to run for the air-raid shelter. She strongly opposed the Norwegian government's decision to recognise Hamas as she holds that "you don't negotiate with terrorists,you just don't." [22] Jensen has in addition advocated moving the Norwegian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,while also being open to accepting a future recognition of a Palestinian state. [24]
In January 2009,in light of the Gaza War,she held an appeal at a demonstration called "Let Israel live" in support of Israel in Oslo. The Progress Party's general Israel-policy,supported by the appearance at the demonstration by Jensen and the fact that Christian Democratic Party leader Dagfinn Høybråten had not joined the demonstration,resulted in many Christian Democratic voters turning to the Progress Party. [25] Soon after,the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) went public,fearing that Jensen might be the target of attacks. [26] During the speech,which was held amid the 2008–09 Oslo riots,Jensen and pro-Israel demonstrators were suddenly attacked by violent rioters throwing rocks,and Jensen was forced to leave the podium. [27]
In February 2009,Jensen held a speech where she warned about what she called a "sneaking Islamisation" (snikislamisering) of Norway on the background of a public debate about allowing hijab as part of the police uniform,and demands from Muslim groups of Muslim-only education and special food in prisons. [28] The speech turned out to be highly controversial in the other parties. [29] [30] She used the immigrant-heavy Malmö,Sweden city district of Rosengård to illustrate failed integration policies,claiming that Sharia law had replaced Swedish law and that emergency staff could not drive into certain areas. The statements proved highly controversial in Sweden,and the Progress Party was invited to a tour around Rosengård by the mayor and police chief of Malmö,which it accepted. [31] [32] Jensen did however not join the tour herself. [33]
Further,in March 2009,she stated that the fight against radical Islam "is the most important fight of our time." She said that she,as a classical liberal,would always fight against totalitarian ideas such as communism and nazism,and that radical Islam "is a dark and scary ideology." She also accused the other parties of being cowardly,ignoring the questions raised by the Progress Party,and claimed that "it is probably an expression of the fact that they don't understand what's happening in society around them. They close their eyes and try to present themselves as tolerant and liberal,when in fact they are deeply intolerant." [34] Both these controversial statements resulted in large popular gains for the Progress Party,in polls. [34] In response to an incident in early 2010,where thousands of Muslims demonstrated in Oslo,she changed her claim of a "sneak-Islamisation" of Norway,to instead claim that the debate now was of a full-blown Islamisation. [35] [36] During the demonstration (a response to newspaper Dagbladet publishing a Muhammad cartoon in the context of a news story) Islamist Mohyeldeen Mohammad had notably "warned" of a "9/11" or "7/7" in Norway to applause from the crowd. [37]
In December 2008,Jensen questioned the scientific consensus on climate change that climate change is man-made and dangerous,quoting the 1970s global cooling minority conjecture to cast doubt on climate science. Regardless,she is largely supportive of expanding and researching into renewable energy production. [22] In January 2010,she attacked the IPCC,accusing the report from the panel of being based on fraudulent data. She referred to the erroneous statement of Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035,ice melting predictions by Al Gore and Jonas Gahr Støre,questions of statistical sampling,and emails from climate scientists at the Climatic Research Unit. [38]
Besides three half-sisters, [8] Jensen has one younger brother,businessman Tom Einar Jensen, [39] and one younger sister,Nina Jensen,former CEO of WWF. [7] [40] Norway. Her great-grandmother was the early feminist Betzy Kjelsberg. [41] Although she was once engaged,Jensen has never married. [42]
Jensen has stated to be a "proud member of the Church of Norway",while expressing some personal doubt about certain Christian doctrines. She has criticised church leaders for getting too involved in politics,particularly in regard to some church leaders publicly voicing opposition to Norwegian oil drilling. [43] [44]
In 2006,a biography on Siv Jensen was released,written by Martine Aurdal,chief editor of the feminist magazine Fett,later chief editor of the left-wing news magazine Ny Tid . [45]
The Progress Party, is a political party in Norway. It is generally positioned to the right of the Conservative Party, and is considered the most right-wing party to be represented in parliament. The FrP has traditionally self-identified as classical-liberal and as a libertarian party. It is often described as right-wing populist, which has been disputed in public discourse, and has been described by some academics as far-right. By 2020, the party attained a growing national conservative faction. After the 2017 parliamentary election, it was Norway's third largest political party, with 26 representatives in the Storting. It was a partner in the government coalition led by the Conservative Party from 2013 to 2020.
Carl Ivar Hagen is a Norwegian politician and former Vice President of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament. He was the leader of the Progress Party from 1978 to 2006, when he stepped down in favour of Siv Jensen. Under his leadership, he was the undisputed leader and, in many ways, personally controlled its ideology and policies.
Jan Simonsen was a Norwegian politician, writer and journalist. He was a member of parliament from 1989 to 2005, and a member of the Progress Party until he was expelled from the party in 2001. He was the deputy leader of the Democrats party from 2003 to 2004. Since his parliamentary term ended, he largely withdrew from party politics to focus on his writing and journalism. He was a staunch supporter of Israel, and wrote the blog Frie Ytringer which focused on the Islamisation of Europe.
