Anders Lange

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Anders Lange (September 5, 1904 - October 18, 1974) was the founder of what later became the Norwegian Progress party.

Lange was a charismatic public speaker and very much a political rebel known for his loud objections against high taxes, state-regulations and public bureaucracy. In 1973 he founded his own party with the long but telling name Anders Lange's Party for strong reductions of taxes, charges and government intervention. (known simply as the 'Anders Lange Party'). The protest movement was an immediate success, capturing 5% of the votes in the parliament election the same year. By that Lange secured himself a seat in the Norwegian parliament where he served until he died of heart failure the next year.

Anders Lange was a controversial person that, on several occasions, supported the apartheid politic in South Africa. He wrote several articles about this in his own newspaper "Hundeavisen" (later renamed "Anders Langes Avis"). In the same paper, on April the 16th, 1963 he called those who where against apartheid "traitors of the white race". His political partner Erik Gjems Onstad was also a warm defender of apartheid through the 1960's, 70's and 80's.