The Liberal Party ( no, Venstre, lit=Left, V; se, Gurutbellodat) is a

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the ...

political party in Norway This article lists political parties in Norway. Norway has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which no party can easily gain a majority of the 169 legislative seats. Parties may cooperate to form coalition governments. His ...

. It was founded in 1884 and it is the oldest political party in Norway. It is positioned in the centre on the political spectrum, and it is a liberal party which has over the time enacted reforms such as

parliamentarism A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of t ...

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedo ...

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...

, and

state school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools ( Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in ...

ing. For most of the late 19th and early 20th century, it was Norway's largest and dominant political party, but in the postwar era it lost most of its support and became a relatively small party. The party has nevertheless participated in several

and

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

government coalitions in the postwar era. It currently holds eight seats in the Parliament, and was previously a part of Norway's government together with 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 ...

and the

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

. Guri Melby has served as the party leader since 2020. The party is regarded as social-liberal and advocates

personal freedom Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties m ...

under the pre-condition of an active state. Since the 1970s, the party has maintained a green liberal position, which was an important part of the party profile when it came back to parliament in the 1990s. The Liberal Party was rated the second best party after the

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 ...

by the environmentalist organisation ''

Framtiden i våre hender Framtiden i våre hender is an idealistic organization in Norway that advocates green consumption and resource justice. The Norwegian name literally translates to The Future in Our Hands. The organization is critical of the ever-increasing consum ...

''. The party is also a strong supporter of

multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

, increased labour immigration to Norway, and relaxed integration measures. It is supportive of Norway's membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

, and the replacement of the monarchy with a republican form of government. Founded in 1884, then with the main support from

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

s and progressive members of the

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. Th ...

, it was the first political party that came into existence in Norway, and was the dominant government party for several decades. From the beginning it had a close relationship with the

Norwegian Association for Women's Rights The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights ( no, italic=no, Norsk Kvinnesaksforening; NKF) is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization and works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights thr ...

, which was founded in the same year by most of the Liberal Party's leading politicians, and the party played a central role in advocating for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. Since the 1880s, the party has seen many internal schisms. A politically moderate and religious wing broke out in 1888 to form the

Moderate Liberal Party The Moderate Liberal Party ( no, Moderate Venstre, literally "Moderate Left") was a political party in Norway that emerged from the moderate and religious branches of the Liberal Party in 1888. The party's turn towards cooperation with the Conser ...

, and the conservative-liberal faction, including among them the first Prime Minister of Norway

Christian Michelsen Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen (15 March 1857 – 29 June 1925), better known as Christian Michelsen, was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was the first prime minister of independent Norway and Norway's 9th prime mini ...

broke out in 1909 to form the

Free-minded Liberal Party The Free-minded Liberal Party ( no, Frisinnede Venstre) was a political party in Norway founded in 1909 by the conservative-liberal faction of the Liberal Party. The party cooperated closely with the Conservative Party and participated in sever ...

(both parties eventually merged into the

). The most notable recent schism was in 1972, when the Liberal Party decided to oppose Norwegian membership in the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

(EEC), and the faction supporting membership broke out and formed the Liberal People's Party.

History

The party Venstre was formed in 1884 in connection with the dispute about whether or not to introduce

in Norway. Venstre (which means "Left" in Norwegian) was the party advocating parliamentarism, whereas the conservatives, who opposed parliamentarism, formed the party

Høyre The Conservative Party or The Right ( nb, Høyre, nn, Høgre, , H; se, Olgešbellodat) is a liberal-conservative political party in Norway. It is the major party of the Norwegian centre-right, and was the leading party in government as part of ...

(which means "Right"). When the fight for parliamentarism was won, Venstre's leader

Johan Sverdrup Johan Sverdrup (30 July 1816 – 17 February 1892) was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first prime minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism and served as the 4th prime minister of Norway. Sverdrup was ...

became the first Norwegian prime minister to be appointed on the basis of having the support of a majority in the

Storting 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 ...

