EUPopLink Country report – Norway

This country report examines the relationship between populism and Euroscepticism in Norway, a non-EU state where citizens have twice rejected EU membership yet where political and legal integration with the European Union remains extensive. Euroscepticism cuts across the political spectrum and remains tied to longstanding cleavages, especially centre–periphery divides and rural resistance to EU membership. Two populist parties—the right-wing Progress Party and the far-left Red Party—hold Eurosceptic positions, though for different reasons: the Progress Party adopts a strategic, issue-driven critique linked to immigration and sovereignty, while the Red Party advances a consistent ideological opposition to the EU as a neoliberal project undermining democratic control. The strongest Eurosceptic actor, however, is the non-populist Centre Party, which mobilizes territorial grievances more effectively than populist competitors. Norway’s consensus-oriented political culture and deliberate depoliticization of EU issues limit the political salience of European integration, making Euroscepticism fragmented and less central to populist mobilization than in many European states.