Erna Solberg

Erna Solberg ( born February 24, 1961 in Bergen, Hordaland ) is a Norwegian politician, since 2004 chairman of the Conservative Party Høyre and, since October 16, 2013 Prime Minister of their country.

Life

After leaving school in 1979 Erna Solberg studied Sociology, Comparative Politics, Statistics and Social Sciences at the University of Bergen. In 1986, she graduated with a master's examination. In 1996 she married Sindre Finnes ( b. 1964 ), the marriage remained childless.

Since 1989 she has worked as a Member of the Norwegian Storting parliament, elected in the constituency Hordaland (Bergen ). In the 1990s she became involved in the budgetary policy and in issues of genetic engineering. She took a position on artificial insemination and abortion. They showed a restrictive attitude, however, defended the self-determination of women. 1993-1994 she was chair of the women's organization of the Conservative ( HKL), following its dissolution in 1994 and 1998, women's political spokesperson of the party.

In the second cabinet Bondevik she appeared on 19 October 2001 to 17 October 2005 as a local and regional minister. Their term of office leadership was marked by a certain unwillingness to compromise, which earned her the nickname "Iron Erna " ( Jern - Erna ). You stricter immigration policy and lowered the state allocations to municipalities. On the other hand, they argued for a date a missed municipal structural reform to strengthen the capacity of the smallest administrative units. In 2004 she took over the party leadership of the Conservative and advanced to the Deputy Prime Minister on. In the subsequent opposition time she led from 2005 to 2013 the Conservative Group. It applies in the parliamentary operation as factual, diligent, well informed and loyal.

Since Høyre had retracted the worst election result in its history in 2005, was Solberg's leadership the whole legislature passed controversial. With the positive performance in the parliamentary election in 2009 Solberg would sit firmly in the saddle. She could increasingly prevail in competition with Siv Jensen of the right-wing populist Progress Party as opposition leader as well. Rising poll numbers since 2010 they made in the 2013 election to the center-right candidate for the office of prime minister. The local and the Fylkestingswahl in the fall of 2011 had brought strong electoral gains.

Following the election victory in 2013, it led Stortingswahl silent coalition negotiations that resulted in a minority government of Conservatives and Progressives, the Solberg government. It is a supported by the Christian Democrats and liberal Venstre minority government. So she went to the succession of the Social Democrats Jens Stoltenberg.