Une Bastholm

Une Aina Bastholm (born 14 January 1986) is a Norwegian politician and former leader of Green Party. She represented Oslo in the Storting from 2017 to 2021 and during this time was the only member of her party with a parliamentary seat. She was elected to represent Akershus following the 2021 election. Une Aina Bastholm was born on 14 January 1986 in Trondheim, Norway. When she was 10 years old, her family moved north to Bodø, where she attended school a short distance away in Mørkved. She started getting involved with politics at the age of 14 through youth groups such as Press and AUF (Workers' Youth League). She studied political science at the University of Oslo and the University of Potsdam before completing a master's degree in international politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Returning to Trondheim after her graduation in 2010, Bastholm worked for groups such as Framtiden i våre hender (The Future in our hands), Dyrevernalliansen (The Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance), and Naturvernforbundet (Friends of the Earth Norway). She also helped her mum and sister open a sustainable, non-profit, family-run grocery store named Etikken. Despite briefly experimenting with Arbeiderpartiet (Norway's Labour Party) in her youth, Bastholm had not felt at home in the party. She had studied green politics as part of her master's thesis and soon became drawn to the green party in Norway, Miljøpartiet De Grønne (MDG). Bastholm joined in 2010, becoming a member of their central board in 2012, before moving to Oslo and becoming MDG's local leader for the county. In 2013, she became a deputy representative at Stortinget where she worked under MDG's only member of parliament at the time, Rasmus Hansson. In April 2016, Bastholm went up against Hilde Lengali in a challenge to become one of MDG's two spokespeople (one man, one woman). Bastholm was a clear favourite with the backing of the entire nomination committee – Hansson (who would become the male spokesperson) threatened to resign if she was not elected.