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The Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet or Framstegspartiet, Frp) is a conservative liberal right-wing political party of Norway. It was founded on April 8, 1973 at a famous address held by the rugged individualist and popular public speaker Anders Lange. The party adopted its current name in 1977. In the 2005 parliamentary elections, it was the second-largest party, with 22.1 percent of the votes and 37 seats (up from third-largest with 14.6 percent and 26 seats in the 2001 elections). The current chairman is Carl I. Hagen who, as representative of the largest opposition party, is now Vice President (vice speaker) of the parliament, the Storting.

History

Foundation

The founder, Anders Lange, intended the party to be more like a protest movement than a regular political party. The protest was directed against what was perceived to be an unacceptably high level of taxes, subsidies, and regulations, against government interventionism, and against the social democrat "nanny state" (Norwegian: formynderstaten).

It started under the name of Anders Lange's Party for strong reductions of taxes, charges and government intervention or the Anders Lange Party, or ALP.

The objective of Anders Lange was to remind the Conservative Party of Norway of its commitment to rightist values of individual liberty, civil society, and private property rights. According to Lange, the "socialist" government had grown too big, and the conservative party didn't seem to be bent on rolling back "big government". On the contrary, the conservatives had increased taxes and had done nothing to make government smaller, in Lange's view.

Electoral Support

The first election, in 1973, gave Anders Lange 5 percent, and four seats in the Norwegian parliament.

Following Lange, there was a brief series of party leaders, until Carl I. Hagen, after the party's poor result in the 1977 election, took control of the party in 1978:

• Anders Lange
• Eivind Eckbo (interim)
• Arve Lønnum
• Carl I. Hagen (the 2006 retreat announced in 2003)

Carl I. Hagen became the chairman of Frp in 1978, and has been practically uncontested. There has never been a really strong opposing candidate. Hagen has been determined to build up a strong party organization, and to move his party into the mainstream of Norwegian politics. Under his leadership Frp has played an increasingly important role in the Politics of Norway. In 2003 he declared that he was going to withdraw as chairman in 2006. His expected successor is the current vice-chairman, the economist Siv Jensen.

In the parliamentary election in 1989, the party obtained 13 percent, and became the third largest party in Norway. It started to receive some responsibility in local administrations, but was still mostly insignificant in that scope. In 1990, Peter Myhre, of Frp, became the mayor of Oslo.

Because of inner struggles, the 1993 election halved the party to 6.3 percent and 10 representatives. In 1994, four representatives of the "libertarian wing" broke out, formed an independent group in parliament, and founded another party the Fridemokratene.

In the 1997 election, Frp obtained 15.3 percent, and it returned to be the third largest party.

In the local election in 1999, the very popular local Progress-Party leader Terje Søviknes was elected mayor of Os. 20 municipalities got a deputy mayor from the Progress Party.

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 "populist" local representatives in Oslo and some parliamentarians resigned from the party. Some "soloists", as they were called, where suspended, including Vidar Kleppe, who was suspended for two years, or expelled, as Jan Simonsen. The "populists" formed a party called The Democrats, with Vidar Kleppe as chairman and Jan Simonsen as vice-chairman.

In the Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001, Fr.p. lost the advance it had on polls, but maintained its position from the 1997 election, and got 14.6 percent and 26 members in the parliament.

Frp had run a campaign promising to unseat the Labour government of Jens Stoltenberg, and kept that promise by supporting the new minority government of Kjell Magne Bondevik, although the three parties in that coalition declined to govern together with Fr.p., since their policies were considered to be unacceptably populistic in a number of points.

In 2002, the Progress party advanced again in polls, and for a short while it even became the largest party, with a strong margin in December 2002. It has since fallen behind the Norwegian Labour Party, and competes with the Conservative Party for the second position.

The local election in 2003 was a breakthrough for the party as a political player in Norwegian municipalities. 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 mayoral 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.

Until January 2004 the Progress Party has contended for the position as the second largest party with the Norwegian Conservative Party and the Socialist Left Party. As of January 2005, it has been stable at just below 20 percent on the polls, since January 2004.

Political Platform

The platform of Frp for 2001–2005 starts off with these general principles:

Why did it succeed?

It is remarkable that a new political party immediately succeeds in being represented in the parliament and that it does not become a "mayfly party". With Frp it is even more remarkable, because it did not come into existence because of any peeling off from other parties, and its representatives were political novices.

• Television as a powerful channel for the party. The 1973 election campaign was the first to be covered by nationwide television, which functioned as an effective medium for Anders Lange's Party.
• Widespread discontent with an ever-increasing tax level. Frustrated expectations among non-socialist voters who had hoped for tax-cuts. During the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s, there had been an unprecedented increase of taxes. In this period, a non-socialist coalition government led by Per Borten (1965-71) came into office, and it had failed non-socialist voters expectations of a change, it had failed to reduce taxes, and had introduce the VAT.
• The anti-hegemonic effects in the aftermath of the referendum on whether Norway should become a member of the EU in 1972. The defeat of the establishment, the gap between party-leaders and voters, functioned as the catalyst for political change.
• Uncommonly skillful political craftsmanship by Carl I Hagen.
• The well established party organization
• The fading away of the socialist ideological hegemony, the crisis of the idea of the centrally planned economy, and the keynesian inteventionist theory that did not work anymore.
• The renaissance of libertarian or classical liberalist political thought.

