Torstein Dahle

Torstein Dahle (born 20 February 1947) is a Norwegian politician and economist. He works at the Bergen University College and represents Red Party in the city council of Bergen. Dahle was born in Oslo.

Torstein Dahle
Leader of the Red Party
In office 11 March 2007 – 30 May 2010
Deputy	Ingrid Baltzersen Ana Lopez Taylor
Preceded by	None Himself as leader of the Red Electoral Alliance
Succeeded by	Turid Thomassen
Personal details
Born	(1947-02-20) 20 February 1947 Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Political party	Red
Residence	Oslo, Norway
Alma mater	Norwegian School of Economics
Occupation	Professor
Profession	Economist

At age 14 Dahle joined Lambertseter Youth Conservatives (Unge Høyre). He attended Oslo Cathedral School and Oslo Commerce School.[1] After moving to Bergen in 1966 he was radicalized and joined AKP(m-l) in the early 1970s. Since its foundation in 2007 Dahle was leader of the Red Party, and he was previously leader of the Red Party's predecessor, Red Electoral Alliance, from 2003 to 2007. He was succeeded by Turid Thomassen in 2010. He was also a founding member of Red Electoral Alliance and Workers' Communist Party in 1973, but left the latter in 1997.

On 23 July 2007 he became subject to media attention when he said that the Taliban and other Afghan rebels had the full right of fighting the Norwegian soldiers of the International Security Assistance Force force stationed in Afghanistan.[2] The attention occurred only days later with the death of a Norwegian army officer in the Logar Province as a Norwegian military unit came under hostile fire.[3] He later commented that he did not support the death of Norwegian military personnel.

Dahle is openly homosexual since the late 1960s.[4]