Centre Party (Norway)
The Centre Party (Senterpartiet), is a Norwegian political party founded in 1920. Until 1959 it bore the name Bondepartiet, the Agrarian Party. The Centre Partys policy is not based on any of the great ideologies of the 19th and 20th century, but has a great focus on decentralization of actual power and capital. Thus the party strongly opposes Norwegian membership in the European Union. The party has been marked by its pragmatic style of politics, wich has allowed it to cooperate with everything from the Conservative Party to the Socialistic Left Party. Since the Centre Party was created as a political fraction of a norwegian agrarian organization, the party has changed a great deal. Only few years after the creation the party broke with its mother organization and started developing a policy based on decentralization, moving away from a single-minded agrarian policy, like that wich has trapped many other european Centre Partys conduct. Today the norwegian Centre Party could hardly be called an agrarian party would it not be for the partys history of being created at the National Conference of the greatest agrarian organization in 1920 - a long time ago. The current leader is Åslaug Haga (since 2003). The party is belived to gain a majority in parliament together with the norwegian Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party after the upcoming election in 2005. Norway has not seen a majority constellation since the Labour Party ruled the country shortley after WWII.
Party leadersJohan 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-
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