Centre Party (Norway)

Centre Party
Senterpartiet
Leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum
Parliamentary leader Marit Arnstad
Founded 19 May 1920
Headquarters Akersgata 35, Oslo
Youth wing Centre Youth
Membership 15,000 (2013)[1]
Ideology Centrism[2]
Agrarianism[2]
Euroscepticism[3]
Political position Centre[4][5][6][7]
European affiliation None
International affiliation None
Colours Green
Storting
10 / 169
County Councils[8]
79 / 728
Municipal / City Councils[9]
1,774 / 10,781
Sami Parliament
0 / 39
Website
www.senterpartiet.no

The Centre Party (Norwegian: Senterpartiet, Sp) is an agrarian[2][10][11] centrist[2] political party in Norway, founded in 1920. The Centre Party's policy is not based on any of the major ideologies of the 19th and 20th century, but has a focus on maintaining decentralised economic development and political decision-making.

From its founding until 2000, the party had joined only non-socialist governments, but in 2005 changed its allegiance and joined the Red-Green Coalition government led by the Labour Party.

Since 1972, the Centre Party has maintained a principled opposition to Norwegian membership in the European Union, as well as wanting Norway to withdraw from the European Economic Area and the Schengen Agreement.[3]

History

The party was founded at the national convention of the Norsk Landmandsforbund during 17 to 19 June 1920, when it was decided by the association to run for the 1921 parliamentary election. In 1922 the association was renamed to the Norwegian Agrarian Association, and the political activity of the group was separated as the Farmers' Party[note 1] (Bondepartiet).[12]

During the eight decades since the Centre Party was created as a political faction of a Norwegian agrarian organisation, the party has changed a great deal. Only a few years after the creation the party broke with its mother organisation and started developing a policy based on decentralisation, moving away from a single-minded agrarian policy, like that which has trapped many other European Centre Parties' conduct.

The 1930s have in the post-war era been seen as a controversial time in the party's history. This is partly because Vidkun Quisling, who later became leader of Nasjonal Samling, was Minister of Defence in the Farmers Party Kolstad and Hundseid cabinets from 1931-1933. Quisling was however not a member of the Farmers Party.[13] While there were fascist sympaties among parts of the Farmers Party's electorate, the Farmers Party itself never supported fascism. It was after all the Farmers Party that enabled the first stable Labour cabinet in Norway. In 1935, they reached a compromise with the Labour Party, which lead to the Nygaardsvold Cabinet.[14] In addition, the Farmers Party was represented in the war-time cabinet by Anders Fjeldstad, who served as a consultative concillor of state.[15] Political scientist Trond Nordby in 2009 also said that the Farmers' Party has been given an undeservably bad reputation from this time, and that the party was not really "as dark brown as some claim".[16]

In 1959 the party changed their name to the Norwegian Democratic Party — Democrats (Norsk Folkestyreparti - Demokratene), but soon had to change the name again due to election technicalities. In June 1959 the name was changed to the current Centre Party. This happened out of the need to attract an additional electorate with the continuing decline of the agrarian share of the population.[12] The party's membership numbers peaked at 70,000 in 1971.[17]

In local elections, the party enjoys strong support in several small municipalities, where the party has a strong influence.

After the 2007 elections, 83[18] of the mayors in Norway represent the Centre Party. Only the Labour Party has more mayors, and relative to party size, the Centre Party has more mayors than any other.[19]

The Centre Party had been a part of only non-socialist coalition governments from 1930 to 2000, in seven governments, three of which were led by a Prime Minister from the party. By 2005 however, in the 2005 parliamentary election the party ran for government together with the Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party, as the Red-Green Coalition, with the Centre Party constituting the "green" part of the alliance. The coalition was successful in winning the majority of the seats in the Storting, and negotiations followed with the aim of forming a coalition cabinet led by the Labour Party's leader Jens Stoltenberg. These negotiations succeeded and the Centre Party entered the Second Stoltenberg Cabinet on 17 October 2005 with four ministers. The Red-Greens were re-elected to government in the 2009 election. It has been argued that the party's ideology has moved more towards social democracy in recent years.[20]

In late 2012 the Centre Party caused controversy in Norway when it emerged that the party had demanded higher import tariffs on meat and hard cheeses to protect Norwegian farmers from foreign competition.[21] This included increased duties of 429% on lamb, 344% on beef, and 277% on all but 14 exempted hard cheeses.[22]

The party is known in Norway for their support of high toll tariffs on foreign cheese and meat, called "toll protection",[23] and their proposal to shoot all wolves in Norway.[24]

List of party leaders

Government participation

Governments led by Centre Party Prime Ministers:

With Prime Ministers from other parties:

