31 Facts About Siv Jensen

Siv Jensen was born on 1 June 1969 and is a Norwegian politician who served as the leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2021.

Siv Jensen held the position as Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2020 in the Solberg Cabinet.

Siv Jensen was a member of the Norwegian parliament from Oslo from 1997 to 2021.

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

Siv Jensen 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.

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

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

Siv Jensen's parents were divorced around 1980, and her father soon moved to Sweden.

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

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

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

Siv 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.

From 2001 to 2005 Siv 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.

Siv Jensen 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.

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

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

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.

Siv Jensen's leadership-style has however been considered to be softer than that of Hagen.

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

Siv 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".

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

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

On 18 February 2021, Siv Jensen announced that she would step down as party leader after a new one is elected at the party convention in May She said she would not be running for re-election in the September election.

On 16 October 2013, Siv Jensen was appointed Minister of Finance as the Progress Party joined a minority coalition government led by the Conservative Party, the party's first ever government participation.

Siv Jensen stepped down from the role in January 2024 in order to become a political advisor.

In February 2009, Siv Jensen held a speech where she warned about what she called a "sneaking Islamisation" of Norway on the background of a public debate about allowing hijab as part of the police uniform, and demands from Muslim groups of Muslim-only education and special food in prisons.

Siv Jensen used the immigrant-heavy Malmo, Sweden city district of Rosengard to illustrate failed integration policies, claiming that Sharia law had replaced Swedish law and that emergency staff could not drive into certain areas.

In December 2008, Siv Jensen questioned the scientific consensus on climate change that climate change is man-made and dangerous, quoting the 1970s global cooling minority conjecture to cast doubt on climate science.

Siv Jensen has stated to be a "proud member of the Church of Norway", while expressing some personal doubt about certain Christian doctrines.

Siv Jensen has criticised church leaders for getting too involved in politics, particularly in regard to some church leaders publicly voicing opposition to Norwegian oil drilling.

In 2006, a biography on Siv Jensen was released, written by Martine Aurdal, chief editor of the feminist magazine Fett, later chief editor of the left-wing news magazine Ny Tid.