Guri Melby

Guri Melby (born 3 February 1981) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. She has served as the party leader and Minister of Education since 2020.[2]

Guri Melby
Leader of the Liberal Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 September 2020
First Deputy	Sveinung Rotevatn
Second Deputy	Abid Raja
Preceded by	Trine Skei Grande
Minister of Education and Integration
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 March 2020
Prime Minister	Erna Solberg
Preceded by	Trine Skei Grande
Deputy Member of the Norwegian Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 October 2013
Standing in for	Trine Skei Grande (2018–2020)
Constituency	Oslo
Oslo City Commissioner for Transport and the Environment
In office 15 October 2013 – 21 October 2015
Governing Mayor	Stian Berger Røsland
Preceded by	Ola Elvestuen
Succeeded by	Lan Marie Nguyen Berg
Personal details
Born	3 February 1981 Orkdal, South Trøndelag, Norway
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Thomas Hansen[1]
Children	3
Alma mater	Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Career

From 1999 to 2006 she was a member of the municipal council in Orkdal, and a member of the city council in Trondheim from 2007 to 2011. She was Venstre's top candidate in South Trøndelag in the elections for Stortinget on 14 September 2009.[3][4]

From October 2013 to 2015 she was the city commissioner for public transport and environmental affairs in Oslo.[5] She was a deputy member of the Parliament of Norway from Oslo for the terms 2013-2017 and 2017–2021. When Trine Skei Grande was appointed to Solberg's Second Cabinet in 2018 Melby moved up to full representative.[6]

In 2018, she and Petter Eide from the Socialist Left Party, demonstrated at Eidsvolls plass during the Norwegian reception of Li Zhanshu, the chairman of the National People's Congress's Standing Committee. Melby and Eide were asked to take off their yellow T-shirts with the inscription "freedom" in Norwegian and Mandarin before they could enter the Storting. Melby stated afterwards that it was "at best naive of the Storting to accept that our democratic rules are deceived by a manipulative system, at worst we have allowed ourselves to be dictated, and that is even worse".[7][8]

Following Trine Skei Grande’s decision to resign as minister and party leader in March 2020, Melby was asked by Grande personally if she wanted to succeed her as minister. She expressed sorrow by Grande’s resignation, saying that “being education minister was her dream job”. Her appointment also coincided with the lockdown and closing of schools in Norway due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9]

In August 2020, she announced her intention to stand for the Liberal leadership following Grande’s resignation. She became the third person after Sveinung Rotevatn and Abid Raja to announce their run for the leadership. She told reporters that she had sought advice from Grande herself and did not exclude seeking advice from her if she became leader.[10]

On 23 August 2020, she was unanimously designated leader of the Liberal Party by the party's election committee, with Sveinung Rotevatn and Abid Raja as first and second deputy leaders.[11]

At the party conference in September, she was unanimously elected party leader, with Rotevatn and Raja as deputy leaders.[12]

In January 2021, she went against professional advice to exclude homeschool for students, despite the infection level being at yellow. She was criticised by many educational experts for her decision, but she defended it by saying that it would be up to the schools respectively to decide and notify their county governor about it. She was however supported by the lecturer team, the Education Association and the Oslo City Commission for Knowledge and Education.[13]

Personal life

She was born in Orkdal in South Trøndelag to Terje and Berit Melby, a bank clerk and school assistant. Currently, she is married to Thomas Hansen and has three children.

References

1. "New Liberal uncertainty: Family Friend of Leadership Candidate Elected to the Election Committee" (in Norwegian). 9 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
2. "Guri Melby (L) Becomes New Education Minister and Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen New Fisheries Minister" (in Norwegian). 13 March 2020. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
3. "Guri Melby". Archived from the original (Norwegian) on 15 June 2009. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
4. "Guri Melby" (Norwegian). DnB NOR. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
5. "Her er Oslos nye byråder" (Norwegian). Retrieved 15 November 2014.
6. "Biografi: Melby, Guri" (Norwegian). Retrieved 15 November 2014.
7. "Storting member says she was asked to take of critical T-shirt when a Chinese top politician visited the Storting" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
8. "Liberal Guri Melby: Was denied access to the Storting because of China critical T-shirt" (in Norwegian). VG. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
9. "Melby was called home to Skei Grande" (in Norwegian). TV 2. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
10. "Guri Melby - I'm the best candidate" (in Norwegian). VG. 19 August 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
11. "Guri Melby: -Ready to fight for the leadership" (in Norwegian). VG. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
12. "Guri Melby elected new Liberal Party leader: - I am completely touched" (in Norwegian). TV 2. 26 September 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
13. "Massive criticism of Guri Melby's (L) homeschool grip: -Extremely surprising" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.