Centre Party (Norway)

The Centre Party (Norwegian: Senterpartiet, Sp) is a centrist and agrarian^[11] 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 allegiance and joined the Red-Green government. Since 1972, it has also maintained a principled opposition to Norwegian membership in the European Union.

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 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 was as Vidkun Quisling, who later became leader of Nasjonal Samling, had been a Council of State for the party, and later even, the Farmers' Party had been negotiating with Nasjonal Samling for a coalition government. The negotiations did however stop, and the Farmers' Party supported a Labour government. 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".^[13]

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]

In local elections, the party enjoys strong support in several small municipalities, where the party has a strong influence. After the 2007 elections, 83^[14] 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.^[15]

The Centre Party had supported 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.

List of party leaders

• Johan E. Mellbye 1920–1921
• Kristoffer Høgset 1921–1927
• Erik Enge 1927–1930
• Jens Hundseid 1930–1938
• Nils Trædal 1938–1948
• Einar Frogner 1948–1954
• Per Borten 1955–1967
• John Austrheim 1967–1973
• Dagfinn Vårvik 1973–1977
• Gunnar Stålsett 1977–1979
• Johan J. Jakobsen 1979–1991
• Anne Enger Lahnstein 1991–1999
• Odd Roger Enoksen 1999–2003
• Åslaug Haga 2003–2008
• Lars Peder Brekk (acting) 2008
• Liv Signe Navarsete 2008–

Government participation

Governments led by Centre Party Prime Ministers:

• The Government of Peder Kolstad 1930–31 (minority government)
• The Government of Jens Hundseid 1931–32 (minority government)
• The Government of Per Borten 1965–71 (coalition of Sp, H, KrF, and V)

With Prime Ministers from other parties:

• The Government of Lars Korvald (KrF), 1972–73 (coalition of KrF, Sp, and V)
• The Government of Kåre Willoch (H), 1983–86 (coalition of H, KrF, and Sp)
• The Government of Jan P. Syse (H), 1989–90, (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–present (coalition of Ap, Sp and SV)

Parliamentary election results

New logo (2010)

In December 2010, the Centre Party changed its logo to what it called a more "natural" clover.^[16] Leading graphic designers were after the release critical of the new logo, calling it weak and unprofessional, and sarcastically questioned if the party had actually printed an early sketch of the logo by an error.^[17] Soon after, it was found by the media that the logo had been taken from an image which were found on several image-sharing websites, such as Photobucket.^[18] Still, within a few days, it was also found by a botanist that the plant on the image was in fact not even a real clover, but a Common wood sorrel (gauksyre),^[19] even though the party says on its own website that the logo is "more like the clovers we find in nature" in contrast to their earlier logo.^[16] The party later released a statement that they would retract the new logo and return to the drawing board.

External links

• Sp in English – Official English-language information page on the Centre Party's ideology
• Senterpartiet (Centre Party) (Norwegian) – Official website
• Election results for the Centre Party in the 2007 local elections (Norwegian)

Notes

References