The Progress Party (FrP) is on the offensive to woo votes from immigrants that have successfully been granted the right to live in Norway.
“I’m very clear about the fact we must have a strict asylum and immigration policy and that everyone who is here illegally should be sent out [of Norway],” Aftenposten reports leader Siv Jensen as declaring at the Party’s annual conference.
“Nevertheless, there needs to be a good integration policy for everyone who has legal residence, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t vote for FrP. Many of these people are entrepreneurs and self-employed people. They mustn’t buy the myth about FrP,” she said.
Whilst being pro-Israel, Progress has come with many suggestions and views regarding asylum seekers, and immigrants in its some 39-year history.
Statements, contentious and otherwise, have included suggesting Muslim demonstrators find another country to live in, and paying flown-in Spanish road workers low wages in Norway before re-exporting them.
Party politicians also stated they wanted to force foreigners to learn Norwegian, advocated psychiatric treatment for Muslims, and impose bans on hijabs, niqabs, burkas, and minaret building.
At the conference, Ms Jensen warned against increased immigration in the wake of the recent wave of killings in Malmö and the city’s major integration problems.
She advocated, “It’s time to take an immigration pause in Oslo. We must have time to integrate those who have come here and get this development under control.”
Progress Youth (FpU) members present urged her to change her rhetoric regarding Islam, but to no avail.
“I have always been clear about the difference between religion and culture […] I haven’t spoken badly about immigrants, but about fighting oppressive and totalitarian regimes,” she concluded.