Politician who helped build Norway's postwar social democracy
THE NORWEGIAN politician Haakon Lie, who has died aged 103, played a key role in turning his country from one of the poorest in Europe into one of the richest. Even though he never joined parliament or the cabinet, no major political decision made between 1945 and 1969 was taken without his involvement.
Lie was also a formidable campaigner who, as the Labour party's general secretary, built it up to become the country's dominant political force.
Known for his explosive temper, he had clashes with colleagues - especially with Labour's other giant and his close friend, prime minister Einar Gerhardsen - that became legendary. At the 1967 Labour party conference, Gerhardsen resented Lie's tight control over the party and publicly admonished him: "I am telling you, Haakon, you are making it difficult for us to express our opinions outright without risking a confrontation of the kind that should not happen between friends and party colleagues." Lie's answer was short and sharp: "I will crush you like lice." Gerhardsen later apologised. Lie never forgave.
During the postwar era, Lie and other Labour leaders had a free hand to build Norway into the social-democratic heaven they had been aiming for. A regime of high tax and generous welfare benefits was introduced; trade unions enjoyed huge influence; business and state worked in close co-operation; and a huge programme of infrastructure work, in particular hydro-electric power plants, was put in place. Today Norway has one of the world's highest GDPs per capita and is ranked second in the UN's human development index, behind Iceland. Many Norwegians would argue that this would not have been possible without the foundations laid by Lie and his Labour colleagues.
Lie's life closely mirrored the ups and downs that shaped Norway. He was born in Kristiania - as Oslo was then called - less than four months after independence from Sweden. His father was a fireman and, like most compatriots at the time, his family was poor. Lie, his parents and his four siblings lived in one room with a kitchen.
He joined the Labour movement aged 16, and completed his final school exams in 1925 at Oslo's Aars and Voss school. He quit law studies within days of starting to become a forester but was forced out after catching tuberculosis in 1927. Two years later, he married Ragnhild Halvorsen.
When Germany invaded Norway in April 1940, Lie joined the resistance and maintained the only free radio in the country. In September 1941, he had to escape, first to Sweden, then to the UK and the US, leaving behind his wife and two daughters.
At the liberation, his joyful return was marred by scandal. In the US he had met the woman who would become his second wife, Minnie Dockterman. He divorced Ragnhild in 1951 and married Minnie a year later.
In 1945, as resistance leaders became the new political elite, Lie was elected general secretary of the Labour party.
He turned it into a ruthlessly efficient political machine that controlled every parliament with an absolute majority until 1961. He ruled with an iron fist and froze out anyone - especially communists - who did not share his strict Labour views.
Lie quit the leadership in 1969 but remained hugely influential in Norwegian politics to the end of his life.
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Haakon Steen Lie: born September 22nd, 1905; died May 25th, 2009