Socialist Left Party (Norway)

The Socialist Left Party (Sosialistisk Venstreparti or SV), is a Norwegian political party founded in 1975. It currently holds 15 out of 169 seats in the Norwegian Parliament. Kristin Halvorsen is the current leader, and she has been so since 1997.

History
Sosialistisk Venstreparti (abbreviated SV) was founded in 1973 as the Socialist Electoral League (Sosialistisk Valgforbund), an alliance of the Socialist People's Party, Communist Party of Norway, Democratic Socialists - AIK and independent Socialists. The movement was largely a result of the victory for the 'No'-campaign in the referendum on European Community membership on September 25 1972. The formation of SV preceded the 1973 parliamentary elections. SV got 11.6% of the votes, and won 16 seats in Parliament, in the 1973 election. In April 1974, a conference held in Oslo stated that the coalition should be turned into one party, disbanding the old parties. Finally, during a conference in Trondheim in 1975, Sosialistisk Venstreparti was formed, and Berit Ås was elected Party Leader. The same year, however, the members of the Communist Party decided not to disband their party after all, and broke cooperation with the rest of SV.

The first years were not successful, as SV fought hard to gain seats in Parliament at all, but during the 1980s, SV's popularity rose. During this decade, SV fought for peace, disarmament, and the removal of unemployment and economic inequality. In the beginning of the 1990s, SV's popularity again declined, even though SV won a major victory in 1994, when the party again fought actively against Norwegian membership in the European Union, and Norwegians again voted against membership in a referendum. Following the election of Kristin Halvorsen as the new Party Leader, however, SV's popularity rose again. SV's main focus became education, and the slogan ;Children And Youth First" was coined.

The military action in Kosovo was a controversial issue within SV. Arguing that ethnic cleansing in Kosovo had to be stopped, much of the party leadership, including Kristin Halvorsen, favored NATO's air strikes, but many within the party vehemently opposed such support arguing that violence would only lead to more violence. In most foreign policy issues SV has opposed military action. They were against the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and were very much against the Iraq war and the Norwegian military presence in Iraq.

Today, SV fights for sexual equality, economic equality, social welfare, environmentalism, more power to the local councils, and free, public education, equal for all (including a free kindergarten/nursery school offer for all). SV fared poorly in the 2005 parliamentary elections, but thanks to stronger performances by the Labour Party and the Centre Party, the Red-Green Coalition won a majority of seats in parliament, and SV entered the cabinet for the first time ever. Kristin Halvorsen got the influential role of minister of finance.

The Socialist Left Party is a member of the Nordic Green Left Alliance.

Election results, parliamentary elections 1973-2005
¹ As Socialist Electoral League

Party leaders

 * 1975-1976 : Berit Ås
 * 1977-1983 : Berge Furre
 * 1983-1987 : Theo Koritzinsky
 * 1987-1997 : Erik Solheim
 * 1997-present : Kristin Halvorsen