Norway
The story
Norway's party system was stable and low-volatility through the early postwar decades. The Communist Party briefly succeeded right after the war before fading under Social Democratic attacks branding it extremist. The Socialist People's Party, a 1961 Social Democratic splinter, spawned its own more revolutionary offshoot, the Red Electoral Alliance, which unified into the Red party in 2007 — first entering parliament in 2017, breaking through with 4.7% and eight seats in 2021 and rising to nine seats in 2025, radically left-wing on economics and progressive on social issues.
1973–1989 · The Progress Party's rise
The Progress Party (FrP), founded in 1973 by Anders Lange on lower taxes and cutting foreign aid, adopted a libertarian program under Carl I. Hagen in 1983 but only broke through once it embraced immigration politics later that decade. Its 1987 breakthrough followed the so-called "Mustafa letter" controversy — a forged letter predicting Norway's Islamization that Hagen was later accused of fabricating — and by 1989 FrP was parliament's third-largest party.
2006–2020 · Government and its limits
Under Siv Jensen from 2006, FrP won 22.9% in 2009, then its best result — and, after years of being shunned, was invited to form a coalition with the Conservatives after the 2013 election, later joined by Venstre and the Christian Democrats. FrP left government in 2020 over a decision to repatriate a woman linked to Islamic State, reflecting broader internal discontent. Economically it has swung between radical neoliberalism and centrism, restrictive on migration but moderate on social issues, and eurosceptic: it opposes Norwegian EU membership but supports the EEA agreement. With no history of extremism and having long avoided a cordon sanitaire, FrP is commonly classified as populist radical right, but its long institutionalisation and relatively liberal social positions set it apart from many parties in that family.
2021– · Listhaug and record support
Sylvi Listhaug took over in 2021 and returned FrP to a sharper opposition profile. In 2025 it won 23.8% and 47 seats, its best result ever, and overtook the Conservatives as Norway's second-largest party.
FrP
The Progress Party
- Economics Right
- Social issues Moderate
- EU Hard euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Low
Rödt
Red
- Economics Left
- Social issues Progressive
- EU Hard euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Low