Une Aina Bastholm (born 14 January 1986) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and former leader of

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 ...

. She represented

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

in the Storting from 2017 to 2021 and during this time was the only member of her party with a parliamentary seat. She was elected to represent Akershus following the 2021 election.

Early life

Une Aina Bastholm was born on 14 January 1986 in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

, Norway. When she was 10 years old, her family moved north to Bodø, where she attended school a short distance away in

Mørkved Mørkved is a neighborhood of Bodø, Norway, about east of the town center. It is largely a residential area, but also is the site of Bodin Upper Secondary School, a campus of the Norwegian Police University College and Bodø University College ...

. She started getting involved with politics at the age of 14 through youth groups such a
Press
and AUF (Workers' Youth League). She studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at 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 Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...

before completing a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in international politics at Aberystwyth University in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

Political career

Returning to Trondheim after her graduation in 2010, Bastholm worked for groups such as '' Framtiden i våre hender'' (The Future in our hands)
''Dyrevernalliansen''
(The Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance), an
''Naturvernforbundet''
(Friends of the Earth Norway). She also helped her mum and sister open a sustainable, non-profit, family-run grocery store name
Etikken.
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The Green Party

Despite briefly experimenting with ''Arbeiderpartiet'' (Norway's Labour Party) in her youth, Bastholm had not felt at home in the party. She had studied

green politics Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It b ...

as part of her master's thesis and soon became drawn to the green party in Norway, ''Miljøpartiet De Grønne'' (MDG). Bastholm joined in 2010, becoming a member of their central board in 2012, before moving to Oslo and becoming MDG's local leader for the county. In 2013, she became a deputy representative at ''Stortinget'' where she worked under MDG's only member of parliament at the time,

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 ...

Party spokesperson

In April 2016, Bastholm went up against Hilde Lengali in a challenge to become one of MDG's two spokespeople (one man, one woman). Bastholm was a clear favourite with the backing of the entire nomination committee – Hansson (who would become the male spokesperson) threatened to resign if she was not elected. Bastholm received 142 against 48 votes at a party meeting in Økern and went on to serve in the spokesperson role alongside Hansson until 2018, when his role was taken over by Arild Hermstad.

2017: parliamentary election and seat in parliament

In the

2017 Norwegian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 11 September 2017 to elect all 169 members of the unicameral Norwegian Parliament, the Storting. The non-socialist parties retained a reduced majority of 88 seats, allowing Prime Minister Erna Solbe ...

, MDG received 3.2% of the vote and Bastholm became representative nr.11 (out of 19) for Oslo district. As Hansson lost his seat, this made her the new sole representative belonging to MDG in ''Stortinget''. During this period, she sat on government committees for finance, energy/climate, and foreign affairs/defence.

2019: leadership of party

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 in 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 ...

), Bastholm was elected as the party's first leader.

2021: parliamentary election

In the

2021 Norwegian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 13 September 2021. All 169 seats in the Norwegian legislature, the Storting, were up for election. The election was won by a coalition consisting of the social-democratic Labour Party and the agr ...

, MDG's share of the vote increased by 0.6% to a total of 3.8% and Bastholm won a seat to represent Akershus district. The party also gained an additional two seats in Oslo district for Rasmus Hansson and Lan Marie Berg, bringing the total number of MDG seats to three.

2022: step down

Bastholm was re-elected at the 2022 party congress on 8 May. Arild Hermstad continued as deputy leader, and Ingrid Liland became the new additional deputy. On 17 August 2022, the Green Party committee announced that it would be calling for an extraordinary meeting after Bastholm indicated that she would be stepping down as leader, citing family reasons and

occupational burnout According to the World Health Organization (WHO), occupational burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic work-related stress, with symptoms characterized by "feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s ...

. Deputy Leader Arild Hermstad succeeded her as acting leader until an extraordinary congress can be held during autumn.

Political views

In 2016, in response to a question about whether it was appropriate for Green Party members to travel by air given the party's environmental stance, Bastholm stated that it would be impossible for the party to engage with the more remote parts of Norway without using planes. She herself makes an effort to avoid flights when possible (once travelling for 19 hours via train and bus to reach a party conference in Narvik) but accepts that this is not a viable option for everyone, particularly for politicians in an elongated country like Norway. She pointed out that the Green Party are not against air travel completely, but rather aim to encourage people to fly less and halt the growth of air traffic. In 2017, Bastholm announced that she was terminating her customer relationship with

DNB Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

after the release of the Panama Papers led to revelations about the bank having over 100 clients registered in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

(a popular

tax haven A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

for corporations). During the digital national party conference in April 2020, Bastholm referred to the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term describing global warming and climate change, and their impacts. The term and the alternative term ''climate emergency'' have been used to describe the threat of global warming to humanity (and their planet), and to u ...

as the "headline of this century" and made an appeal to Norwegian oil workers, calling for them to use their expertise and experience in order to help build new renewable industries. She also called on

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Erna Solberg Erna Solberg (; born 24 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician and the current Leader of the Opposition. She served as the 35th prime minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, and has been Leader of the Conservative Party since May 2004. Solberg w ...

to offer oil companies a green restructuring package. In December 2020, in response to the announcement of Norway's 2021 budget, Bastholm accused the government of spending billions like "drunk sailors." This comment was criticised by both th
Norwegian Maritime Officers’ Association
and Sylvi Listhaug of the Progress Party. Bastholm later issued an apology for the comment. In a March 2021 interview, Bastholm stated her belief that the freedom of choice enjoyed by Norwegian consumers gives them a great ability to effect positive change in regards to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

Personal life

As a result of moving between

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

and northern Norway as a child, Bastholm alternates between a

Trøndersk __NOTOC__ Trøndersk (), also known as ''trøndermål'', ''trøndsk'' and ''trønder'', is a Norwegian dialect, or rather a group of several sub-dialects. As is the case with all Norwegian dialects, it has no standardised orthography, and its u ...

and a northern dialect, using the former when she speaks to the media. She has been a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

since the age of 12. In June 2017, Bastholm announced she was pregnant with her first child and that she would be taking

maternity leave Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" an ...

. In September 2020, she announced the pregnancy of a second child and gave birth in April of 2021 to a girl. Bastholm returned from maternity leave at the start of August 2021 in the run up to the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bastholm, Une Aina 1986 births Living people Deputy members of the Storting Green Party (Norway) politicians Politicians from Oslo Women members of the Storting Place of birth missing (living people)