Jens Bratlie

Who was Jens Bratlie?

Jens Kristian Meinich Bratlie was a Norwegian politician, representing the Conservative Party. He was Prime Minister of Norway from 1912 to 1913. He was trained as an army officer and also obtained a law degree allowing him to work as a high-ranking civil servant. Bratlie held several offices such as leader of the conservative party and president of the parliament. He is the only unmarried person to be prime minister of Norway. Bratlie came from a family of leading businessmen and civil servants.

In the 1927 Norwegian parliamentary election he was the fourth ballot candidate for the party National Legion, behind Karl Meyer, Frøis Frøisland and Thorvald Aadahl. In a press release, the National Legion stated that it had cherrypicked "strong" personalities to combat the hardships in Norwegian politics. Frøisland denounced the ballot in an Aftenposten piece, stating that himself, Aadahl and Bratlie was unwilling and unaware of the nomination. He stated that a vote for the National Legion would be a wasted vote in the struggle against the "communists". However, according to Norwegian election law the people who were listed on the ballot had no legal grounds to avoid being nominated.