Fatherland Party (Norway) - History

History

The FLP was founded on 17 May 1990 by Harald Trefall, a member of Folkebevegelsen mot innvandring (FMI) and former Bergen city councillor for the Progress Party. He became noted in the late 1980s for his opposition to immigration, and was the first candidate for the Stop Immigration party in Hordaland in 1989. In one of the earliest notable acts by the party, it put an ad in the Christian newspaper Dagen, where it called for Christians to fight together with the party to stop Norway from becoming "a Muslim country". In its first election, the 1991 local elections, it won one representative in the Karmøy municipal council, and one representative in the Hordaland county council. The party won 0.5% of the vote in the 1993 parliamentary election, and combined with Stop Immigration more than 15,000 votes. Trefall stepped down as leader of the party in 1994 after "six years of resistance struggle against immigration," although he would remain chairman of the party's so-called Council.

In the aftermath of the 1995 Norwegian Association meeting at Godlia kino, it was revealed that Øystein Hedstrøm, Member of Parliament and Spokesperson on Immigration Issues for the Progress Party, had held long-term contacts with the FLP. There had also allegedly been talks of a joint list between the parties for the upcoming election, talks which nevertheless never went through. When opinion polls had shown that the FLP could win one or two local seats in Bergen, local politicians from all the other represented parties in the city (except the Progress Party) issued a public "warning" against the party. In the 1995 local elections, the FLP failed to defend its elected representatives, nor to win any new ones. In Oslo, the party cooperated with the Stop Immigration party in the Fellesliste mot fremmedinnvandring, to no success. When it was revealed that Jack Erik Kjuus succeeded his Stop Immigration party with the White Electoral Alliance and introduced a far more radical program, the FLP immediately distanced itself from the new program and broke all cooperation with Kjuus and his group. From 1997 to 1999, the FLP was part of the Nordic NordNat organisation, which included the Sweden Democrats.

In the 1997 parliamentary election, the party was reduced to 0.1% of the national vote, and was even more marginalised in the 1999 local elections. It gained competition from the new Norwegian People's Party (NFP) for the 2001 parliamentary election, which left its support split between the two parties. The NFP had planned to merge with the FLP the year before, but according to the former party's leader Oddbjørn Jonstad, Trefall had made organisational demands he refused to agree on. The FLP did not contest the 2005 parliamentary election, while many of its members, including its deputy chairman, rather ran for the Democrats.