The Free Democrats ( no, Fridemokratene) is a political organization formed by former members of the
Progress Party of Norway
The Progress Party ( nb, Fremskrittspartiet; nn, Framstegspartiet; se, Ovddádusbellodat), commonly abbreviated as FrP, is a right-wing political party in Norway. The FrP has traditionally self-identified as classical-liberal and as a libertar ...
in 1994.
The
1993 election saw the support of the Progress Party (6.3 percent and 10 representatives) halved. After the
1994 Progress Party national convention
The 1994 national convention of the Progress Party of Norway was held from 15 April to 17 April at the hotel Bolkesjø Turisthotell in Bolkesjø, Telemark. It was originally set up to be a normal convention with 157 delegates in a non-election ye ...
several representatives of the "
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
wing" broke out and founded a party more ideologically consistently libertarian, the Free Democrats. Four of the defectors were
MPs, and formed an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
group in
Parliament of Norway
The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...
.
Its first leader
Ellen Christine Christiansen was among the four MPs, and also served in Oslo city council until 1995.
In the
Norwegian county elections, 1995 the party received 1,932 votes, 0.09% of the votes. The Free Democrats no longer participate in elections and function merely as a think tank and organization for Norwegian libertarians, regardless of their political allegiance. People associated with the Free Democrats also founded the
online newspaper
An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publication or as the online version of a printed periodical.
Going online created more opportunities for newspa ...
''
Liberaleren''.
Issues
According to its webpage, its main policies are:
* End
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
* Full
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...
*
Separation of church and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...
*
Legalization of drugs
* Free
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
Presidents of the Free Democrats
*1994–1996 :
Ellen Christine Christiansen
*1996–1998 :
Heidi Nordby Lunde
*1998–1999 : Bent Johan Mosfjell
*1999–2000 :
Kristian Norheim
*2000–2003 :
Hans Jørgen Lysglimt
*2003–2005 : Sverre Berg
See also
*
Liberal People's Party, a party with a similar ideology
References
{{Reflist
Liberal parties in Norway
Political parties established in 1994
1994 establishments in Norway