. Later, Venstre advocated universal

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

for men, which was achieved in 1898, the break-up of the

Swedish-Norwegian Union Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway ( sv, Svensk-norska unionen; no, Den svensk-norske union(en)), officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and known as the United Kingdoms, was a personal union of the separate kingdoms of Sweden ...

, which happened in 1905, and universal

, which was introduced in 1913. In the first decades after 1884, Venstre formed several governments, interspersed with periods of

-governments. Six different Prime Ministers of Norway have come from Venstre, all of them before 1935. With the growth of the Labour Party, Venstre gradually lost ground. The election of 1915 was the last in which Venstre was the largest party and won an outright majority in the

. Venstre was further weakened with the formation of ''Bondepartiet'' (the present day Centre Party) in 1920, and Christian People's Party in 1933, both of which were formed partly by former Venstre members. After World War II, Venstre has been part of five coalition governments, the most recent one being

Solberg's Cabinet The Solberg Cabinet was the government of the Kingdom of Norway, headed by Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg as Prime Minister from 16 October 2013 to 14 October 2021. The government was appointed by King Harald V on 16 October 2013 followin ...

from 2018. A dispute over Norwegian membership in the European Community, now the

, made the party split up at

Røros Røros ( sma, Plaassja, ) is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Røros. Some of the villages in Røros include Brekken, Glåmos, Feragen, Galåa, and Hitterdalen. The min ...

in 1972, with the people favoring EC membership departing, and forming the Liberal People's Party. These included the party leader, Helge Seip, and 9 of the 13 members of parliament. Since then, Venstre has been a fairly small party. The parliamentary group was reduced to two after the 1973 election. In 1974, Venstre elected the first female leader of a political party in Norway, Eva Kolstad. Election results continued to be poor for Venstre. Before the 1985 elections, the party announced for the first, and so far only, time that they would support a Labour Party government. At the following election they lost their two remaining seats, and were without representation in 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 bas ...

for the first time. In 1988, Venstre was re-united with the splinter party from 1972, now calling itself the Liberal People's Party, but at the elections of 1989, the re-united party again failed to win parliamentary seats. In 1993 the party again failed to achieve the 4% threshold which would make them eligible for the

leveling seat Leveling seats ( da, tillægsmandat, sv, utjämningsmandat, no, utjevningsmandater, is, jöfnunarsæti, german: Ausgleichsmandat), commonly known also as adjustment seats, are an election mechanism employed for many years by all Nordic countrie ...

s in parliament, but Lars Sponheim was elected directly from

Hordaland Hordaland () was a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland was the third largest county, after Akershus and Oslo, by population. The county government was the Hordaland County Municipa ...

county. (Before the election, Sponheim had made the wager that he would walk across the mountains from his home in

Ulvik Ulvik is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The municipality stretches from the Hardangerfjord to the mountains that reach above sea level. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ulvik. The villages of Osa and ...

to the parliament in capital city

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 of ...

if elected—a wager he delivered on, to much good-humoured interest from the press.) In 1997, Venstre passed the 4% threshold, increasing their seats in parliament to six. As a consequence Venstre also saw their first participation in cabinet since 1973. The party held four seats in the minority first government of

Kjell Magne Bondevik Kjell Magne Bondevik (; born 3 September 1947) is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician. As leader of the Christian Democratic Party, he served as the 33rd prime minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him, af ...

. Lars Sponheim became minister of industry and commerce,

Odd Einar Dørum Odd Einar Dørum (born 12 October 1943)Sjavik, Jan (2010) ''The A to Z of Norway'', Scarecrow Press, , p. 60 is a Norwegian former politician and former member of parliament, representing the Liberal Party. He was leader of the party on two occa ...

; minister of communications, later minister of justice, Guro Fjellanger; minister of environmental protection, and

Eldbjørg Løwer Eldbjørg Løwer (born 14 July 1943) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. Education Løwer was trained at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry. Career Løwer was a ceramist. Løwer began her career in politi ...

