Centre Party (Norway)

The Centre Party (Norwegian: Senterpartiet, Sp) is an agrarian[13][14] centrist[2] political party in Norway. Founded in 1920 as the Nordic agrarian Farmers' Party[nb 1] (Norwegian: Bondepartiet, Bp), the party's policy is not based on any of the major ideologies of the 19th and 20th century. It has a focus on maintaining decentralised economic development and political decision-making.[4]

Centre Party

Senterpartiet
LeaderTrygve Slagsvold Vedum
Parliamentary leaderMarit Arnstad
Founded19 May 1920 (1920-05-19)
HeadquartersAkersgata 35, Oslo
Youth wingCentre Youth
Membership (2017) 19,080[1]
IdeologyAgrarianism[2][3]
Decentralisation[3][4]
Economic nationalism[4][5]
Hard Euroscepticism[3][6]
Political positionCentre[7][8][9][10]
Nordic affiliationCentre Group
Colours     Green
Slogan"Nær folk" ("Close to people")
Storting
19 / 169
County Councils[11]
79 / 728
Municipal Councils[12]
1,774 / 10,781
Sami Parliament
2 / 39
Website
senterpartiet.no

From its founding until 2000, the Centre Party joined only governments not led by the Labour Party, although it had previously supported a Labour government in the 1930s. This turned around in 2005, when the party joined the red–green coalition government led by the Labour Party. Governments headed by prime ministers from the party include the short-lived Kolstad and Hundseid's Cabinet between 1931 and 1933 and the longer-lasting Borten's Cabinet from 1965 until 1971.

The Centre Party has maintained a hardline stance against Norwegian membership in the European Union, successfully campaigning against Norwegian membership in both the 1972 and 1994 referendums, during which time the party saw record-high election results. Subsequently, the party advocated Norway's withdrawal from the European Economic Area and the Schengen Agreement.[6]

The Centre Party favours an economically protectionist policy to protect Norwegian farmers with toll tariffs[4] and recently declared Norwegian nationalism to be a "positive force".[17]

History

The party was founded at the national convention of the Norsk Landmandsforbund during 17–19 June 1920, when it was decided by the association to run for the 1921 Norwegian 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 (Bondepartiet).[18]

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 its creation, the party broke with its mother organisation and started developing a policy based on decentralisation. 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 the leader of Nasjonal Samling, was Minister of Defence in the Farmers Party Kolstad and Hundseid cabinets from 1931–1933. However, Quisling was not a member of the Farmers Party.[19] While there were fascist sympathies among parts of the Farmers Party's electorate, the Farmers Party itself never supported fascism and it was the Farmers' Party that enabled the first stable Labour cabinet in Norway. In 1935, they reached a compromise with the Labour Party which led to the Nygaardsvold Cabinet.[20] In addition, the Farmers' Party was represented in the war-time cabinet by Anders Fjelstad, who served as a consultative councillor of state.[21] Political scientist Trond Nordby argues 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".[22]

In 1959, the party briefly changed their name to the Norwegian Democratic Party – Democrats (Norsk Folkestyreparti – Demokratene), but it 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.[18] The party's membership numbers peaked at 70,000 in 1971.[23] From 1927 to 1999, the party published the newspaper Fylket.[24]

In local elections, the party has enjoyed strong support in several small municipalities, where the party has a strong influence. After the 2007 Norwegian local elections, 83 of the mayors in Norway represented the Centre Party.[25] Only the Labour Party had more mayors and the Centre Party had more mayors than any other, relative to party size.[26]

The Centre Party had been a part of both centrist and centre-right coalition governments from 1963 to 2000 and in six governments, one of which was led by a Prime Minister from the party. Since the 2005 Norwegian 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 Norwegian parliamentary election. It has been argued that the party's ideology moved more towards social democracy in the end of the 1980s.[27]

The party is known for their support of high toll tariffs on foreign cheese and meat called "toll protection"[28] as well as their proposal to shoot all wolves in Norway.[29] 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.[30] This included increased duties of 429% on lamb, 344% on beef and 277% on all but 14 exempted hard cheeses.[31]

