The Liberal Party (, , V; ) is a social liberal political party in Norway. It was founded in 1884 and is the oldest political party in Norway. Despite its native name, the Liberal Party is positioned in the centre on the political spectrum, and usually cooperates much more with the right wing parties. It is a liberal party which has over the time enacted reforms such as parliamentarism,

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

, and

state school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

ing. For most of the late 19th and early 20th century, it was Norway's largest and dominant political party, but in the postwar era it lost most of its support and became a relatively small party. The party has nevertheless participated in several centrist and

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

government coalitions in the postwar era. It currently holds eight seats in the Parliament, and was previously a part of Norway's government together with the Conservative Party and the Christian Democratic Party. Guri Melby has served as the party leader since 2020. Founded in 1884, then with the main support from

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

s and progressive members of the

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

, it was the first political party that came into existence in Norway, and was the dominant government party for several decades. From the beginning it had a close relationship with the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights (; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's rights, women's and girls' rights organization that works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights through political reform, ...

, which was founded in the same year by most of the Liberal Party's leading politicians, and the party played a central role in advocating for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. Since the 1880s the party has seen many internal schisms. A politically moderate and religious wing broke away in 1888 to form the Moderate Liberal Party; and the conservative-liberal faction, including the former Prime Minister of Norway Christian Michelsen, broke away in 1909 to form the Free-minded Liberal Party (both parties eventually merged into the Conservative Party). The most notable recent schism was in 1972, when the Liberal Party decided to oppose Norwegian membership in the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

(EEC), and the faction supporting membership broke away and formed the Liberal People's Party. The party has since endorsed Norwegian membership in the EU and is currently a strong proponent.

History

The party Venstre was formed in 1884 in connection with the dispute about whether or not to introduce parliamentarianism in Norway. Venstre (which means "Left" in Norwegian) was the party advocating parliamentarianism, whereas the conservatives, who opposed parliamentarianism, formed the party Høyre (which means "Right"). When the fight for parliamentarianism 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 The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

(Norwegian parliament). Later, Venstre advocated universal

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

for men, which was achieved in 1898, the break-up of the Swedish-Norwegian Union, which happened in 1905, and universal

, 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. In 1891, the more liberal-social tendencies of the party started to dominate Venstre, and as noted by one study, “the majority of social policies up to 1914 were supported and pushed through by Venstre, as the Social Democratic Party had no influence on policy until that date. With the growth of 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

. Venstre was further weakened with the formation of ''Bondepartiet'' (the present-day Centre Party) in 1920, and Christian People's Party in 1933, both of which were formed partly by former Venstre members. Since World War II, Venstre has been part of five coalition governments, the most recent one being Solberg's Cabinet from 2018. A dispute over Norwegian membership in the European Communities (now the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

) led to the party splitting at a meeting in Røros in 1972, with the people favoring EC membership departing and forming 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 election the party announced for the first, and so far only, time that it would support a Labour Party government. At the following election Venstre lost its two remaining seats, and was without representation in the Storting for the first time. The party merged in 1988 with the Liberal People's Party, but at the election of 1989 this reunited Venstre again failed to win parliamentary seats. In 1993 the party again failed to achieve the 4% threshold that would have made it eligible for the levelling seats in parliament, but Lars Sponheim was elected directly from

Hordaland 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 Munici ...

county. (Before the election, Sponheim had made the wager that he would walk across the mountains from his home in

Ulvik Ulvik is a municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality stretches from the Hardangerfjord to the mountains that reach above sea level. The administrative centre of the municipality is t ...

to the parliament in the capital city

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

if elected—a wager he delivered on, to much good-humoured interest from the press.) In 1997, Venstre passed the 4% threshold, increasing its seats in parliament to six. As a consequence Venstre also saw its first participation in cabinet since 1973. The party held four seats in the minority first government of

Kjell Magne Bondevik Kjell Magne Bondevik (; born 3 September 1947) is a Norway, Norwegian Lutheranism, Lutheran Religious minister, minister and Politics of Norway, politician. As leader of the Christian Democratic Party (Norway), Christian Democratic Party, he ser ...

. Lars Sponheim became minister of industry and commerce, Odd Einar Dørum; minister of communications, later minister of justice, Guro Fjellanger; minister of environmental protection, and Eldbjørg Løwer; minister of administration, later minister of defense. Mrs. Løwer was the first female minister of defense in Norway. This cabinet resigned in 2000, refusing to accept the Storting's decision to build gas power plants. In 2001, Venstre narrowly failed to reach the 4% threshold, but had two representatives elected, 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 election gave Venstre 5.9% of the vote, its best result since the 1969 election. Venstre won six seats directly, and an additional four seats through the 4%+ compensatory system. Due to the majority of the Red-green coalition, Venstre became an opposition party. In the 2009 election, Venstre ended up below the 4% threshold for levelling seats, leaving the party with only two seats in parliament, Trine Skei Grande and Borghild Tenden, whereas they had ten seats before the election. The same evening, 14 September 2009, Lars Sponheim announced that he would step down as party leader, as a consequence of the poor result. After the election, the party experienced growth in members. At the party conference in April 2010, Trine Skei Grande was unanimously elected as the new leader of the party. Venstre climbed over the threshold with 5.2% in the 2013 elections and entered into coalition talks with the Conservative, Christian Democratic, and Progress parties. Venstre and the Christian Democrats decided not to enter the new Solberg Cabinet, thus leaving it without a parliamentary majority, but made a

confidence and supply In parliamentary system, parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply is an arrangement under which a minority government (one which does not control a majority in the legislature) receives the support of one ...

