Erna Solberg

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Erna Solberg
MP
28th Prime Minister of Norway
Incumbent
Assumed office
16 October 2013
Monarch Harald V
Preceded by Jens Stoltenberg
Leader of the Conservative Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 May 2004
Preceded by Jan Petersen
Minister of Local Government and Regional Development
In office
19 October 2001 – 17 October 2005
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik
Preceded by Sylvia Brustad
Succeeded by Åslaug Haga
Personal details
Born (1961-02-24) 24 February 1961
Bergen, Norway
Political party Conservative Party
Spouse(s) Sindre Finnes
Children 2
Residence Inkognitogata 18
Alma mater University of Bergen

Erna Solberg (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˌæːɳɑ ˈsuːlˈbærɡ]) (born 24 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician who has been leader of the Conservative Party since 2004 and Prime Minister of Norway since October 2013.

Solberg has served as a member of the Storting since 1989 and served as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development in Bondevik's Second Cabinet from 2001 to 2005. After winning the election in September 2013, she became the second female Prime Minister of Norway, after Gro Harlem Brundtland.[1]

Solberg's Cabinet, often referred to informally as the "Blue-Blue Cabinet", is a two-party minority cabinet consisting of the Conservative Party and Progress Party.

Biography

Family

Solberg was born in Bergen in western Norway and grew up in the affluent Kalfaret neighbourhood. Her father, Asbjørn Solberg (1925 – 89), worked as an consultant in the Bergen Sporvei and her mother, Inger Wenche Torgersen (1926–), was an office-worker. Solberg has two sisters. She is married to Sindre Finnes, a business man, with whom she has two children.[2]

Education

Solberg had some struggles at school and at the age 16 was diagnosed as suffering from dyslexia. She was, nevertheless, an active and talkative contributor in the classroom.[3]

As a high-school student in 1979, she was elected to the board of the School Student Union of Norway, and in the same year led the national charity event Operasjon Dagsverk, in which students collected money for Jamaica.

In 1986, she graduated with her cand.mag. degree in sociology, political science, statistics and economics from the University of Bergen. In her final year, she also led the Students' League of the Conservative Party in Bergen.

Erna Solberg during a party congress in 2009.

Political career

Local government

Solberg was a deputy member of Bergen city council in the periods 1979–1983 and 1987–1989, the last period on the executive committee. She chaired local and municipal chapters of the Young Conservatives and the Conservative Party.

Parliamentarian

She was first elected to the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) from Hordaland in 1989 and has been re-elected on five occasions. She was also the leader of the national Conservative Women's Association, from 1994 to 1998.

Government Minister

From 2001 to 2005 Solberg served as the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development under Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. Her alleged tough policies in this department, including a firm stance on asylum policy, earned her the nickname "Jern-Erna" (Norwegian for "Iron Erna") in the media.[4]

In fact, numbers show that the Bondevik government, of 2001–2005, actually let in thousands more asylum seekers than the subsequent centre-left Red-Green government, of 2005–2009.[5]

In 2003, Solberg proposed introducing Islamic Sharia Councils in Norway after being informed of the existence of such councils in the United Kingdom,[6][7] and, in 2004, said that she wished to increase immigration to Norway.[8]

As Minister, Solberg instructed the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration to expel Mulla Krekar, being a danger to national security. Later, terrorism charges were filed against Krekar for a death threat he uttered in 2010 against Erna Solberg.

Party Leader

She served as deputy leader of the Conservative Party from 2002 to 2004 and, in 2004, she became the party leader.

Prime Minister

Solberg became the presumptive head of government after winning the general election on 9 September 2013 and was appointed Prime Minister on 16 October 2013. Solberg is Norway's second female Prime Minister after Gro Harlem Brundtland.[9]

Mordechai Vanunu case

In April 2008, it was revealed that Solberg, as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development in 2004, had rejected a request for asylum in Norway by Israeli nuclear whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu. While the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration had been prepared to grant Vanunu asylum, it was then decided that the application could not be accepted because Vanunu's application had been made outside the borders of Norway. An unclassified document revealed that Solberg and the government considered that extraditing Vanunu from Israel could be seen as an action against Israel and thus unfitting to the Norwegian government's traditional position as a friend of Israel and as a political player in the Middle East. Solberg rejected this criticism and defended her decision.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erna Solberg.
  1. ↑ PM 1981, 1986–1989, 1990–1996
  2. ↑ After softening, 'Iron Erna' Solberg set to become Norway's PM
  3. ↑ Eivind Fondenes and Aslak Eriksrud: Partifellene syntes ikke Erna Solberg var blå nok TV2, retrieved 2 April, 2013 (Norwegian)
  4. ↑ Morken, Johannes (8 May 2009). "Erna Solberg varsler tøffere integrering" (in Norwegian). Vårt Land. Retrieved 11 July 2010. 
  5. ↑ Svela, Helge O. (13 September 2009). "Det (var) altså flere asylsøkere som kom til Norge under den forrige Bondevik-regjeringen som Erna var med i, enn det har kommet nå under den rød-grønne regjeringen.". Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 29 August 2010. 
  6. ↑ Sandli, Espen (6 November 2003). "Solberg ber om shariaråd". Drammens Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 29 August 2010. 
  7. ↑ Ljones, Bjørg Irene (11 August 2007). "Forby sharialover i Norge". Norge Idag (in Norwegian). Retrieved 29 August 2010. 
  8. ↑ Almendingen, Berit (20 September 2004). "Erna vil friste innvandrere til Norge". TV 2 (in Norwegian). Retrieved 29 August 2010. 
  9. ↑ Aftenposten published 16 October 2013, accessed same day.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Sylvia Brustad		 Minister of Local Government and Regional Development
2001–2005 		Succeeded by
Åslaug Haga
Preceded by
Jens Stoltenberg		 Prime Minister of Norway
2013–present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Jan Petersen		 Leader of the Conservative Party
2004–present 		Incumbent
First Ministers, 1814–1873
Prime Ministers, 1873–1905
Prime Ministers, 1905–1940
WWII 1940–1945
Prime Ministers, 1945–
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