Jan Simonsen
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Jan Simonsen (born March 3 1953 in Stavanger, Norway) is a member of the Norwegian parliament (Stortinget). He was elected in from the Progress Party but was excluded later. He is now an independent member of the parliament. Simonsen is one of Norway's most eccentric and intelligent politicians, and one who dares to have his own opinion.
He is unmarried. He has studied social science at Rogaland DH and has a minor in history.
Professional experience
He has been editor for "Strandbuen", "Video- og TV-guiden" and "Fremskritt" (Progress). He has been secretary of the parliament group of the Progress Party. He has been a member of Stavanger city council and been chairman of Stavanger Progress Party. He has been member of the main board in the Progress Party and been chairman in Rogaland Progression Party's Youth. He was a board member Oslo Kinomatografer (Oslo Cinema) 1987-93. Administrative deputy chairman of the Progress Party 1991-93. Deputy member of the Parliament 1981-85. He was deputy chairman of the church and education committee of the Parliament 1989-93. He has been a member of the Parliament since 1989.
The exclusion
After 25 years as a member of the Progress Party he was excluded in part from the party by his own county division of the party in Rogaland. They decided that his way of life was not coherent to his position as a member of the parliament. On Friday October 19 2001 the Progress Party's secretary-general made a statement to the Norwegian news broadcast NTB: (Translated from Norwegian) The Progress Party has after general consideration come to the conclusion that the best solution on both parts is separation. Simonsen on the other hand thought that this was a too generalised term to be acceptable. According to Simonsen there were no concrete reasons for his exclusion, and that his request for what the reasons were had failed.
The exclusion process started off while Simonsen was on a vacation in Israel. Norway's largest commercial TV channel, TV2, broadcasted a program called Rikets tilstand (condition of the state) where they focused on one of Simonsen's friends who he had assisted to get licensed (to sell alcoholic beverages). The program also stated that his friend was formerly convicted for invitation to prostitution in Germany. Simonsen denied that he had done anything wrong and stated that he had only helped out a friend who had waited for a long time to get licensed. This was - in his opinion - coherent with the politics of the Progress Party.
Prior to this TV program he had officially supported formerly excluded members of the party like Dag Danielsen, Vidar Kleppe and Fridjof Frank Gundersen.no:Jan Simonsen