Vesla Vetlesen

Who is Vesla Vetlesen?

Vesla Gunvor Vetlesen, née Hansen is a Norwegian weaver, trade unionist, writer and politician for the Labour Party. She was Minister of International Development from 1986 to 1988.

She was born in Farsund as a daughter of Peder Håkon Jarl Hansen and Sigrid Berger. The family moved to Stavanger in 1937. For a period during the German Occupation of Norway the family's home at Storhaug was the location for production of the illegal newspapers Stritt folk and Frihet. Her father was later imprisoned and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, while her brother Johan was sent to NN camps. Her brother Helge was the joint leader of a group of saboteurs in the Stavanger district during the war. She finished her secondary education in 1949 and studied textile design at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry from 1950 to 1954. In 1951 she became the second wife of Leif Vetlesen. She was a communist during her early life, chairing the regional chapter of the Young Communist League of Norway in Rogaland from 1948 to 1949, when she was expelled from the Communist Party. After the Soviet invasion of Hungary she renounced Communism and joined the Norwegian Labour Party together with her husband.