Since the leadership of Trygve Slagsvold Vedum during years in opposition, the party has been described as populist by several sources.[4][32][33][34]

List of party leaders

Government participation

Governments led by Centre Party Prime Ministers:

With Prime Ministers from other parties:

  • The Government of Lars Korvald (KrF), 1972–1973 (coalition of KrF, Sp and V)
  • The Government of Kåre Willoch (H), 1983–1986 (coalition of H, KrF and Sp)
  • The Government of Jan P. Syse (H), 1989–1990, (coalition of H, KrF and Sp)
  • The first Government of Kjell Magne Bondevik (KrF), 1997–2000 (minority government coalition of KrF, Sp and V)
  • The second Government of Jens Stoltenberg (Ap), 2005–2013 (coalition of Ap, Sp and SV)

Parliamentary election results
Election Votes Seats Size Government Notes
No. % ± pp No. ±
1921 118,657 13.1% 8.4
17 / 150
 14 4th In opposition Succeeding the Norwegian Agrarian Association list
1924 131,706 13.5% 0.4
22 / 150
 5 4th In opposition
1927 149,026 14.9% 1.5
26 / 150
 4 4th In opposition
1930 190,220 15.9% 1.0
25 / 150
 1 4th In government In government only between 1930 and 1932
1933 173,634 13.9% 2.0
23 / 150
 2 4th In opposition
1936 168,038 11.5% 2.4
18 / 150
 5 4th In opposition
1945 119,362 8.0% 3.5
10 / 150
 8 5th In opposition
1949 85,418* 7.9%* 0.1
12 / 150
 2 4th In opposition
1953 157,018* 9.0%* 1.1
14 / 150
 2 5th In opposition
1957 154,761* 9.3%* 0.3
15 / 150
 1 4th In opposition
1961 125,643* 9.3%* 0.0
16 / 150
 1 3rd In opposition
1965 191,702* 9.9%* 0.6
18 / 150
 2 4th In government In government only in 1965
1969 194,128* 10.5%* 0.6
20 / 150
 2 3rd In government In government only in 1971 and then again between 1972 and 1973
1973 146,312* 11.0%* 0.5
21 / 155
 1 3rd In opposition
1977 184,087* 8.6%* 2.4
12 / 155
 9 4th In opposition
1981 103,753* 6.7%* 1.9
11 / 155
 1 4th In government In government only in 1983
1985 171,770 6.6% 0.1
12 / 157
 1 4th In government In government only in 1986
1989 171,269 6.5% 0.1
11 / 165
 1 6th In government In government only in 1989–1990
1993 412,187 16.7% 10.2
32 / 165
 21 2nd In opposition
1997 204,824 7.9% 8.8
11 / 165
 21 5th In government In government only between 1997 and 2000
2001 140,287 5.6% 2.3
10 / 165
 1 6th In opposition
2005 171,063 6.5% 0.9
11 / 169
 1 6th In government In government only in 2005
2009 165,006 6.2% 0.3
11 / 169
 0 5th In government In government only in 2013
2013 155,357 5.5% 0.7
10 / 169
 1 5th In opposition
2017 301,348 10.3% 4.9
19 / 169
 9 4th In opposition

* indicates that the Centre Party ran on joint lists with other parties in some constituencies as it has done from 1949 to 1981. Vote numbers are from independent Centre Party lists only while vote percentage also includes the Centre Party's estimated share from joint lists (Statistics Norway estimates).[35]

See also

Notes
  1. Although Bondepartiet is sometimes translated as the Agrarian Party, sources such as the Centre Party itself[15] and Statistics Norway[16] use the term Farmers' Party.

