Erna Solberg

Solberg was born 24 February 1961 in Bergen in western Norway and grew up in the affluent Kalfaret neighbourhood. Her father, Asbjørn Solberg (1926–1989), worked as a consultant in the Bergen Sporvei, and her mother, Inger Wenche Torgersen (1928–2016), was an office worker. Her parents are both executives. Solberg has two sisters, one older, one younger.

Solberg had some struggles at school and at the age of 16 she was diagnosed with dyslexia. She was nevertheless an active and talkative contributor in class. In her final year as a high-school student in 1979, she was elected to the board of the School Student Union of Norway, and in the same year led the national charity event Operasjon Dagsverk, in which students collected money for Jamaica.

In 1986, she graduated with her cand.mag. degree in sociology, political science, statistics and economics from the University of Bergen. In her final year, she led the Students' League of the Conservative Party in Bergen.

Since 1996 she has been married to Sindre Finnes, a businessman and former Conservative Party politician, with whom she has two children. The family has lived in both Bergen and Oslo.

Local government

Solberg was a deputy member of Bergen city council in the periods 1979–1983 and 1987–1989, the last period on the executive committee. She chaired local and municipal chapters of the Young Conservatives and the Conservative Party.

Parliamentarian

She was first elected to the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) from Hordaland in 1989 and has been re-elected five times. She was also the leader of the national Conservative Women's Association, from 1994 to 1998.

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development

From 2001 to 2005 Solberg served as the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development under Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. Her alleged tough policies in this department, including a firm stance on asylum policy, earned her the nickname "Jern-Erna" (Norwegian for "Iron Erna") in the media.

In fact, numbers show that the Bondevik government, of 2001–2005, actually let in thousands more asylum seekers than the subsequent centre-left Red-Green government, of 2005–2009. In 2003, Solberg proposed introducing Islamic Sharia Councils in Norway after being informed of the existence of such councils in the United Kingdom, and, in 2004, said that she wished to increase immigration to Norway.

As Minister, Solberg instructed the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration to expel Mulla Krekar, being a danger to national security. Later, terrorism charges were filed against Krekar for a death threat he uttered in 2010 against Erna Solberg.

She had Mordechai Vanunu denied political asylum so as not to damage relations with Israel.

Husband's share trading controversy

In the run up to the 2023 local elections, media outlets wrote that Solberg's husband Sindre Finnes had been active in the share market during Solberg's premiership. She said she was unaware of his purchases and had declared herself impartial in dealing with companies Finnes had shares in. A full list of the 3600 share transactions in different companies was released on 15 September, four days after the election, when she also issued a public apology. The National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime announced that it would consider opening an investigation into the matter. On 3 November, it announced that it would not pursue an investigation into Finnes.

On 7 November 2023, Solberg answered questions during a hearing by the parliament's Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs. On 21 November, the committee put forward further 12 questions. It is estimated that Finnes bought more 112 million Norwegian kroner in shares while Solberg was a prime minister. The number of transactions, is estimated to be more than three thousand. Th media wrote that Solberg had a conflict of interest, even if she did not know about every transaction.

On 26 November, E24 wrote that some of Solberg's closest advisors at the Office of the Prime Minister did not archive, as required by law, "central emails" with Solberg's husband - about her conflict-of-interest regarding his share trading. The office's knowledge of the affair and thereby the documents, were kept out of public for more than 10 years.

On 30 November, the Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs sent 13 more questions to the Office of the Prime Minister, which more specifically asked about record keeping.