Siv Jensen

Siv Jensen was born in Oslo to self-employed Tore Jensen (1926–1989), and Monica Kjelsberg (born 1939), owners of a shoe store during her childhood.

While she holds that her neighbourhood was a nice place to grow up, her home was the scene of numerous burglaries.

Siv Jensen (born 1 June 1969) is a Norwegian who served as the leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2021.

Her parents were divorced around 1980, and her father soon moved to Sweden.

Her mother was for a short while active in the Ullern Progress Party, until finding out that politics was "not her thing".

After completing Marienlyst elementary school in 1985, Jensen attended upper secondary school at Oslo Commerce School in Oslo's Frogner district, graduating in 1988.

She joined the Progress Party in 1988, in part having been introduced to the party through her mother.

Sometime before joining the party, she had briefly been a member of the Young Conservatives, for about a week.

During the early 1990s, conflict within the party between the younger libertarians and party chairman Carl I. Hagen, Jensen stood on the side of Hagen.

Afterwards she enrolled in the Norwegian School of Economics, receiving her degree in business studies in 1992.

She worked as a sales consultant for Radio 1 from 1992, until dedicating her professional life to politics full-time in 1994.

Her political interest was according to herself sparked at her elementary school Marienlyst where discussions were common in class.

These discussions would include two students who were members of the Socialist Youth, one being her socialist-turned best friend.

Jensen however soon found herself strongly opposed to their views.

She was also a member of the Norwegian parliament from Oslo from 1997 to 2021.

Born and raised in Oslo, Jensen graduated with a degree in business studies from the Norwegian School of Economics.

She was first elected to parliament in the 1997 parliamentary election, and has later been re-elected for four consecutive terms.

Jensen has been a member of the Storting from the Oslo constituency since first being elected in 1997, while having served as a deputy representative from 1993 to 1997.

She became first deputy chairman of the Progress Party in 1998, and parliamentary leader of the party in 2005.

She chaired the parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs from 2001 to 2005, and in 2006 succeeded long-time chairman Carl I. Hagen as leader of the Progress Party.

From 2001 to 2005 Jensen chaired the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, having been a member of the committee since 1997, and from 2005 to 2013 she was a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence.

She played a central role in budget negotiations with the centrist government of Kjell Magne Bondevik, and her work chairing the Finance Committee led her to become increasingly more profiled as a leader-figure within her party.

She also supported Hagen in the 2001 internal conflict, and stated the same year that Hagen had been like a father figure for her.

While many had been speculating about the viability of the party and its future after Hagen resigning, a 2004 survey showed that Jensen enjoyed better general support than him, which was explained by her not being as controversial.

Many had also predicted a more moderate course for the party with her being the leader, but she stood firmly by the policies of the party.

Her leadership-style has however been considered to be softer than that of Hagen.

In 2006, Carl I. Hagen, chairman of the party since 1978 resigned to become vice president of parliament, and Jensen assumed leadership of the Progress Party to no internal opposition.

As leader of the Progress Party, Jensen took the initiative to talks with Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg in early 2007, seeking to build a broad centre-right coalition for the 2009 election.

Jensen was the Progress Party's candidate for Prime Minister in the 2009 parliamentary election, which saw record high results for the party.

In May 2009, Jensen held a lecture in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the invitation of Conservative Party MP Malcolm Rifkind.

Media director Alex Try of the think tank Henry Jackson Society, who was responsible for the arrangement, said that the main background for the invitation was her "engagement in questions about terrorism and challenges attached to the multicultural society."

Up to one-hundred MP's, business leaders and key persons in British politics was expected to show up at the arrangement.

Jensen said that "we have much to learn from the British, but when it comes to the immigration policy I think Britain has failed completely".

Amid unresolved dispute among the centre-right parties, she launched herself as candidate for Prime Minister for the 2009 election and received a record share of the vote of 22.9%, although the parties combined ultimately lost out to the centre-left coalition.

In 2011, newspaper Aftenposten wrote that the Progress Party during Jensen's leadership, had experienced their "two best national elections".

She also held the position as Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2020 in the Solberg Cabinet.

For the 2013 parliamentary election she supported prospects of a coalition government headed by the Conservative Party, and led her party into the Solberg Cabinet, the Progress Party's first ever government participation.

As she was appointed to the government cabinet in 2013, deputy representative Mazyar Keshvari has met as a regular member in her place.

Ahead of the 2013 election Jensen continued working for a broad centre-right coalition, and endorsed Erna Solberg for Prime Minister.

Jensen became Norway's longest-serving Minister of Finance since World War II in October 2019.