Simen Velle
Simen Velle is a Norwegian politician serving as leader of the Progress Party's Youth since 2022 and a member of the Storting for Oslo since 2025. From 2021 to 2022, he served as chairman of the Progress Party's Youth in Viken.
Political career
Youth politics
Velle served as the leader of the Viken Progress Party's Youth from 2021 to 2022 and was elected leader of the national Progress Party's Youth in April 2022. He was re-elected in 2024. He built up a large social media following during his leadership, which became particularly prevalent during the 2023 school elections, where his party became the second largest. Two years later, his party became the largest party at that year's school elections.He caused some controversy in February 2024 when he criticised dating and sex culture, calling it "tinderfied" and went on to argue that "some groups of men have access to all the girls while the rest don't get any". He also argued that equality had gone too far, citing that women had been lifted, which had gone at the expense of men. Though he went on to apologise for this claim, some critics accused him of arguing that female equality had stripped men of the chance of "getting laid".
During his leadership, he had challenged and contradicted the national party on several key issues, including the legalisation of cannabis, sale of organs and polygamy. He would however reverse course on legalisation of cannabis and opened for giving the police more equipment to combat the issue.