Jagland won the post of Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party thanks to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions ( LO ) leader Yngve Hågensen, who would also later support Jagland's strategy for " 36. 9 %".

Jagland said in an interview, " I still get letters from people who miss the Norwegian House.

Jagland, who said of the matter, " our opinion is that international law is on our side ", reported Australia to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Jagland, who had been both party leader and Prime Minister, had subsequently served only as foreign minister under Stoltenberg and thus moved downwards in his career.

The second was from 3 November 1990 to 25 October 1996, when she resigned and retired from Norwegian politics, and was succeeded by Thorbjørn Jagland.

Following the resignation of Brundtland in 1996, Thorbjørn Jagland was elected leader of the Labour Party and became Prime Minister, while Stoltenberg was appointed Minister of Finance, an office he held until 17 October 1997 when Jagland and the entire government resigned.

Labour only received 35. 0 %; true to his promise, Jagland resigned, and power was transferred to the first cabinet of Kjell Magne Bondevik.

Stoltenberg was the deputy leader of the labor party while Jagland was the party leader.

Instead Jagland was given the post as Foreign Minister.

In 2002, Jagland was replaced as party leader by Stoltenberg.

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Jagland served as party secretary from 1986 to 1992, and subsequently party leader until 2002, when he was succeeded by Jens Stoltenberg.

Jagland was widely perceived to have been passed over when Jens Stoltenberg formed his second cabinet in 2005.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Jagland was considered a " friendly politician " and a " confidential contact " by Soviet KGB sources ; his internal KGB nickname was " Jurij ".

Thorbjørn Jagland was born on 5 November 1950 in Drammen and is the son of a welder, Helge Th.

The family was originally named Johansen, but in the 1950s, they changed their name to Jagland, a newly constructed surname that appeared in a book published by a bureaucrat ( 2000 nye slektsnavn New Family Names by Astrid Moss, 1947 ) which aimed at helping people find new surnames instead of patronyms, which had long been associated with the working class.

Jagland was the first one in his family to go to university, although he quit after one year.

It has later been established that Jagland was classified as a " confidential contact " by the KGB, and that he was referred to internally by the KGB as " Jurij ".

Jagland was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Buskerud in 1993, and has been re-elected on three occasions.

During his first term, Jagland was a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, and also served as the fractional leader for the parliamentary group of the party.

On 23 October 1996, Gro Harlem Brundtland informed Jagland she was withdrawing from politics and leaving him as head of government.

When asked if Brundtland was sure about Jagland, he replied, " Yes.

In his speech, Jagland said that he would not deviate much from Harlem Brundtland's policies, but that he would increase the focus on violence, abuse of alcohol and drugs, and crime, including improvement of preventative measures and the courts.

Jagland, and Rød Larsen's successor, Bendik Rugaas, were widely ridiculed for their visions about " the Norwegian House ".

Kolberg, a childhood friend of Jagland, reacted with anger and frustration, and the media portrayed the matter as Jagland firing his best friend.

In 2001, Jagland was replaced as party leader by Jens Stoltenberg the following year under circumstances many in the media deemed controversial.

When Jens Stoltenberg formed his second cabinet in 2005, the role of Thorbjørn Jagland posed a difficult problem for Stoltenberg according to many commentators in Norwegian media.

In 2002 Bård Tufte Johansen, representing Åpen post, mocked the media's double set of morals when the Norwegian Labour Party leader Thorbjørn Jagland was hospitalised after sustained media pressure.

After poor results in the 2001 parliamentary election, and the subsequent fall of his government on 19 October of that same year, Stoltenberg successfully challenged Thorbjørn Jagland for the party leadership in 2002, and led the party to victory in the 2005 election by forming a Red-Green coalition government with the Centre Party ( Sp ) and the Socialist Left Party ( SV ).

In 1996 when Brundtland resigned, Thorbjørn Jagland stepped in for her and became the new Norwegian Prime Minister.

Again, Jagland made national headlines similar to the publicity about " The Norwegian House " and " 36. 9 %", this time for the phrase " Bongo from Congo ", originally coined as an internal joke in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the expense of the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo.

Jagland fronted the opposition to raise pensions for the elderly, describing it as " nauseating ".

Jagland said, " Martin had wanted to work for Gro Brundtland " ...

This ultimatum was based on the fact that Jagland had assumed the Prime Minister post based on the votes collected by Brundtland in the 1993 election, which provided an unclear parliamentary basis for governing.

Two years later, she was prosecuted for adultery against Jagland by the Labour-politician Gaute Hareide from Ulsteinvik.

Jagland testified in the case and said it was not necessarily wrong to " advance " money for memberships, provided the members in question reimburse this fee later on.

Jagland has later said to the court that AUF should have received even more subsidies, referring to some of the other political youth parties that used similar methods for calculating membership numbers.

A new Labour cabinet, to be led by Jens Stoltenberg, was announced by King Harald V on 17 March 2000 ; although Jagland was still party leader at the time, he was passed over for the Prime Minister candidacy, and instead settled for Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Jagland again made national headlines in a similar fashion to the publicity about " The Norwegian House " and " 36. 9 %", this time for the phrase " Bongo from Congo ", which Jagland used when referring to Omar Bongo, the President of Gabon, when he was visiting Norway.

In June, Jagland was invited to visit China by its foreign minister, Tang Jiaxuan ; Jagland left for China on 27 June 2001 and returned the following day.

Jagland lost the position of Foreign Minister as the Labour cabinet after again holding office for only one year.

In 2005, Jagland was not offered the position again, with commentators claiming that he was not considered competent for the position.

Jørgen Kosmo, the previous President of the Storting, had not stood for parliamentary re-election, and Jagland was elected to this position by the members of parliament on 10 October 2005.

In 2007, Stoltenberg allowed Jagland to push through his plan to develop Storting as a stronger center for current political debates, thus increasing the power of the parliamentary members on issues from the cabinet.

Critics accused Jagland of attacking the Red-Green Cabinet as revenge against Stoltenberg for forcing Jagland to resign as Labour Party leader in 2002.