Coastal Party

Coastal Party Kystpartiet
Leader	Bengt Stabrun Johansen
Founded	1 February 1999
Split from	Non-Partisan Deputies
Headquarters	Kanalveien 107 N-5068 Bergen
Youth wing	Kystpartiets Ungdom
Ideology	Conservatism Centrism Euroscepticism[1]
Political position	Centre-right
International affiliation	None
European affiliation	None
Colours	Green, Black
Parliament	0 / 169
County Councils[2]	3 / 728
Municipal / City Councils[2]	41 / 10,781
Website
www.kystpartiet.no
Politics of Norway Political parties Elections

The Coastal Party (Norwegian: Kystpartiet) is a Norwegian conservative and centrist political party. The party has district, fishing and coastal issues among its primary policies and is a staunch opponent of Norwegian EU membership. It was represented in the Norwegian Parliament from 2001 to 2005, and its predecessor, the Non-Partisan Deputies, from 1997 to 2001. The political leader of the party is Kjell Ivar Vestå.

History

The Coastal Party was formally founded on 1 February 1999 although the party participated, and won one seat, in the 1997 parliamentary election as the Non-Partisan Deputies. Since 1997 however, the name "Coastal Party" was commonly used to describe the parliamentary party, at least in its base in Northern Norway. In the county of Nordland, the list which ran in 1997 even went as "program for the Non-Partisan Deputies-Coastal Party". In February 2001, Conservative Party Member of Parliament Inger Stolt-Nielsen from Rogaland left the Conservatives and finished her term for the Coastal Party, giving the party two Members in Parliament until the 2001 election.^[3] The party's charismatic leader Steinar Bastesen, a fisherman and whale hunter, was elected to the parliament for a second period in 2001.

In 2005 the party announced that they would for the first time participate in the parliamentary election in all of Norway's 19 counties, even though two of them do not have a coastline. This is important for all political parties, however, as it is the only way to secure a place in the national pre-election television debates. On 13 March 2005, the party convention elected Roy Waage, a former member of the Christian Democratic Party, as the new party leader.

Political platform

The Coastal Party describe itself as a "culturally conservative centrist party", and its central value as being "safety". Other core issues are Christian values, environmentalism, and a mixed economy.^[4] The party is also against the European Union and EEA, seeks a restrictive immigration policy,^[1] and preservation of the family, local community and nation.^[4]

Election results

Campaign booth at Karl Johans gate ahead of the 2007 local elections.

The Coastal Party is to a very large degree regionally based. So far, it has not been able to pass the national 4% election threshold for leveling seats, but won a district seat in Nordland in both 1997 (as the Non-Partisan Deputies) and 2001. In the 2005 parliamentary election, 59% of the party's votes came from the three northernmost counties, Finnmark, Troms and Nordland. Their best result came in Troms, where they won 8.6% of the vote. In two municipalities, Karlsøy and Skjervøy, they received the highest vote count of all parties. In the country as a whole, however, they only won 0.8% of the vote (down from 1.7% in 2001) and lost its only seat in the Storting.

Party leaders

• Steinar Bastesen (1999−2005)
• Roy Waage (2005−2007)
• Kjell Ivar Vestå (2007−)^[5]

References

External links

• (Norwegian) Official web site