Arild Hermstad (born 15 October 1966) is a Norwegian politician for the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

, who has served as the party leader since 2022. He previously served as Party spokesperson, alongside Une Bastholm, from 2018 to 2020, and then the deputy leader from 2020 to 2022.

Personal life and education

Education

Hermstad took his secondary education at Bergen Cathedral School in 1985. After studying economics for two years at the

Norwegian School of Economics The Norwegian School of Economics ( no, Norges Handelshøyskole) or NHH is a business school situated in Bergen, Norway. It was founded in 1936 as Norway's first business school and is a leading teaching and research institution in the fields of ...

, Hermstad enrolled at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

whence he graduated with a major in social geography in 1995.

Personal life

Hermstad is married and has two children.

Career

Hermstad has previously worked in a bank, as a brigade coordinator in Latin America, with local environmental work in Bergen and has been employed by the Rafto Foundation. He first became known nationwide as leader of '' Framtiden i våre hender'' from 2001 to 2017. He was also the leader of the Cyclists' National Association from 2013 to 2018. He was the Green Party's candidate in Hordaland constituency for the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

and 2021 election, but failed to secure a seat on both occasions. On 12 May 2018, he was elected spokesperson for the Green Party, alongside incumbent Une Bastholm, succeeding

Rasmus Hansson Rasmus Johan Michael Hansson (born 4 September 1954) is a Norwegian biologist, civil servant, environmental activist and a former national spokesperson for the Green Party. He led the Norwegian chapter of World Wide Fund for Nature from 2000 to 2 ...

. Following a national conference in 2019, the Green Party decided to elect a single leader, abolishing their tradition of having multiple spokespeople. During a meeting on 25 April 2020 (held digitally due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

), Hermstad became one of two deputy leaders, alongside Kriss Rokkan Iversen, with Bastholm as leader. On 17 August 2022, Bastholm announced her resignation as party leader and the Green Party committee scheduled an extrondinary congress for the autumn. Shortly afterwards, Hermstad announced his leadership candidacy, while he in addition would become acting leader on 22 August until the autumn congress. He was designated leader on 10 October, with Lan Marie Berg as deputy leader. He was formally elected at the extraordinary congress on 26 November, winning 102 votes against Kristoffer Robin Haug's 101. Between 2 March 2020 and 9 March 2021, he was acting Oslo City Commissioner for Transport and the Environment in addition to Urban Planning, in Lan Marie Berg's and Hanna Marcussen's absences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermstad, Arlid 1966 births Living people Politicians from Bergen University of Bergen alumni Norwegian politicians Green Party (Norway) politicians