The secret to a long-lasting marriage is not humour, patience, shared interests or an equal division of household chores. It's government intervention.

That, at least, is the hope of Norway's ruling Populist party, which is promoting date nights as a cure for flagging marriages in an attempt to reduce the country's divorce rate.

The new minister for children, equality and social inclusion, Solveig Horne, said the government needed to cut divorce rates – and that encouraging couples to try date nights was a good place to start: "It is important to find small pockets of time where parents can be lovers," she said.

Divorce rates are at 40% in Norway, with those aged 40 to 44 most likely to split from their partners.

Since taking up her post earlier this month, Horne has announced her intention to campaign for increased funding for family counselling to help prevent divorces. "With state-run counselling offices, couples can learn more about how to be together before they have problems and talk things through when problems do arise," she said.

There are no plans to implement mandatory date nights for Norwegian couples. Horne said: "It's not something the government can tell you to do; it's something that couples need to do on their own." However, she is an advocate for couples taking time out together.

"In a busy life of work and family, the week can feel too short to attend to your relationship with your partner, so each couple needs to decide what sort of a date night they should have, whether it's a night at the movies or a walk together without the kids for a couple of hours," she said.

Having been through a divorce herself, Horne is convinced that allocating time to a partner can have a huge impact on a relationship: "Maybe I didn't have success [in marriage] because we didn't have any date nights!" she said.

Minsiter Solveig Horne said perhaps date nights could have saved her own marriage from divorce. Photograph: Stortingnet
Horne's proposal has been cited by country's media as further proof of the new government's centre-right bias, with many seeing parallels to a date night campaign started up by US conservative groups such as the National Marriage Project. It claims that married men and women who have "couple time" at least weekly were 3.5 times more likely to report being very happy in their marriages than those who struggled to spend time together.

Horne said she was more inspired by a 2010 romantic comedy starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell. "I saw the movie Date Night where an American couple try to go out to keep their relationship alive," said Horne. "In the film, everything goes wrong – but I thought it was a good idea.

"My sister lives in the US and she told me that she and her husband have a weekly date night and it really works. Date night isn't really something that's done in Norway, but I think it could be a good way to keep marriages together."

Horne's initiative is the latest headline-grabbing moment for the minister since her appointment earlier this month, with the Norwegian press revisiting two controversial gaffes.

Horne has been criticised for comments about rape made in 2011 on Norwegian public television when she was recorded as saying: "Girls are responsible for the situation they put themselves in, but boys also have a responsibility to respect a 'no'. I think both boys and girls have equal responsibility."

Horne also offended Norway's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community after the re-emergence of a tweet that she sent in 2010 about a children's book that included gay characters: "I wonder if it's okay that kindergartens are reading gay adventures for young children?"

She denied accusations of homophobia, saying: "I will be the minister for gays, lesbians, transgender and heterosexual people. People should be allowed to judge me when they have got to know me."