Lene Westgaard-Halle

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Lene Westgaard-Halle
Member of the Storting
Assumed office
1 October 2017
ConstituencyVestfold
Deputy Member of the Storting
In office
1 October 2005 – 30 September 2009
ConstituencyBuskerud
Personal details
Born (1979-07-04) 4 July 1979 (age 44)
Oslo, Norway
Political partyConservative
ParentDag Lars Westgaard (father)

Lene Camilla Westgaard-Halle (born 4 July 1979, Oslo) is a Norwegian political scientist from Drammen, and politician for the Conservative Party.

Early life and education

Westgaard-Halle grew up on Åskollen in Drammen. She was an active alpinist in Drammen Slalom Club for many years and is the daughter of national team alpinist Dag Lars Westgaard. She graduated from Hawera High School in New Zealand in 1997, and Drammen Gymnas in 1998. She studied political science at the University of Oslo and took subjects at the University of Oxford.

Career

Local politics

Westgaard-Halle became active in politics at the upper secondary school, and was a city council candidate for the first time in 1999. She led Drammen European Youth from 2001 to 2003, Buskerud Young Conservatives from 2002 to 2004 and the Moderate group in the Student Parliament at the University of Oslo from 2005 to 2007. She also sat in the leadership of the student parliament. She sat for 10 years as a representative in Drammen city council and as a member of the chairmanship and school committee, and in Buskerud county council where she was a member of the main committee for education and the county committee. She was for several years a member of Drammen Conservative's main board and the board of Buskerud Conservatives.[1] Locally she has been a member of Drammen city council and Buskerud county council, as well as Larvik municipal council and Vestfold county council.

She has been a member of several Executive Boards, amongst them, the Executive Boards of Buskerud Hospital, and the executive board of the University of Oslo.

Parliament

She is a member of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, since 2017, representing Vestfold. She also represented Buskerud as a deputy member from 2005 to 2009.

In April 2024, she announced that she wouldn't seek re-election at the 2025 election.[2]

On 9 April 2021, marking 81 years since the German occupation of Norway, Westgaard-Halle supported minister of culture Abid Raja's criticism of Carl Bildt's claiming the Swedish defence forces were stronger than those of Norway and Denmark. She stated Sweden looked away and let "Hitler invade Norway", further stating that she hopes that "this is not the way Sweden remembers the most horrible day in Norwegian history". She was supported by Progress Party member of parliament Erlend Wiborg, who said that "I think Margaret Thatcher summarised your participation in the war pretty well".[3]

In January 2022, she expressed criticism against the state broadcaster NRK after they listed fewer positions previously held by Vice Governor of the Norwegian Central Bank Ida Wolden Bache compared to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Lene Westgaard-Halle" (in Norwegian). stortinget.no.
  2. ^ "Lene Westgaard-Halle gir seg på Stortinget neste høst" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. 3 April 2024. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Kraftige reaksjoner etter Bildt-tweet på invasjonsdagen" (in Norwegian). Verdens Gang. 9 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
  4. ^ "Raser mot NRK" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.

External links