Jens Stoltenberg

Jens Stoltenberg (born March 16, 1959) is a Norwegian politician and economist, and the current leader of the Norwegian Labour Party. He was prime minister of Norway from 2000 to 2001. He was State Secretary, Ministry of Environment 1990-1993, Minister of Industry 1993-1996, and Minister of Finance 1996-1997. Following his Red-Green Coalition's victory in the 2005 parliamentary elections, Stoltenberg is almost certain to become prime minister once again.

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Before becoming the leader of the Norwegian Labour Party, Stoltenberg was the leader of the party's youth organization, the AUF, between 1985 and 1989. He was also the leader of the Oslo Labour Party between 1990 and 1992.

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His tenure as Prime Minister was controversial within his own party, being responsible for reforms and modernisation of the welfare state that included partly privatising several key state-owned services and corporations. In the Parliamentary elections of September 10th 2001 the party got one of its worst results ever with only 24% of the votes.

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He is the prime minister candidate of the Red-Green Coalition for the 2005 parliamentary elections. The coalition won a majority in the recent elections, allowing them to form a government likely to be led by Stoltenberg.

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He is generally considered to be on the right of the party, and was long considered "Norway's Tony Blair" and the Party's "golden boy". In 1992 he was outgoing party-leader Gro Harlem Brundtland's favourite to succeed her, but lost to Thorbj?rn Jagland. The disastrous results of 2001 were quickly followed by a bitter leadership-battle between Jagland and Stoltenberg, with Stoltenberg winning the party-leadership.

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He is married to Ingrid Schulerud and has two children.

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March 16: March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). There are 290 days remaining....

1959: 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. It is also a song by The Sisters of Mercy on the album Floodland....

Norwegian: When used as an adjective, Norwegian refers to anything that originates from Norway. It may refer to more than one article:...