Ingeborg Steinholt
Encyclopedia
Ingeborg Haug Steinholt (born 16 June 1986, in Sandnessjøen
Sandnessjøen
Sandnessjøen is the centre of the municipality of Alstahaug in the county of Nordland, Norway, with a population of over 9,000. It was made a township in 1788....

) is a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 for the Red
Red (Norway)
The Red Party is a Norwegian far-left political party and the leading party to the left of the Socialist Left and the Labour Party in Norway. Since 2007 the party has sought a seat in Parliament; the only counties in which they have a realistic chance of earning a seat are Oslo and Hordaland...

 Party, and since 2007 a member of Nordland County Council
Nordland County Municipality
Nordland County Municipality is the regional governing administration of Nordland, Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality includes the running of 17 upper secondary schools, with 9,500 pupils. It administrates county roadways, public transport, dental care, culture and...

. Steinholt was a member of the Central Committee of Red Youth
Red Youth (Norway)
Red Youth is a Norwegian revolutionary youth league. It is the youth organization of the party Red and former Red Electoral Alliance and the Workers' Communist Party. The current leader of Red Youth is Iver Aastebøl.-Politics:...

 (RU) from 2006 to 2010. She was also a member of the Central Board of Directors of Red Youth.

Steinholt was born in Sandnessjøen. She is presently studying nursing in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 and works part-time as a nursing assistant. She stands for a more liberal policy regarding vocational education
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...

, and wants to remove much unneeded theory in such subjects.

Life and career

Steinholt was born on 16 June 1986 in Sandnessjøen. She later moved to Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 to study nursing, and works there as a nursing assistant. Steinholt has residences in Oslo and Sandnessjøen.

Steinholt started her political career as a member of Red Youth
Red Youth
Red Youth may refer to:* Red Youth * Red Youth * Red Youth Front* Red Youth...

, and later became a member of its mother party, Red. In 2007 Steinholt was elected as Red Nordland
Nordland
is a county in Norway in the North Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Nord-Trøndelag in the south, Norrbottens län in Sweden to the east, Västerbottens län to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The county was formerly known as Nordlandene amt. The county administration is...

's leading candidate in the local elections of 2007
Norwegian local elections, 2007
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 10, 2007, with some areas polling on September 9 as well. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently...

. Steinholt had a very short election campaign, but she managed to make several notable appearances. Steinholt focused on environmental issues during the campaign, and opposed the establishment of a petroleum plant in northern Norway. Under her leadership, Red Norddland received 2,956 votes, 3.0 percent of the votes, a increase of 0.9% from the previous local election
Norwegian local elections, 2003
Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on September 15, 2003. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and the county elections ran concurrently. In addition, several municipalities held direct mayoral...

 in 2003. Red won another seat on the Nordland County Council during the election; Steinholt became the youngest member of the council.

One of Steinholt's campaign promises was to put an end to the activities of the petroleum industry close to Lofoten
Lofoten
Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude.-Etymology:...

 and Vesterålen
Vesterålen
Vesterålen is a district and archipelago in Nordland, Norway, just north of Lofoten.-The name:The Norse forms of the name were Vestráll and Vestrálar . The first element is vestr n west, the last element is áll m ' sound, strait'...

 because of potentially hazardous effects on the environment. When asked if she had any political allies in parliament who could help her, Steinholt replied, "Our most important partners are not in Parliament [but instead] those organisations whose main goal is to improve conditions for the Norwegian people. We must ensure that the Public Action For an Oil-Free Lofoten and Vesterålen will be heard".

In November 2009 Altadhaug Municipality
Alstahaug
Alstahaug is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the Helgeland region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandnessjøen....

 cut the budgets of youth organisations by an estimated NOK
Norwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...

 400,000. Steinholt opposed this, saying that if the wages of the mayor and several other high-ranking politicians had been cut, the municipality could have saved NOK 487,000. In the 2009 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2009
The 2009 parliamentary election was held in Norway on 14 September 2009. Elections in Norway are held on a Monday in September, usually the second or third Monday, as determined by the king. Early voting was possible between 10 August and 11 September 2009, while some municipalities held open...

 Steinholt received 1,829 votes, again as Red Nordland's leading candidate.

She was elected a member of Red Youth's Central Board in 2006; her term expired in 2010. In 2008 Steinholt became a member of Red Youth's National Board; her term expired in 2010.

Views

Steinholt has stated that she feels the government should reduce unnecessary theory in the vocational education
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...

 programme in upper secondary school; she believes it to be the main reason why an increasing numbers of pupils are dropping out of school. The Norwegian Government, Steinholt believes, should increase their funding for vocational education programmes and jobs; she states that people with this type of education "are the cornerstone of our society". Steinholt believes there is a broad consensus in the labor movement that the Contractual Pension bill holds a hostile policy towards the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

. Interpellation
Interpellation (politics)
Interpellation is the formal right of a parliament to submit formal questions to the government. In many parliaments, each individual member of parliament has the right to formally submit questions to a member of government. The respective minister or secretary is then required to respond and to...

s led to a debate in the City Council, mainly between Steinholt and County Cabinet leader Odd Eriksen
Odd Eriksen
Odd Eriksen is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. In addition to his political career he gained national fame after stopping an Algerian hijacker from crashing a Kato Air-flight in 2004.-Career:...

. She believed it would be disrespectful towards workers to deprive them the right of a dignified work age, feeling that forcing them to quit their jobs at the age of 62 is too early.

She is strongly opposed to oil drilling in Lofoten
Lofoten
Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude.-Etymology:...

, arguing that oil drilling would lead to conditions hazardous to the area. In July 2009 she told Klassekampen
Klassekampen
Klassekampen is a Norwegian daily newspaper, which styles itself as "the daily left-wing newspaper".Klassekampen was founded in 1969 with a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist platform. Until recently, it was owned by The Workers' Communist Party...

that the government should give emergency funding to Norwegian companies who work on developing renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

 instead of just giving it to the banks.

Steinholt does not believe that small municipalities
Municipalities of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 should be merged because of their economic problems. She feels the government focus on the struggling economy of the municipalities should be towards cleaning up their debt. In 2008 alone, the municipalities of Norway had a gathered debt of NOK 20.7 billion. She stated that if Red was elected to parliament, they would propose a bill giving the municipalities an immediate transfer of NOK 10 billion.

External links

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