Kari Elisabeth Kaski (born 12 July 1987) is a Norwegian politician. A member of the Socialist Left Party, she has been an MP for Oslo since 2017, and the second vice chair of the

Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs The Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs ( no, Finanskomiteen) is a standing committee of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for policies relating to economic policy, monetary and credit policy, the financial and credit syste ...

since 2021.

Personal life and education

Born in

Kirkenes Kirkenes (; ; Skolt Sami: ''Ǩeârkknjargg;'' fi, Kirkkoniemi; ; russian: Киркенес) is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town ...

, Kaski studied at the

BI Norwegian Business School BI Norwegian Business School () is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe. BI has in total four campuses with the main one located in Oslo. The university has 845 employees consisting of an academic staff o ...

, 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 ...

, and the

University of Burgundy The University of Burgundy (french: Université de Bourgogne, uB; formerly known as ''Université de Dijon'') is a public university located in Dijon, France. The University of Burgundy is situated on a large campus (more than 150 ha) in the east ...

. She is the sister of Ragnhild Kaski, a former general secretary of the Workers' Youth League. She is married to fellow party member Ola Wolff Elvevold, with whom she has one child. She was originally going to give birth to twins but one died before it was born.

Political career

Party politics

Kaski is currently the party's spokesperson on finance. She was the party's general secretary from 2015 to 2017. She then became a member of the party's Working Committee. She and

Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes (born 4 June 1975 in Tromsø) is a Norwegian politician for the Socialist Left Party. He has been the party’s deputy leader since 2019 and an MP for Troms since 2013. Early life Fylkenes was born in Tromsø, but spent ...

were the two candidates for the Second Deputy leadership at the party's 2019 convention after

Snorre Valen Snorre Serigstad Valen (born 16 September 1984 in Oslo) is a Norwegian journalist, musician and former politician from the Socialist Left Party. He served as an MP in the Storting from Sør-Trøndelag from 2009 to 2017, and deputy leader of th ...

had announced that he would be stepping down. Fylkesnes won with 108 votes against Kaski's 100. After her loss, she criticised the leadership for not having a strong environmental profile. After

Audun Lysbakken Audun Bjørlo Lysbakken (born 30 September 1977) is a Norwegian politician and the current leader of the Norwegian Socialist Left Party (Norway), Socialist Left Party. His career in national politics began when he was elected to the Norwegian par ...

announced that he would not be seeking re-election as leader, Kaski was floated as a possible contender to succeed him, alongside

Kirsti Bergstø Kirsti Bergstø (born 1 July 1981) is a Norwegian politician for the Socialist Left Party (Norway), Socialist Left Party. She has served as one of the party's deputy leaders since 2017. Personal life Bergstø was born in Rana, Norway, Rana in ...

and Torgeir Knag Fylkesnes. She was endorsed by the party's county chapters in

Viken Viken may refer to: *Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region *Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020 *Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden *Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...

Vestfold and Telemark Vestfold og Telemark (; ) is a county under disestablishment in Norway. The county is the southernmost one of Eastern Norway and consists of two distinct and separate traditional regions: the former counties of Telemark and (most of) Vestfold. T ...

and

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

. ''

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

'' also reported that it was likely for the Socialist Youth to endorse her, as they had done so before. However, on 2 January 2023, Kaski announced that she wouldn't be seeking the leadership, siting family reasons.

Parliament

Kaski was elected to the Storting in the 2017 election. She won re-election in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. In addition, she became the second deputy chair of the

. In her capacity as the party's spokesperson on finance, she helped to negotiate with the government parties, Labour and Centre Party, on the revised state budget for 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaski, Kari Elisabeth 1987 births Living people Socialist Left Party (Norway) politicians Members of the Storting Politicians from Oslo