The Norwegian People's Party ( no, Norsk Folkeparti, NFP) is a political party in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

which was founded in 1999. The party is led by

Oddbjørn Jonstad Oddbjørn Jonstad (born 22 January 1944) is a Norwegian politician. He started his political career in 1987 as an Oppegård municipal councillor for the Progress Party, and became the leader of the local chapter in 1995. In 1999 he however came i ...

, a former local leader of the Progress Party who was expelled from the party following some controversial proposals he made on immigration issues. The party contested the 2001 election in all counties, but in 2003 in only one; a lack of resources led Jonstad himself to head a local Democrats list instead. The NFP gained little support in these elections, and has not contested an election since.

History

The party was founded by Oddbjørn Jonstad, the former chairman of the Oppegård chapter of the Progress Party, who was suspended from the party following his proposal to put refugees and asylum seekers in state-owned camps, and to deny children of refugees from attending Norwegian schools. He was still on top of the Progress Party electoral list for the 1999 local elections, but enough Progress Party voters had written him off the list so that he was not elected. He was expelled from the party after the election, as he had worked to create a new party. The NFP was founded in December 1999, and Jonstad was chosen as the party's first leader at its national convention in Risør in August 2000. The party contested the 2001 parliamentary election in all counties of Norway, but received a mere 0.1% of the vote. Following a failed merger of the party with the National Alliance, the NFP was registered in its current state on 24 August 2002. The party had also planned to merge with the Fatherland Party, but according to Jonstad, the latter party's leader

Harald Trefall Harald Trefall (10 November 1925 – 14 March 2008) was a Norway, Norwegian professor of experimental physics and far-right politician. He graduated from and worked at the University of Bergen, where he focused his work on Cosmic ray, cosmic radiati ...

had made organisational demands he refused to agree on. While still leader of the party, Jonstad ran for the 2003 local elections as head of the Democrats' list in Oppegård, as the NFP only had resources to contest the election in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

. The party did not contest the 2005 parliamentary election. In 2008, the party filed suit against the ''

Ny Tid ''Ny Tid'' (English: ''Modern Times Review'') is Norway's largest international quarterly review of non-fiction books – up to 50 in each issue. It is currently owned by Ny Tid & Orientering AS. ''Ny Tid'' is headed by the newspaper founder Tr ...

'' magazine for publishing an alleged racist article by Ali Farah, and in 2009 reported various people to the police who had helped an Iranian who had lost her Norwegian residence permit back to Norway.

Political profile

The foremost issue for the party is opposition to

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 ...

. The party is also sceptical of international organisations, and wants to re-consider Norway's membership of organisations such as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the Schengen agreement. It also wants to limit public authority and bureaucracy "as much as possible," and to introduce binding

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

s in "important questions".

Parliamentary elections

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Conservative parties in Norway Far-right political parties in Norway 1999 establishments in Norway Political parties established in 1999