Solberg's Cabinet


The Solberg Cabinet is the incumbent government of the Kingdom of Norway, headed by Conservative Party leader Erna Solberg as Prime Minister. The government was appointed by King Harald V on 16 October 2013 following the parliamentary election on 9 September, consisting of the Conservative Party and the Progress Party as a minority government. On 16 December 2015, the cabinet was re-shuffled. The government secured renewed support following the 2017 parliamentary election. It was expanded on 14 January 2018 when an agreement was reached to include the Liberal Party, and further expanded on 22 January 2019 when the Christian Democratic Party joined the coalition. On 20 January 2020 the Progress Party announced that it would withdraw from the government, citing the decision to bring home the family of a sick child from Syria, which included the child's mother, whom the Police Security Service has charged with participating in a terrorist organization.

Parliamentary support from 2013 and major government from 2019

The Government is a centre-right coalition. At its formation in 2013, it consisted of the Conservative Party and the Progress Party, relying on parliamentary support from the Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic Party through a separate agreement giving them influence on policy. The Liberal Party entered the government in January 2018, and so did the Christian Democratic Party in January 2019. The Progress Party left the coalition, the first Government in which it had participated, in January 2020. From January 2018 to January 2020 the coalition held a majority in the Parliament. The government is the first in Norway since 1986 in which centre-right parties have participated in a major coalition.

Name

By convention, a Norwegian government is usually named after the Prime Minister, in casu the Solberg Cabinet. The Government, however, has officially referred to itself as the Høyre Frp Cabinet. Informally, it is called the Blue Cabinet and even the Blue Blue Cabinet, referring to Høyre's light blue and the Progress Party's dark blue party colour, respectively.

Members

On 16 October 2013, Erna Solberg's cabinet ministers were formally appointed by King Harald V.
The Cabinet had 18 ministers; two fewer than the previous Stoltenberg cabinet. It had eleven ministers from the Conservatives and seven from Progress, reflecting the parties' numerical strength in Parliament.
The cabinet had nine men and nine women. Their average age on taking office was 43. Six ministers had studies in economics, four were jurists and four had studies in the humanities or social sciences.
Seven ministers hailed from Western Norway, including Listhaug who now represented Oslo. Seven ministers represented Eastern Norway, three ministers represented Trøndelag, one Northern Norway and one Sørlandet. Siv Jensen was the only minister who was born and grew up in Oslo.
On 16 December 2015, Solberg made a cabinet reshuffle. The reshuffle increased the number of cabinet ministers from 18 to 20.
Three cabinet ministers were replaced on 20 December 2016.
On 22 January 2019, with the Christian Democratic Party entering the coalition, the government consisted of 22 ministers, the greatest number ever in a Norwegian government.

State Secretaries