Sylvi Listhaug

Sylvi Listhaug (born 25 December 1977) is a Norwegian politician who has been the leader of the Progress Party since 2021.

In 1995 Listhaug began to work as a care assistant at the Ørskog home for the elderly, and from 1996 to 2000 she studied history, social sciences, and special education at the Volda University College, and continued to work at the Ørskog home to support herself during her student years.

She has held several positions within the Progress Party and its youth organisation Progress Party's Youth since 1998, and has been a member of the Progress Party central board since 2005.

In 2000 she graduated and qualified as a teacher, and from 2000 to 2001 she worked as a teacher at the Sjøholt school in Ørskog.

Listhaug began her political involvement locally in Ørskog.

She worked as political advisor and aide to the Progress Party's parliamentary group from 2001 to 2004.

She has been a deputy representative in the Norwegian parliament from Møre og Romsdal (2001 to 2009), and from Oslo (2009 to 2013), with a total 95 days of parliamentary session served.

In 2005 she had a stay abroad as an intern in the United States House of Representatives.

Listhaug was appointed city commissioner (byråd) of welfare and social services in the city government of Oslo in 2006, having been secretary to the previous commissioner Margaret Eckbo.

Listhaug spearheaded a number of reforms as commissioner, introducing free choice in home care, and reintroducing senior homes in her first year.

She stated as her goals more competition and better nursing homes, and opening for more private companies.

In 2009 she became the subject of a nursing home funding scandal, after it was revealed that a company that had been granted a total amount of 23,5 million NOK from Oslo municipality to build nursing homes for Norwegians in Altea, Spain had not yet even been granted a Spanish construction permit.

Listhaug claimed she was not responsible for the plans, which were designed to make Oslo a prime example for other municipalities in regards to care for the elderly.

Before the gay parade in Oslo in 2009, Listhaug suggested to some controversy that "half and almost wholly naked people dancing around in the streets of Oslo" could rather lead to less tolerance of homosexuals, thus working against its goal, although she made clear that homosexuals should be able to party "when and where they want".

Listhaug told reporters from the state broadcaster NRK in March 2010 that she did “not have the responsibility for the construction of the nursing home nor authoring the contracts.”

Other proposals by Listhaug as city commissioner included a stricter policy on psychiatric patients, and putting up posters of convicted rapists in their local community.

As Listhaug in 2010 had called the Norwegian agricultural policy a "communist system" in an op-ed, this received widespread attention in media and social media.

After being pressured with the comment in a television debate, she stated her intent on following the new government's policy agreement.

Prior comments by Listhaug and the new government's course was met with scepticism and protest among some farmers.

During her time as Minister of Agriculture and Food, Listhaug had, somewhat controversially, contacts with clients of First House, including the farmers' organization Norges Bondelaget, the NHO employers' organization unit representing food and beverage firm, the brewing organization Bryggeriforeningen, and supermarket chain Rema 1000, one of her last clients for First House before she joined the government herself.

From 2012 until her cabinet appointment, Listhaug had worked as a senior consultant with First House, a Norwegian strategic advisory, corporate communications, governmental affairs and crisis management/issue management agency.

Shortly after her appointment, media attention centered on her decision to keep secret her list of clients during her time in the job.

On 16 October 2013 Listhaug was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Food in the new Solberg Cabinet.

The Solberg government signalled a drastic change of course in Norwegian agricultural policy by opening for more freely sale and purchase of farms, and seeking a development towards more sustainable fewer and bigger farms.

Listhaug as Minister of Agriculture sought to remove laws which require farm-owners to live on the farm.

Listhaug argued her changes would lead to a more efficient food production in Norway, ultimately reducing high food prices.

She also lowered government subsidies to farmers, who receive one of the highest government subsidies in the world, according to the OECD.

As an example, Norwegian farmers receive over 50% of their farm income as government support, while the equivalent number for U.S. farmers is 8%.

The list of public clients was made public in early 2014 after Listhaug herself declared a personal conflict of interest.

Before that, she served as Norway's first Minister of Immigration and Integration from 2015 to 2018, a specially created cabinet position during the European migrant crisis, and Minister of Agriculture and Food from 2013 to 2015.

Her term as Minister of Immigration and Integration saw the number of asylum seekers arriving in Norway reduced from 30,000 in 2015 to 2,000 in 2017.

She was elected as a parliamentary representative for the first time in 2017 (from Møre og Romsdal).

She briefly served as Minister of Justice, Public Security and Immigration in 2018.

Originally from the rural municipality of Ørskog in Sunnmøre, Listhaug began her political career in Oslo as City Commissioner of Welfare and Social Services.

She is currently serving as a member of the Storting and the Standing Committee on Health and Care Services.

Listhaug was born in Ålesund.

She was raised on the family farm in Ørskog, Møre og Romsdal, to which she has odelsrett.

Her father worked with transportation, while her mother ran the family farm.

She has two twin siblings.

Listhaug previously served in several cabinet positions under Prime Minister Erna Solberg, last in brief stints as Minister of the Elderly and Public Health and Minister of Petroleum and Energy between 2019 and 2020.