Lars Sponheim

Lars Sponheim (2004)

Lars Sponheim (born May 23, 1957 in Halden , Viken ) is a Norwegian politician . From 1996 to 2010 he was chairman of the liberal party Venstre . He served as Minister of Economy and Trade from October 1997 to March 2000 and as Minister of Agriculture from October 2001 to October 2005. From 2010 to 2019 he was Fylkesmann of Hordaland , since 2019 he is Fylkesmann of Vestland .

Life

After graduating from secondary school, he first attended an agricultural school and then studied agricultural sciences at the Norwegian School of Agriculture (now the University of Environmental and Life Sciences ). From 1983 to 1991 he was a member of the local parliament of Ulvik, from 1987 he was the mayor of the municipality. Then he sat until 1993 in the Fylkesting of what was then the province of Hordaland .

Storting MP, minister and party leader

In the parliamentary elections in 1993 Sponheim moved into the Norwegian national parliament in Storting for the first time . There he represented the constituency of Hordaland and was initially a member of the finance committee. He also served as chairman of the Venstre group. In 1996, Sponheim was elected chairman of his party. Following the 1997 election , he was appointed Minister of Economy and Trade in the Bondevik I government on October 17, 1997 . He held the post until the government left during the current legislative period on March 17, 2000. Sponheim then returned as a member of parliament, where he sat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

After the Bondevik II government emerged from the 2001 election , Lars Sponheim was appointed Minister of Agriculture on October 19, 2001, succeeding Bjarne Håkon Hanssen , and in June 2004 the name changed to Minister of Agriculture and Food. He remained in office until the end of the reign on October 17, 2005. He then sat in Storting for another legislative period until 2009. There he acted as parliamentary group chairman and was part of the finance committee.

Resignation as party leader

As the top candidate for Venstre in the 2009 parliamentary election , Sponheim tried to navigate between the left and the bourgeois camp. While he publicly wanted to keep the option of a bourgeois minority government in play, he secretly explored a center-left coalition led by the Labor Party with Jens Stoltenberg . According to political observers, the contradicting coalition statements caused the Liberals' votes to drop below the four percent threshold. Venstre lost eight out of ten seats and only retained one constituency seat in Oslo and Akershus . As a consequence, Sponheim announced on September 29, 2009 that he would be stepping down from the party leadership. His successor Trine Skei Grande was elected on April 17, 2010.

Fylkesmann

Lars Sponheim has been the district president ( Fylkesmann ) in his former constituency of Hordaland since 2010 . He has been the head of the new Vestland province since 2019 .

Awards

• 2004: Order of Saint Olav (Commander)

Web links

Commons : Lars Sponheim  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikiquote: Lars Sponheim  - Quotes (Norwegian)

• Lars Sponheim at the Storting (Norwegian)
• Portrait on the pages of Venstre (Norwegian)
• Lars Sponheim in the store norske leksikon (Norwegian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sponheim vurderte å gå i regjering med Stoltenberg Dagbladet, September 18, 2009, accessed on February 7, 2012
2. ^ Norwegian Liberal Party elects new leader website of the Liberal Party