The committee that picks the Nobel Peace Prize demoted its chairman on Tuesday for the first time in the 114-year history of the awards after his right-wing opponents gained a majority on the panel.
Thorbjoern Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister of the Labour Party who has been chairman of the five-member panel since 2009, will now be a mere member of the prestigious committee. Kaci Kullmann Five, a former leader of the ruling Conservative Party, will take over.
Some right-wingers are critical of Jagland and gained a new representative this year to give them a 3-2 majority. A 2010 award to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 harmed relations between Oslo and Beijing.
Jagland, disliked by conservatives, has been a lightning rod for criticism of awards including to Liu, to the European Union in 2012 and to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.
Jagland is also head of the 47-nation Council of Europe, and critics say that creates a conflict of interest.
"The committee chooses a leader every year. This year is a new committee," Kullmann Five said, declining to give the reasons for ousting Jagland. "Jagland has been a good leader for six years."
No serving chair has ever been ousted since the awards were first made in 1901, even with changing governments and political majorities.
Chinese-Norwegian ties have been frozen since Beijing condemned the 2010 prize to Liu, doubting Oslo's insistence that the Nobel committee is independent of government when it is chaired by a former prime minister.
Norway's parliament appoints members to the Nobel Committee according to the strength of parties in parliament. Right-wing parties won the last elections in 2013, ousting a Labour-led government.