Criticism

Minarchism

The Progress Party has an economic policy clearly based in traditional economic liberalism. They support a society with limited public power and a stronger business sector, that could take responsibility for many of the duties the state has today (see also: privatisation). The same business sector should, just like the citizen, receive only a minimum of restrictions from the state. For instance, law should not forbid a company to sign contracts with their workers that require them to work 12-hour of daily working time, if the workers accept this.

The party seeks to reduce public spending, and at the same time reduce taxes for Norwegian citizens. With the privatisation of public services, citizens would not pay for services they do not need. The Progress Party believes that the state has the responsibility of securing its citizens a minimum living standard, but no other duties beyond that. The financial means for this reduced social policy should mainly be gathered by taxation of consumption instead of income, keeping the taxation level to a minimum.

The economic policy is based on the idea that the market is its best ruler. A market with as few hindrances as possible should channel the capital where it is needed, without intervention from the state with laws or taxes.

The Progress Party is also known for supporting a more restrictive view of Norwegian immigration policies, which may be rooted in the mistrust in the state's capability of solving social problems efficiently.

The party has officially decided not to have a position on Norwegian membership in the European Union. The national convention of Fr.p. has decided to put its representatives in a "free position" in their voting on the issue.

Populism

As the party was founded just after the political upheaval that followed the 1972 EU referendum, the party was believed to be an ephemeral phenomenon. The now-legendary leader of the Conservative Party Kåre Willoch characterized it as a "mayfly party", implying that it would disappear as fast as it appeared. Ironically, in the 2005 election the Progress Party surpassed the Conservative Party in electoral support, gaining 22.1% of the popular vote, against only 14.1% to the Conservatives.

Some of its critics lump it together with right-wing populism in Europe, because, they argue, like those parties it is sceptical towards immigration, tough on crime, sceptical towards bureaucracy and governmental control, and it works for reduction of taxes and charges.

Immigration

Some claim its immigration policy is inappropriate, appealing to the fears of those concerned with foreign immigration. The Progress Party denies this, arguing that its more restrictive immigration policy is based on facts: It says it is a fact that that the non-western immigrants are overrepresented in heavy crime statistics, that it is a fact that integration policies has failed, that it is a fact that only a small fraction of the refugee claimants are refugees; they also argue that sending the criminal immigrants out of the country will actually improve the overall image of the immigrants in Norway.

During the 2005 electoral campaign the Progress Party printed a brochure that focused on criminal activities committed by immigrants. The text on the brochure reads «The assailant is of foreign origin!». The smaller text under the headline is «headline we often read». Critics claimed that the brochure criminalized immigrants as a group. The Progress Party rejects that as a mutilation of their message which is only possible by reading the front page out of context. The header on the next page reads: "«Those most eager to get rid of criminal immigrants are us honest immigrants!» ( Pakistani born immigrant in Norway)".

The Progress Party maintains that it has nothing against immigrants who are in Norway on legal premises and are being good citizens in general, and it strongly reject any discrimination based on colour, race, cultural, ethnic or religious affiliation.

War on terror

Although war on terror is not an issue the Progress Party promotes a lot, they have a clear position in support of the United States. Party chairman Carl I Hagen sometimes goes far in claiming that there is a link between Islam and terror. This position receives particularly broad support among Christian communities.

On July 13, 2004 Carl I Hagen held a speech in one such community, the Living Word Bible Center in Bergen. He was quoted saying: "We Christians are deeply concerned with children. Jesus said, let the small children come to me. I can't imagine that Muhammed could have said the same thing. If he had, it would have been Let the small children come to me, so I can exploit them in my struggle to Islamify the world". Supporters of Hagen reject that, and claim that the particular quote was cited out of context. Critics reply back that that the complete speech contained various implications of Christianity being morally superior to Islam.

Isolated

The Progress Party often find itself isolated in Norwegian politics, as other political parties deem the Progress Party's policies as too different politically. Other right-wing parties consistently refused the Progress Party to formally join any governing coalition, despite the Progress Party having broad popular support. This often led to tensions and even a personal rivalry between the Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen and the Christian Democrat Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. However, in the wake of the 2005 elections that saw a wide increase in support for the Frp, the Conservatives stated they wanted to be a bridge between Frp and the centre.

See also

• Politics of Norway
• Carl I. Hagen
• Neoliberalism
• Right-wing politics
• Libertarian perspectives on immigration

References

• Yes to more Frp, interview with liberal leader Lars Sponheim from Aftenposten.
• The Norwegian Progress Party: Building Bridges across Old Cleavages by Tor Bjørklund and Jo Saglie, Norwegian Institute for Social Reseach, PDF file.
• Predestined parties? organizational change in Norwegian political parties, by Knut Heidar and Jo Saglie. The Causes and Consequences of Organisational Innovation in European Political Parties at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Grenoble, April 11, 2001.
• Jensen likely to take over Progress Party, from Aftenposten, October 6 2003.
• Descriptive article on the Progress Party by Aslak Bonde, political journalist of Aftenposten.
• Populism—a breath of health, by NTNU journalist Even Gran.
• Carl I. Hagen's speech at Levende Ord.

External links

• Template:No icon Fremskrittspartiet (Progress Party) official site
• Template:No icon Fremskrittspartiets ungdom (Youth party) official site

• Political parties in Norway
• Liberal-conservative parties