; minister of administration, later minister of defense. Mrs. Løwer was the first female minister of defense in Norway. This cabinet resigned in 2000, refusing to accept the Storting's decision to build gas power plants. In 2001, Venstre narrowly failed to reach the 4% threshold, but got two representatives elected, Sponheim and Odd Einar Dørum. However, due to Venstre becoming part of the second coalition government of

, with Sponheim and Dørum entering the cabinet, the two were represented in parliament by deputies. The party also got a third member of the cabinet, with the appointment of

Torild Skogsholm Torhild Skogsholm (born 18 October 1959, in Bodø) is a Norwegian politician ( Liberal Party).Torild Skogsholm
in

2005 elections gave Venstre 5.9% of the vote, their best result since the 1969 elections. Venstre won 6 seats directly, and an additional 4 seats through the 4%+ compensatory system. Due to the majority of the Red-Green Coalition, Venstre became an opposition party. In the 2009 general elections. Venstre ended up below the 4% threshold for

levelling seat Leveling seats ( da, tillægsmandat, sv, utjämningsmandat, no, utjevningsmandater, is, jöfnunarsæti, german: Ausgleichsmandat), commonly known also as adjustment seats, are an election mechanism employed for many years by all Nordic countrie ...

s, leaving the party with only two seats in parliament,

Trine Skei Grande Trine Skei Grande (born 2 October 1969) is a Norwegian politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Norway from 2010 to 2020. She also served as Minister of Education from January to March 2020,; and as Minister of Culture and Gen ...

and

Borghild Tenden Borghild Tenden (born 23 June 1951) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. She was born in Stryn. After finishing her secondary education in 1970, she studied for two years at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and four years at the ...

, whereas they had ten seats before the election. The same evening, 14 September 2009, Lars Sponheim announced that he would step down as party leader, as a consequence of the poor result. After the election, the party experienced growth in members. At the party conference in April 2010, Trine Skei Grande was unanimously elected as the new leader of the party. Venstre climbed over the threshold with 5.2% in the 2013 elections and entered into coalition talks with the Conservative, Christian Democratic, and Progress parties. Venstre and the Christian Democrats decided not to enter the new

Solberg Cabinet The Solberg Cabinet was the government of the Kingdom of Norway, headed by Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg as Prime Minister from 16 October 2013 to 14 October 2021. The government was appointed by King Harald V on 16 October 2013 follo ...

, thus leaving it without a parliamentary majority, but made a

confidence and supply In a parliamentary democracy based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply are required for a ruling cabinet to retain power in the lower house. A confidence-and-supply agreement is one whereby a party or independent members of par ...

agreement with it. Winning 8 seats in the 2017 elections, Venstre entered into new talks with the Conservative and Progress Party coalition, and joined the coalition in January 2018 with three cabinet posts; Ola Elvestuen became Minister of Climate and Environment, Iselin Nybø Minister of Research and Higher Education, while party leader Trine Skei Grande became Minister of Culture.

Ideology

Venstre is a liberal, social-liberal and

party. Through its history, it has taken part in both

and pure centrist coalition governments. From 2001 to 2005, it was in a centre-right coalition government with the

and

; since the 2005 general election, the party has been in opposition. More recently the party has been a proponent of a blue–green alliance in Norwegian politics, with Venstre constituting the green part. In the last few election campaigns, Venstre's main focus has been on environmental issues, education, small-business and social issues. Venstre advocates higher taxes on activities that damage the environment. Some other issues Venstre advocate are increased labour immigration, abolition of the

Church of Norway The Church of Norway ( nb, Den norske kirke, nn, Den norske kyrkja, se, Norgga girku, sma, Nöörjen gærhkoe) is an evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. The church ...

as the

state church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

, abolishing the

wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an I ...

and

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Of ...

taxes, and more power to local authorities ( kommuner). At the national convention in 2005, Venstre decided with a margin of only five votes to still oppose Norway joining the

, albeit weakly, while still advocating that Norway remain part of the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

. In 2020, however, a majority at the national convention voted for Venstre to support EU membership for Norway. Thus, the official stance of Venstre is now in support of Norwegian membership of the European Union. Regardless, the party retains the position that the question of potential Norwegian EU membership should only be decided by a national referendum, similar to referendums held in 1972 and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

. In 2007, Venstre became the first Norwegian party to advocate legalizing sharing of copyrighted digital material.