agreement with it. Winning eight seats in the 2017 elections, Venstre entered into new talks with the Conservative and Progress Party coalition, and joined the coalition in January 2018 with three cabinet posts; Ola Elvestuen became Minister of Climate and Environment, Iselin Nybø Minister of Research and Higher Education, while party leader Trine Skei Grande became Minister of Culture.

Ideology

The party is regarded as liberal, social-liberal, and centrist. The party advocates

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

under the pre-condition of an active state. Since the 1970s, the party has maintained a green liberal position, which was an important part of the party profile when it came back to parliament in the 1990s. The Liberal Party was rated the second best party after the Green Party by the environmentalist organisation '' Framtiden i våre hender''. The party is also a strong supporter of

multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...

, increased labour immigration to Norway, and relaxed integration measures. Through its history, it has taken part in both

and pure centrist coalition governments. From 2001 to 2005, it was in a centre-right coalition government with the Conservative Party and Christian Democratic Party; since the 2005 general election, the party has been in opposition. More recently the party has been a proponent of a blue–green alliance in Norwegian politics, with Venstre constituting the green part. In the last few election campaigns, Venstre's main focus has been on environmental issues, education, small-business and social issues. Venstre advocates higher taxes on activities that damage the environment. Some other positions advocated by Venstre are increased labour immigration, abolition of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

as the state church, abolishing the

wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

and

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

taxes, and more power to local authorities ( kommuner). At the national convention in 2005, Venstre decided with a margin of only five votes to still oppose Norway joining the

, albeit weakly, while still advocating that Norway remain part of the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Asso ...

. In 2020, however, a majority at the national convention voted for Venstre to support EU membership for Norway. Thus, the official stance of Venstre is now in support of Norwegian membership of the European Union. Regardless, the party retains the position that the question of potential Norwegian EU membership should only be decided by a national referendum, similar to referendums held in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

and

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

. Venstre additionally supports the replacement of the monarchy with a republican form of government. In 2007, Venstre became the first Norwegian party to advocate legalizing sharing of copyrighted digital material.

Etymology

While the name of the party means ''Left'' in Norwegian, the party refers to itself as a centrist party. Since the Centre Party was a component of the governing centre-left Red-green coalition, and ''Venstre'' was 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 Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

in the way "Left wing" does today. It meant ''liberal'' or ''radicalism'' in comparison to the ''conservatives'' on the right, and referred to the position of the seats in Parliament. 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 Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

and radicalism rather than

Party leaders

* 1884 Johan Sverdrup * 1884–1889 Ole Anton Qvam * 1889–1893 Johannes Steen * 1893–1894 Viggo Ullmann * 1894–1896 Ole Anton Qvam * 1898–1900 Viggo Ullmann * 1900–1903 Lars Holst * 1903–1909 Carl Berner * 1909–1927 Gunnar Knudsen * 1927–1940 Johan Ludwig Mowinckel * 1945–1952 Jacob S. Worm-Müller * 1952–1964 Bent Røiseland * 1964–1970 Gunnar Garbo * 1970–1972 Helge Seip * 1972–1974 Helge Rognlien * 1974–1976 Eva Kolstad * 1976–1982 Hans Hammond Rossbach * 1982–1986 Odd Einar Dørum * 1986–1990 Arne Fjørtoft * 1990–1992 Håvard Alstadheim * 1992–1996 Odd Einar Dørum * 1996–2010 Lars Sponheim * 2010–2020 Trine Skei Grande * 2020– Guri Melby

Prime ministers from Venstre

* 1884–1889 Johan Sverdrup * 1891–1893 Johannes Steen * 1898–1902 Johannes Steen * 1902–1903 Otto Blehr * 1907–1908 Jørgen Løvland * 1908–1910 Gunnar Knudsen * 1913–1920 Gunnar Knudsen * 1921–1923 Otto Blehr * 1924–1926 Johan Ludwig Mowinckel * 1928–1931 Johan Ludwig Mowinckel * 1933–1935 Johan Ludwig Mowinckel

Electoral performance

Storting

Notes

References

External links

Venstre
official site
Election results for Venstre in the 2007 local elections
{{Liberal Party (Norway) Liberal parties in Norway Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties Classical liberal parties Green liberalism Liberal International Political parties established in 1884 Radical parties Republicanism in Norway Social liberal parties 1884 establishments in Norway