Lene Camilla Westgaard-Halle (born 4 July 1979, Oslo) is a Norwegian political scientist from Drammen, and politician for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Early life and education

Westgaard-Halle grew up on Åskollen in

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken (county), Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and village ...

. She was an active alpinist in Drammen Slalom Club for many years and is the daughter of national team alpinist Dag Lars Westgaard. She graduated from Hawera High School in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1997, and Drammen Gymnas in 1998. She studied political science at the University of Oslo and took subjects at the University of Oxford.

Career

Local politics

Westgaard-Halle became active in politics at the upper secondary school, and was a city council candidate for the first time in 1999. She led Drammen European Youth from 2001 to 2003, Buskerud Young Conservatives from 2002 to 2004 and the Moderate group in the Student Parliament at the University of Oslo from 2005 to 2007. She also sat in the leadership of the student parliament. She sat for 10 years as a representative in

city council and as a member of the chairmanship and school committee, and in

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardan ...

county council where she was a member of the main committee for education and the county committee. She was for several years a member of Drammen Conservative's main board and the board of Buskerud Conservatives. Locally she has been a member of

city council and Buskerud

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

, as well as

Larvik Larvik () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality ...

municipal council an
Vestfold county council
She has been a member of several Executive Boards, amongst them, the Executive Boards o
Buskerud Hospital
and the executive board of the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

Parliament

She is a member of the

Norwegian Parliament 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 base ...

since 2017, representing

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...

. She also represented

as deputy member from 2005 to 2009. She has been promoting green technologies and policies, and «the green shift» in Norway. On 9 April 2021, marking 81 years since the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

, Westgaard-Halle supported minister of culture

Abid Raja Abid Qayyum Raja (born 5 November 1975) is a Norwegian lawyer and Liberal Party politician who served as Minister of Culture from 2020 to 2021.; He was elected to the Storting as representative for Akershus in 2013 where he served as second deputy ...

's criticism of

Carl Bildt Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs ...

's claiming the Swedish defence forces were stronger than those of Norway and Denmark. She stated Sweden looked away and let "Hitler invade Norway", further stating that she hopes that "this is not the way Sweden remembers the most horrible day in Norwegian history". She was supported by Progress Party member of parliament

Erlend Wiborg Erlend Wiborg (born 20 January 1984) is a Norwegian politician for the Progress Party. He served as deputy mayor of Moss from 2011 to 2013, when he was elected as an MP for Østfold. He has previously served as deputy MP from 2005 to 2013. In p ...

, who said that "I think

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

summarised your participation in the war pretty well". In January 2022, she expressed criticism against the state broadcaster

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

after they listed fewer positions previously held by Vice Governor of the Norwegian Central Bank

Ida Wolden Bache Ida Wolden Bache (born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian economist who has been serving as the governor of Norges Bank, the Norwegian central bank, since 2022. She is also the first woman to hold that position. Education Born in Bærum, Bache grad ...

compared to NATO Secretary-General

Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...

. She stated: “I think it would be journalistically correct to include what they have both done, not just one”. She went on to add: “But at least it looks strange all the time Wolden Bache has far more on her CV than what they choose to include”.

References

External links

Party bio
* :no:Lene Westgaard-Halle, Lene Westgaard-Halle in Norwegian {{DEFAULTSORT:Westgaard, Lene 1979 births Living people Deputy members of the Storting Conservative Party (Norway) politicians Buskerud politicians Politicians from Drammen University of Oslo alumni Women members of the Storting