Friday, Jul. 29, 2011

Norway

On the Ballot

Party: Progress Party
Leader: Siv Jensen
Key issues: Immigration, free market, law and order
Seats in parliament: 41/169

The Progress Party, which accused attacker Anders Behring Breivik once supported, won 22.9% of the vote in the 2009 election, the best result in the party's 38-year history. The second-largest party in parliament since 2005, it has historically been shunned by other parties. But in recent years, its growing popularity has moved the opposition Conservative Party to say it would consider working with the Progress Party in a coalition government.

On the Fringe

Vigrid
Founded in 1988, the group — described by anti-fascist organization Searchlight as a "Nazi psycho sect" — uses ancient Norse and puts its members through paintball training. In 2009, the group registered as a political party and participated in the parliamentary election, but received only 0.007% of the vote.

BootsBoys
Neo-Nazi group founded in 1987. In 2002, two members of the group were convicted of the murder of 15-year-old Benjamin Hermansen, the son of a black Ghanaian father and white Norwegian mother. The stabbing of Hermansen in Oslo, regarded as Norway's first race-related murder, triggered mass protests in the capital.