The party has held the office of Minister of the Environment since 2005, first by Helen Bjørnøy, followed by Erik Solheim and since 2012 by Bård Vegar Solhjell. During the 2009 parliamentary election, the party promoted itself as the "biggest" and "strongest" green party in Norway. The party was highly vocal against oil drilling in Lofoten and Vesterålen during the election campaign. A large minority within the party are opposed to the conservation plan, with the majority of them coming from Nordland, the county where the drilling is taking place. The party struggled, despite the public's strong focus on the green movement and global warming. They failed to gather new voters and instead experienced one of their worst elections in years. By August 2009, various opinion polls gave the party 10% support, but they lost most of their voters to the Labour Party during the last days of the election.