| Helge Solum Larsen | |
| Office: | First Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party |
| Term Start: | 17 April 2010 |
| Term End: | 7 February 2012 |
| Predecessor: | Position created |
| Successor: | Ola Elvestuen |
| Birth Date: | 14 January 1969 |
| Birth Place: | Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway |
| Death Place: | Oslo, Norway |
| Party: | Liberal |
| Children: | 2 |
Helge Solum Larsen (14 January 1969 - 18 December 2015) was a Norwegian businessman and politician for the Liberal Party. He served as deputy leader of the party from 2010 to 2012.
Solum Larsen was a goldsmith by education.[1]
From 1994 to 1997 he was leader of the Young Liberals of Norway, the youth wing of the Liberal Party.[1] [2] He served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Rogaland during the terms 1997 - 2001 and 2005 - 2009.
In local politics he served several terms on the Stavanger city council, beginning as an alternate in 1987 and a full representative in 1991.[3] [4] He chaired the city's Liberal Party chapter from 2000 to 2005 and the countywide party chapter from 2005 to 2010.[1] In 2008 he was elected to the national party board. He was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party at the 2010 party convention.[2]
In February 2012, Solum Larsen resigned from all his party positions after a 17-year-old girl accused him of raping her at the Rogaland Liberal Party's annual congress in Suldal;[5] [6] [7] he said that only consensual sex had occurred,[8] [9] and was briefly admitted to the psychiatric clinic at Stavanger University Hospital.[5] [7] In October the Rogaland public prosecutor declined to pursue the case.[8] [10] The decision was appealed,[11] but in January 2013, the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority also declined to prosecute, effectively dismissing the charges due to lack of evidence.[12] He left the Liberal Party,[2] but returned to politics in January 2014[13] and continued to serve on the Stavanger city council as an independent until October 2015.[3]
In local politics, Solum Larsen worked for integration and job opportunities for immigrants and for treatment-based policies towards drug addicts.[3] He actively defended the wooden buildings of Stavanger.[4] He was largely responsible for averting the digging up of Nytorget, and demolition of several of these, for the construction of an underground carpark.[14] [15] In the area of development and transport, he was an advocate for railways who was largely responsible for the national government's decision in 2005 to double-track the railway in the Stavanger/Sandnes urban region,[1] [16] and argued for light rail being central in the regional transport plan.[3] [17] [18] He was also involved in the discussions concerning the Ryfast tunnel connection and the new E39; he was influential in routing tunnels to benefit residents of Hundvåg, but his proposal for lengthening an E39 tunnel to reduce the impact on Tasta was rejected.[19] [20] [21]
Solum Larsen had two children. He died from a cerebral haemorrhage on 18 December 2015.[2] [3] [4]