Etymology

While the name of the party means ''Left'' in

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 ...

, the party refers to itself as a centrist party. Since the Centre Party was a component of the governing centre-left Red-Green Coalition, and ''Venstre'' was part of the "non-socialist" opposition, a situation has been produced where the ''centre'' party is more on the left than ''Left'' itself. When the name ''Left'' was chosen in 1884, the word did not refer to

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

in the way "Left wing" does today. It meant ''liberal'' or ''radicalism'' in comparison to the ''conservatives'' on the right, and referred to the position of the seats in Parliament. The use of the word for "left" in the names of the Danish political parties '' Venstre'' and '' Radikale Venstre'' is also meant to refer to

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostilit ...

and radicalism rather than

Party leaders

* 1884

* 1884–1889

Ole Anton Qvam Ole Anton Qvam (5 August 1834 – 8 July 1904) was a Norwegian lawyer and Liberal politician, who was the Norwegian minister of Justice 1891–1893, 1898–1899 and 1900–1902, minister of the Interior 1899–1900, as well as head of the minist ...

* 1889–1893

Johannes Steen Johannes Wilhelm Christian Steen (22 July 1827 - 1 April 1906) was a Norwegian statesman and educator who served as the 6th prime minister of Norway from 1891 to 1893 and from 1898 to 1902. Background He was born in Christiania (now Oslo, No ...

* 1893–1894

Viggo Ullmann Johan Christian Viggo Ullmann (21 December 1848 – 30 August 1910) was a Norwegian educator and politician with Venstre, the Norwegian social-liberal party. He was the son of the author Vilhelmine Ullmann, brother of the feminist Ragna Nielse ...

* 1894–1896 Ole Anton Qvam * 1898–1900 Viggo Ullmann * 1900–1903

Lars Holst Lars Kristian Holst (22 November 1848 – 31 May 1915) was a Norwegian journalist, newspaper editor and politician. Biography Holst was born in Bergen, Norway. He was the son of shipmaster Søren Dalholt Holst (1811–84) and Catharina Krohn (18 ...

* 1903–1909 Carl Berner * 1909–1927

Gunnar Knudsen Gunnar Knudsen (19 September 1848 – 1 December 1928), born Aanon Gunerius Knudsen, was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Norway twice from 1908 to 1910 and from 1913 to 1920. He also inherite ...

* 1927–1940

Johan Ludwig Mowinckel Johan Ludwig Mowinckel (22 October 1870 – 30 September 1943) was a Norwegian statesman, shipping magnate and philanthropist. He served as the 16th prime minister of Norway during three separate terms. Biography Johan Ludwig Mowinckel was born ...

* 1945–1952 Jacob S. Worm-Müller * 1952–1964 Bent Røiseland * 1964–1970 Gunnar Garbo * 1970–1972 Helge Seip * 1972–1974 Helge Rognlien * 1974–1976 Eva Kolstad * 1976–1982 Hans Hammond Rossbach * 1982–1986

* 1986–1990 Arne Fjørtoft * 1990–1992 Håvard Alstadheim * 1992–1996

* 1996–2010 Lars Sponheim * 2010–2020

* 2020– Guri Melby

Prime ministers from Venstre

* 1884–1889

* 1891–1893

* 1898–1902

* 1902–1903 Otto Blehr * 1907–1908 Jørgen Løvland * 1908–1910

* 1913–1920

* 1921–1923 Otto Blehr * 1924–1926

* 1928–1931

* 1933–1935

Electoral results

Notes

References

External links

Venstre
official site
Election results for Venstre in the 2007 local elections
{{Liberal Party (Norway) Liberal Party (Norway), Liberal parties in Norway Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties Political parties established in 1884 1884 establishments in Norway Green liberalism Social liberal parties Liberal International Republicanism in Norway