Jan Tore Sanner

Jan Tore Sanner (born 6 May 1965) is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party who served as Minister of Finance from 2020 to 2021.

On the local level he was a deputy member of Bærum municipal council from 1983 to 1989.

He grew up at Nadderud and finished his secondary education at Nadderud Upper Secondary School in 1984.

Sanner has education in marketing and market economy.

He has never worked in the private sector.

In the Norwegian Young Conservatives, the youth wing of the Conservative Party, he chaired the local chapter from 1985 to 1986, the regional chapter from 1987 to 1988, became deputy leader nationwide in 1988 and leader from 1990 to 1994.

In the Conservative Party, he was a member of the central party board from 1988 to 1994 and served as the first deputy leader of the regional branch from 2001 to 2005.

He had previously served as a deputy representative during the term 1989–1993.

From 1989 to 1990 he moved up as a regular representative, filling in for Kaci Kullmann Five who was appointed to the cabinet Syse.

Sanner and Syse went to the same school and were both leaders of the Young Conservatives.

Following the Solberg cabinet's defeat in the 2021 election, Sanner became the Conservative Party's spokesperson for education and a member of the Standing Committee on Education and Research.

He succeeded Henrik Asheim as deputy parliamentary leader in October 2022.

Sanner has also been an MP for Akershus since 1993.

Jan Tore Sanner was born in Bærum as a son of biochemist Tore Sanner and local politician Nina Sanner.

He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Akershus in 1993.

He was the party's deputy leader from 2004 to 2022, having first been second deputy for the first four years and first deputy for the last fourteen.

He was second deputy leader of the nationwide party from 2004 to 2008, and rose to first deputy leader in 2008.

On 16 January 2022, Sanner announced that he would step down as deputy leader at the next party convention in April.

He told Aftenposten that it was time for someone new to take over and that the timing was sensible for it.

He was succeeded by Henrik Asheim on 3 April.

As a result of the parliamentary election in the fall of 2013, Sanner was appointed to the position of Minister of Local Government and Modernisation.

In April 2016, he didn't rule out that force could be used to merge counties who would not comply with the county merger.

This reaction came after that Møre og Romsdal refused to be a part of the new regional reform.

In July 2016, Sanner joined the opening of Molde International Jazz Festival/Moldejazz.

In 2017, Sanner shot down the proposal "Memory Wound" by Jonas Dahlberg for a 22 July memorial.

Instead, he announced that Statsbygg would be working on a new memorial to be placed at the Utøya quay.

He expressed that "we don't want more attention around the place itself. There will be no art competition regarding the memorial, but we do put weight on the formulation of the place".

The proposal was met with backlash from neighbours near the Utøya quay, who didn't rule out a lawsuit against it.

He previously served as Minister of Education from 2018 to 2020 and Minister of Local Government from 2013 to 2018.

Towards the end of his term as local government minister, Sanner oversaw the merger of North and South Trøndelag, which came into effect on 1 January 2018.

After the Liberals joined the Solberg cabinet in January 2018, Sanner was appointed minister of education and research.

In June 2018, he announced cuts to several school subjects, and that some elements would be cut.

Notably, this included parts of history within the Norwegian and English subjects, with further elements in music, art and handcraft and religion.

Despite criticism for the proposals, Sanner emphasised that both principles and teachers had long complained that there were to many subjects and that important subjects were not given enough depth.

He further announced minor changes to exams and evaluations for subjects, so that they would be more closely linked to new ones.

In September 2019, Sanner responded to a Si;D post made in Aftenposten by a 16-year-old asking when political absence would be allowed in lower secondary school.

Sanner's response was that "it is not something me or the government has planned to introduce".

He did however emphasise that he understands that many youths would participate in political causes, but that students should be at school as much as possible.

He further added that these interests or activities should be done outside of school hours.

In November 2019, Sanner made a last minute proposal to the new curriculums, in which schools now achieving more in depth lessons in regards to homosexuality and gender pronounces.