Christian Michelsen
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Peter Christian Hersleb Kjerschow Michelsen (March 15, 1857 – June 29, 1925) was a Norwegian shipping magnate and statesman. He was Prime Minister of Norway from 1905 to 1907.
Born in Bergen, lawyer, ship-owner and one of Norways most influencial politicians. He was a member of the Norwegian parliament from 1891, representing the Social Liberal Party. He considered himself mostly above petty party strifes, and one of his major aims was to create a coalition of parties reaching from the Conservative Party to the Social Liberal Party, which he called the United Party. He became a member of Francis Hagerup's cabinet, and was one of the strongest proponents of a more firm policy towards Sweden. In March 1905 he replaced Hagerup as Prime Minister, and he immediately became the leader of the movement towards dissolution of the unpopular union.
The formal reason for the dissolution was King Oscar II's refusal to accept the Norwegian Consular laws. The Swedish government had for several years pleaded that Consular Laws could had to be a part of the Unional Agreement, and as such, could not be enforced by the Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, without Swedish consent. The Swedes were willing to accept the Norwegian urge for separate Consular affairs, but they demanded Norwegian formal accept of the present conditions of the foreign affairs, namely that the Foreign Minister was, and had for 90 years, been a Swede. This, the Norwegians could not do without granting the Swedes supremacy in the Union. That the Swedes were supreme was a reality, but it had never been accepted formally by the Norwegians.
On May 27 1905 the king refused to sign the bill, and the Ministers resigned collectively. The king took no further action, probably aware that a dissolution of the Union was imminent, and the Swedish politicians did nothing, probably believing that this was another Norwegian political retreat. On June 7 the Norwegian Storting declared that because the King had been unable to form a new government in Norway, after Michelsen's resignation, he had ceased to be king of Norway. It was a well-planned move, and it was the work of Christian Michelsen.
He knew that the Norwegian people, after months of well-directed information in a unanimous press, was united in a way that is extremely rare in a democracy. In the referendum, that the Swedes demanded as a proof of the joint Norwegian will to dissolve the union the Pro-Unionists got 184 votes, which is less than 0,05% of the total cast.
Christian Michelsen, who was a moderate adherent of a democratic republic in Norway, accepted that a democratic monarchy would have the greatest chances to be accepted abroad and among a majority of the Norwegians. Prince Carl of Denmark became king Haakon of Norway after a new referendum had given the monarchy proponents app. 75%.
In 1906 Michelsen won the election on a "above-the-parties"-ticket, which quickly alienated the leading Social Liberals from him. In 1907 he resigned, tired of petty squabbles among the political leaders, accepting that his political views had been defeated. Jørgen Løvland carried on his work, but he lacked the will to force the coalition to stand united and in 1908 the coalition broke down. Michelsen never reentered politics.
His distaste for party politics can be summed in the following quote: "The party congresses are the scene where a number of irresponsible politicians meet to make a tasty stew for the nurishment of their constituents."
| Preceded by: Francis Hagerup | Prime Minister of Norway 1905–1907 | Succeeded by: Jørgen Løvland |
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