Parliamentary election results

Date Votes Seats Size Notes
# % ± pp # ±
1921 118,657 13.1% New/+ 8.4
17 / 150
 Increase 14 4th succeeding Agrarian Association list
1924 131,706 13.5% + 0.4
22 / 150
 Increase 5 4th
1927 149,026 14.9% + 1.5
26 / 150
 Increase 4 4th
1930 190,220 15.9% + 1.0
25 / 150
 Decrease 1 4th government 1930-32
1933 173,634 13.9% - 2.0
23 / 150
 Decrease 2 4th
1936 168,038 11.5% - 2.4
18 / 150
 Decrease 5 4th
1945 119,362 8.0% - 3.5
10 / 150
 Decrease 8 5th
1949 85,418* 7.9%* - 0.1
12 / 150
 Increase 2 4th
1953 157,018* 9.0%* + 1.1
14 / 150
 Increase 2 5th
1957 154,761* 9.3%* + 0.3
15 / 150
 Increase 1 4th
1961 125,643* 9.3%* 0.0
16 / 150
 Increase 1 3rd
1965 191,702* 9.9%* + 0.6
18 / 150
 Increase 2 4th government 1965-
1969 194,128* 10.5%* + 0.6
20 / 150
 Increase 2 3rd government -1971, 1972–73
1973 146,312* 11.0%* + 0.5
21 / 155
 Increase 1 3rd
1977 184,087* 8.6%* - 2.4
12 / 155
 Decrease 9 4th
1981 103,753* 6.7%* - 1.9
11 / 155
 Decrease 1 4th government 1983-
1985 171,770 6.6% - 0.1
12 / 157
 Increase 1 4th government -1986
1989 171,269 6.5% - 0.1
11 / 165
 Decrease 1 6th government 1989-90
1993 412,187 16.7% + 10.2
32 / 165
 Increase 21 2nd
1997 204,824 7.9% - 8.8
11 / 165
 Decrease 21 5th government 1997-2000
2001 140,287 5.6% - 2.3
10 / 165
 Decrease 1 6th
2005 171,063 6.5% + 0.9
11 / 169
 Increase 1 6th government 2005-
2009 165,006 6.2% - 0.3
11 / 169
 Steady 0 5th government -2013
2013 155,357 5.5% - 0.7
10 / 169
 Decrease 1 5th

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Though Bondepartiet is sometimes translated as the "Agrarian Party", sources such as the Centre Party itself and Statistics Norway use the term "Farmers' Party".

References

  1. ↑ Jens Kihl (20 December 2013) Medlemsras i Senterpartiet Klassekampen. Retrieved 20 December 2013 (Norwegian)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck
  3. 1 2 Partienes syn på EU og EØS.
  4. ↑ Archer, Clive (2005). Norway outside the European Union. London: Routledge. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-415-28279-6.
  5. ↑ Rommetvedt, Hilmar (2003). The Rise of the Norwegian Parliament. London: Routledge. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7146-5286-3.
  6. ↑ Hazan, Reuven Y. (2000). Centre Parties. London: Continuum International. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-8264-4763-0.
  7. ↑ Hauge, Knut A.G. "Syntax Error?". kagh.no. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  8. ↑ "Valg 2011: Landsoversikt per parti" (in Norwegian). Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  9. ↑ "Senterpartiet". Valg 2011 (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  10. ↑ Svante Ersson; Jan-Erik Lane (28 December 1998). Politics and Society in Western Europe. SAGE. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7619-5862-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  11. ↑ Christina Bergqvist (1 January 1999). Equal Democracies?: Gender and Politics in the Nordic Countries. Nordic Council of Ministers. p. 320. ISBN 978-82-00-12799-4.
  12. 1 2 Tvedt, Knut Are (29 September 2009). "Senterpartiet". Store norske leksikon.
  13. ↑ Dahl, Hans Fredrik (1991). En fører blir til. Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 165. ISBN 8257409049.
  14. ↑ Stugu, Ola Svein (2012). Norsk historie etter 1905. Oslo: Det norske samlaget. pp. 91–93. ISBN 978-82-521-7444-1.
  15. ↑ "Johan Nygaardsvold's Government". regjeringen.no. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  16. ↑ Henriksen, Birger (30 June 2009). "Mener Senterpartiet flørter med nasjonalisme". TV2.
  17. ↑ Røed, Lars-Ludvig (7 January 2009). "Lengre mellom partimedlemmene i dag". Aftenposten.
  18. ↑ "Flere kvinnelige ordførere". Statistisk sentralbyrå. January 29, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  19. ↑ Helljesen, Geir (March 16, 2007). "Sp vil ha flere ordførere" (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  20. ↑ Morstøl, Kjersti T. "Fra bondeparti til sosialdemokrati". Universitetsavisa (NTNU). Retrieved 11 November 2009.
  21. ↑ Berglund, Nina (10 October 2012). "Protests rise over meat and cheese". Views and News from Norway. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  22. ↑ "Changes to border protection for selected agricultural products". Government of Norway. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  23. ↑ http://www.nationen.no/2012/09/18/nyheter/kronetoll/prosenttoll/toll/importvern/7664280/
  24. ↑ http://www.nationen.no/2012/09/06/rovdyr/ulv/jakt/rovdyrforlik/fellingstillatelse/7637759/
  25. ↑ http://www.ssb.no/a/histstat/tabeller/25-3.html

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