Per Sandberg is a Norwegian politician for the Capitalist Party and formerly the Progress Party who served as the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries from 2015 to 2018. Sandberg was a member of the Norwegian parliament from 1997 to 2017, and served as chair of the parliamentary standing committees on Justice, and Transport and Communications. He has additionally held the position of first deputy leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2018. In 1997 he was convicted of assault and battery of an asylum seeker. His status as a convicted felon has made him controversial in Norwegian politics.
Terje Søviknes is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party who has served as the mayor of Bjørnafjorden since 2023. He previously served as minister of petroleum and energy from December 2016 to August 2018. From December 2019 to January 2020 he was the minister of the elderly and public health. He also serves as the party's second deputy leader since 2019, a post he previously held from 1999 to 2001.
Vidar Sveinung Kleppe is a Norwegian politician. He was a member of parliament and deputy leader of the Progress Party until he was suspended and left the party in 2001. He was the founder and leader of the Democrats party from 2002 to 2012, and has since 2003 held public office as a member of the Vest-Agder county council and the Kristiansand municipal council.
Christian Tybring-Gjedde is a Norwegian politician who represents the Progress Party. He has been a member of the Norwegian parliament since 2005, and was the leader of the Progress Party's Oslo chapter from 2010 to 2014.
Tor Mikkel Wara is a Norwegian politician from the Progress Party, who has served as Justice and Immigration Minister from 2018 to 2019 after the resignation of Sylvi Listhaug.
Ketil Solvik-Olsen is a Norwegian politician of the Progress Party. He served as the party's first deputy leader from 2021 to 2023. He also served as Minister of Transport and Communications from 2013 to 2018 and as the party's second deputy leader from 2013 to 2019.
Per-Willy Trudvang Amundsen is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party who served as Minister of Justice from December 2016 to January 2018. He previously served as state secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development from 2013, and represented Troms in the Norwegian parliament from 2005 until 2013. He was re-elected in 2017.
Ola Elvestuen is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party who served as Minister of Climate and the Environment from 2018 to 2020. He was also the party's deputy leader from 2008 to 2020, and has been an MP for Oslo since 2013.
Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 13 and 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities also held open voting on 13 September. Voters elected 169 members for the Storting, each for a four-year term. Voter turn-out in the 2009 general elections was 76.4%.
Sylvi Listhaug is a Norwegian politician who has been the leader of the Progress Party since 2021.
Israel–Norway relations are the bilateral relations between Israel and Norway. Norway was one of the first countries to recognize Israel, doing so on 4 February 1949.
On 29 December 2008, a large-scale series of riots broke out across Oslo, Norway, two days after Israel initiated "Operation Cast Lead" against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Stemming from ongoing pro-Palestinian protests in the city, the initial riots took place outside of the Embassy of Israel and continued for almost two weeks. The most violent and destructive riots took place on 8 and 10 January, when hundreds or thousands of demonstrators spread throughout Oslo and attacked public and private property as well as civilians: the rioters mainly targeted Jews and people suspected of being Jewish, but also attacked people affiliated with the LGBT community and known and suspected pro-Israel activists. Additionally, violent clashes between the demonstrators and Norwegian police officers led to hundreds of injuries. Between 29 December and 10 January, the Oslo Police had arrested around 200 people, mostly Muslims, of whom a significant number were registered asylum seekers. The rioters had been supported by left-wing activists of Blitz.
Mette Hanekamhaug is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. In the 2009 parliamentary election, she was the youngest person to be elected to the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget). Hanekamhaug represents the county of Møre og Romsdal.
Stop Islamisation of Norway is a Norwegian anti-Muslim group that was originally established in 2000. Its stated aim is to work against Islam, which it defines as a totalitarian political ideology that violates the Norwegian Constitution as well as democratic and human values. The organisation was formerly led by Arne Tumyr, and is now led by Lars Thorsen.
The Solberg Cabinet was the government of the Kingdom of Norway, headed by Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg as Prime Minister from 16 October 2013 to 14 October 2021. The government was appointed by King Harald V on 16 October 2013 following the parliamentary election on 9 September, consisting of the Conservative Party and the Progress Party as a minority government. On 16 December 2015, the cabinet was re-shuffled. The government secured renewed support following the 2017 parliamentary election. It was expanded on 14 January 2018, when an agreement was reached to include the Liberal Party, and further expanded on 22 January 2019 when the Christian Democratic Party joined the coalition. On 20 January 2020, the Progress Party announced that it would withdraw from the government, citing the decision to bring home the family of a sick child from Syria, which included the child's mother, a Norwegian citizen who had volunteered for the Islamic State.
Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 11 September 2017 to elect all 169 members of the unicameral Norwegian Parliament, the Storting. The non-socialist parties retained a reduced majority of 88 seats, allowing Prime Minister Erna Solberg's Conservative-Progress coalition to remain in government. The Liberal Party joined the coalition in January 2018 but it remained a minority cabinet until the Christian Democratic Party joined the coalition in 2019. The three largest centre-left parties won 79 seats. The Green Party retained its single seat, while the Red Party won its first ever seat.
Une Aina Bastholm is a Norwegian politician and former leader of Green Party. She represented Oslo in the Storting from 2017 to 2021 and during this time was the only member of her party with a parliamentary seat. She was elected to represent Akershus following the 2021 election.
I den virkelige verden har Frp under Siv Jensen gjort sine beste valg gjennom historien.
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