    References
    1. "Fakta om Senterpartiet". Senterpartiet (in Norwegian). 14 February 2017.
    2. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Norway". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
    3. "Norway – Political parties". Norwegian Social Science Data Services. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
    4. "Even Norway Is Riding the Populist Wave of Politics". Bloomberg. 16 February 2017.
    5. "Nei til salg av Norge". Centre Party. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
    6. Partienes syn på EU og EØS. Archived October 20, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
    7. Clive Archer (2005). Norway outside the European Union. London: Routledge. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-415-28279-6.
    8. Hilmar Rommetvedt (2003). The Rise of the Norwegian Parliament. London: Routledge. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7146-5286-3.
    9. Reuven Y. Hazan (2000). Centre Parties. London: Continuum International. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-8264-4763-0.
    10. Frances Nicholson (1990). Political and Economic Encyclopaedia of Western Europe. St. James Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-55862-072-8.
    11. "Valg 2011: Landsoversikt per parti" (in Norwegian). Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Archived from the original on 24 September 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
    12. "Senterpartiet". Valg 2011 (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
    13. Svante Ersson; Jan-Erik Lane (1998). Politics and Society in Western Europe. SAGE. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7619-5862-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
    14. Christina Bergqvist (1999). "Appendix II". Equal Democracies?: Gender and Politics in the Nordic Countries. Nordic Council of Ministers. p. 320. ISBN 978-82-00-12799-4.
    15. "History of the Centre Party". Senterpartiet. Archived from the original on 14 June 2009. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
    16. "Administrative inndelinger og valg" [Administrative divisions and elections] (in Norwegian). Statistics Norway. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
    17. "Rekordmåling for Senterpartiet: - Norsk nasjonalisme er en positiv kraft". Aftenposten (in Norwegian). 9 February 2017.
    18. Tvedt, Knut Are (29 September 2009). "Senterpartiet". Store norske leksikon.
    19. Dahl, Hans Fredrik (1991). En fører blir til. Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 165. ISBN 8257409049.
    20. Stugu, Ola Svein (2012). Norsk historie etter 1905. Oslo: Det norske samlaget. pp. 91–93. ISBN 978-82-521-7444-1.
    21. "Johan Nygaardsvold's Government". regjeringen.no. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
    22. Henriksen, Birger (30 June 2009). "Mener Senterpartiet flørter med nasjonalisme". TV2.
    23. Røed, Lars-Ludvig (7 January 2009). "Lengre mellom partimedlemmene i dag". Aftenposten. Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
    24. "Fylket". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
    25. "Flere kvinnelige ordførere". Statistisk sentralbyrå. 29 January 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
    26. Helljesen, Geir (16 March 2007). "Sp vil ha flere ordførere" (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
    27. Morstøl, Kjersti T. "Fra bondeparti til sosialdemokrati". Universitetsavisa (NTNU). Retrieved 11 November 2009.
    28. Havro, Hilde Lysengen (17 September 2012). "Tollvern-siger for Senterpartiet: Regjeringa går frå kronetoll til prosenttoll på fleire landbruksvarer" [Customs protection says for the Centre Party: The government goes from kroner to percentage tariff on more agricultural products]. Nationen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 9 May 2020.
    29. Bårdsgård, Hans (5 September 2012). "SV ser ulveforslag som uaktuell rødgrønn politikk" [SV sees wolf proposals as stale red-green policy]. Nationen (in Norwegian). Retrieved 9 May 2020.
    30. Berglund, Nina (10 October 2012). "Protests rise over meat and cheese". Views and News from Norway. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
    31. "Changes to border protection for selected agricultural products". Government of Norway. 8 October 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
    32. "Making Sense Of The Norwegian General Election". Huffington Post. 15 September 2017.
    33. "Norway wrestles with EU ties, national values before vote". ABC News. Associated Press. 9 September 2017.
    34. "Norway polls say election result too close to call". Financial Times. 10 September 2017.
    35. "25.3 Stortingsvalg. Godkjente stemmer etter parti/valgliste1. Prosent" [25.3 Parliamentary Election. Approved votes by party / electoral list1. percent] (in Norwegian). Statistisk sentralbyrå. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
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