The party was founded in 1973 as the Socialist Electoral League, an electoral coalition with the Communist Party, Socialist People's Party, Democratic Socialists – AIK and independent socialists. In 1975, the coalition was turned into a unified political party. The party was largely founded as a result of the foreign policies prevalent at the time, with the socialists being opposed to Norwegian membership of the European Union (then known as the European Economic Community) and NATO.[6] While currently having the official ideology of democratic socialism, the party also increasingly profiles itself as a supporter of feminism and environmentalism.