The party Venstre was formed in 1884 in connection with the dispute about whether or not to introduce
parliamentarianism in Norway. Venstre (meaning "Left" in Norwegian) advocated parliamentarianism, whereas the conservatives, who opposed parliamentarianism, formed the party
Høyre (meaning "Right" in Norwegian). When the fight for parliamentarianism was won, Venstre's leader
Johan Sverdrup became the first Norwegian prime minister to be appointed on the basis of having the support of a majority in the
Storting (Norwegian parliament). Later, Venstre advocated universal
suffrage for men, which was achieved in 1898, the break-up of the
Swedish-Norwegian Union, which happened in 1905, and universal
women's suffrage, which was introduced in 1913. In the decades following 1884, Venstre formed several governments, interspersed with periods of
Høyre-governments. Six different
Prime Ministers of Norway have come from Venstre, all of them before 1935. In 1891, the more liberal-social tendencies of the party started to dominate Venstre, and as noted by one study, “the majority of social policies up to 1914 were supported and pushed through by Venstre, as the Social Democratic Party had no influence on policy until that date." During the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, a number of reforms were carried out by governments formed by Venstre in areas such as working conditions and social welfare. With the growth of the
Labour Party, Venstre gradually lost ground. The
election of 1915 was the last in which Venstre was the largest party and won an outright majority in the
Storting. Venstre was further weakened with the formation of
Bondepartiet (the present-day
Centre Party) in 1920, and
Christian People's Party in 1933, both of which were formed partly by former Venstre members. Since World War II, Venstre has been part of five coalition governments, the most recent one being
Solberg's Cabinet in 2018. A dispute over
Norwegian membership in the European Communities (now the
European Union) led to the party splitting at a meeting in
Røros in 1972, with the people favoring EC membership departing and forming the
Liberal People's Party. These included the party leader,
Helge Seip, and 9 of the 13 members of parliament. Since then, Venstre has been a fairly small party. The parliamentary group was reduced to two after the
1973 election. In 1974, Venstre elected the first female leader of a political party in Norway,
Eva Kolstad. Election results continued to be poor for Venstre. Before the
1985 election the party announced for the first, and so far only, time that it would support a
Labour Party government. At the following election Venstre lost its two remaining seats, and was without representation in the Storting for the first time. The party merged in 1988 with the Liberal People's Party, but at the
election of 1989 this reunited Venstre again failed to win parliamentary seats.
In 1993 the party again failed to achieve the
4% threshold that would have made it eligible for the
levelling seats in parliament, but
Lars Sponheim was elected directly from
Hordaland county. (Before the election, Sponheim had made the wager that he would walk across the mountains from his home in
Ulvik Municipality to the parliament in the capital city
Oslo if elected—a wager he delivered on, to much good-humoured interest from the press.)
In 1997, Venstre passed the 4% threshold, increasing its seats in parliament to six. As a consequence Venstre also saw its first participation in cabinet since 1973. The party held four seats in the minority first government of
Kjell Magne Bondevik. Lars Sponheim became minister of industry and commerce,
Odd Einar Dørum; minister of communications, later minister of justice,
Guro Fjellanger; minister of environmental protection, and
Eldbjørg Løwer; minister of administration, later minister of defense. Mrs. Løwer was the first female minister of defense in Norway. This cabinet resigned in 2000, refusing to accept the Storting's decision to build gas power plants.
In 2001, Venstre narrowly failed to reach the 4% threshold, but had two representatives elected, Sponheim and Odd Einar Dørum. However, due to Venstre becoming part of the second coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik, with Sponheim and Dørum entering the cabinet, the two were represented in parliament by deputies. The party also got a third member of the cabinet, with the appointment of
Torild Skogsholm as Minister of Transport and Communications. The
2005 election gave Venstre 5.9% of the vote, its best result since the 1969 election. Venstre won six seats directly, and an additional four seats through the 4%+ compensatory system. Due to the majority of the
Red-green coalition, Venstre became an opposition party. In the
2009 election, Venstre ended up below the 4% threshold for levelling seats, leaving the party with only two seats in parliament,
Trine Skei Grande and
Borghild Tenden, whereas they had ten seats before the election. The same evening, 14 September 2009, Lars Sponheim announced that he would step down as party leader, as a consequence of the poor result. After the election, the party experienced growth in members. At the party conference in April 2010, Trine Skei Grande was unanimously elected as the new leader of the party. Venstre climbed over the threshold with 5.2% in the
2013 elections and entered into coalition talks with the Conservative, Christian Democratic, and Progress parties. Venstre and the Christian Democrats decided not to enter the new
Solberg Cabinet, thus leaving it without a parliamentary majority, but made a
confidence and supply agreement with it. Winning eight seats in the
2017 elections, Venstre entered into new talks with the Conservative and Progress Party coalition, and joined the coalition in January 2018 with three cabinet posts;
Ola Elvestuen became Minister of Climate and Environment,
Iselin Nybø Minister of Research and Higher Education, while party leader Trine Skei Grande became Minister of Culture. ==Ideology==