Demokratene
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Demokratene (the Democrats) is a right-wing Norwegian political party formed as a splinter group from Carl I Hagen's Progress Party. The party is led by Vidar Kleppe, a former member of parliament for the Progress Party, and includes current and former members of Stopp Innvandringen, an anti-immigration party, and the extremist Fatherland Party. One of its members is Jan Simonsen.
The party stepped up its activity with the aim of gaining a foothold in the Storting at the elections of 12 September 2005. Amongst its more well-known candidates for the election were Gry Jannicke Jarlum, who briefly achieved fame in Norway in the early 1980s as a pop singer (and now goes by the name of J-Diva), and Ole Klemetsen, who gained some success in the Light heavyweight division of boxing.
The party bears the standard policy hallmarks of the far right, being vehemently anti-immigration and pro-law and order. Recently, the section in Hurum has been especially active, playing a version of paintball where one team is made up of Islamic terrorists, and introducing a "muslim-free" Web page. The party's leader, Vidar Kleppe, supported the latter initiative, stating "We are real democrats" and adding that the party connects muslims to arranged marriages, violence and murder.
Despite running a high profile campaign, Demokratene failed to make any breakthrough in the 2005 parliamentary election, capturing a hugely disappointing 2,706 votes (a share of 0.1%). With the main right wing vote going to the Progress Party, Demokratene were left without a support base and so failed to win any representation.
[edit] References
- ↑ The Democrats introduce a Muslim-free zone on the net, article from Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, June 30, 2005.
[edit] External link
- (Norwegian) Demokratene - Official web site
 Norwegian parliamentary political parties |
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| Labour |
Socialist Left |
Centre |
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| Opposition parties | |||
| Conservative |
Christian Democratic |
Liberal |
Progress |
