On 2 September 1995, just before the electoral campaign for the

1995 Norwegian local elections Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on 11 and 10 September 1995. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently. R ...

, a meeting was held by the Norwegian Association ( no, Den Norske Forening) that would turn controversial. The meeting was attended by many nationalist and far-right organisations, but caused controversy because the profiled Progress Party Member of Parliament Øystein Hedstrøm was revealed to have been present and held a speech at the meeting.

Events

On 3 September 1995, the newspaper '' Dagbladet'' published photos of Hedstrøm holding a speech about immigration at an allegedly secret meeting at the movie theatre ''Godlia kino'' in Oslo. The journalists who had investigated the meeting were

Arne O. Holm Arne O. Holm (born 20 October 1956) is a Norwegian journalist and newspaper editor. He was born in Tromsø. He has been journalist for the newspapers ''Dagbladet'' and '' Dagens Næringsliv'', and for NRK's ''Brennpunkt''. He was awarded the SKUP Aw ...

, Cato Vogt-Kielland and Thor Gjermund Eriksen. The meeting, which went under the name "Year of the grasshoppers" (''Gresshoppenes år''), was attended by 24 persons, including Bastian Heide,

Jack Erik Kjuus Jack Erik Kjuus (18 January 1927 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian far-right politician of the former White Electoral Alliance who was convicted of racism in 1997. The party Kjuus led was a merger between two anti-immigrant parties, Stop the ...

, Bjarne Dahl, Erik Gjems-Onstad and

Hege Søfteland Hege Søfteland (born 25 July 1959) is a Norwegian nationalist politician and immigration opponent. A former member of the Conservative Party and Progress Party, she has since the late 1980s been present in numerous anti-immigration, far-right and ...

. The initiator to the meeting was the nationalist organisation the Norwegian Association, which was led by Torfinn Hellandsvik. The newspaper bulletin created shockwaves into the political community. The Progress Party chairman,

Carl I. Hagen Carl-Ivar Hagen (born 6 May 1944) 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 hi ...

, had not known that Hedstrøm had participated at the meeting. Hagen immediately quieted Hedstrøm, and distanced himself from the Norwegian Association. Hedstrøm was also stripped of his position as Spokesperson of Immigration Issues. Hagen stated that "Hedstrøm has made a big mistake", and Hedstrøm withdrew from the public scene. After a few days, Hagen changed his opinion and stated that Hedstrøm had done nothing else than attending the meeting as a private person. It also reached surface that other politicians from the Progress Party, such as Deputy Chairman Vidar Kleppe, and Member of Parliament Fridtjof Frank Gundersen had also attended meetings hosted by the Norwegian Association. According to the newspaper '' Aftenposten'', Hedstrøm had also had long-term contact with organisations such as the Fatherland Party and

Stop Immigration Stop the Immigration ( no, Stopp Innvandringen, SI) was a political party in Norway, founded by Jack Erik Kjuus in 1987. The party was never particularly successful, and its only elected representative was in the Drammen city council, in both 1991 ...

. It also became known that the leader of the Norwegian Association, Torfinn Hellandsvik, had been the premise supplier for a parliamentary document about immigration that Hedstrøm had prepared. The attention around this case, together with focus on immigration, resulted in a markedly increased support for the Progress Party in the 1995 local elections.

References

{{Reflist 1995 in Norway Anti-immigration politics in Norway Political controversies in Norway