Frank Bakke-Jensen


Frank Bakke-Jensen is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party of Norway. He became the Norwegian Defense Minister on 20 October 2017. He was minister of EEC- and EU affairs between 2016 and 2017. He was mayor of Båtsfjord from 2007 until his election to the Stortinget from Finnmark in 2009. Bakke-Jensen formerly worked as a ship's electrician between Hammerfest and Tromsø, and has also worked as a teacher and self-employed pilot at Båtsfjord Airport. He has also performed military service in the UN Lebanon conflict.

Mayor

Bakke-Jensen was elected mayor in 2007, despite the Labour Party winning 54.7 percent of the vote, and nine of the fifteen representatives in the municipality. After the elections for mayor saw many Ap split from the party, and when the elections saw two of the breakaway group elected. One of the breakaway group did not attend the nomination meeting, and the other did not vote with his party. Therefore, Bakke-Jensen was elected with the Conservative’s four votes, Progress Party's two representatives deciding not to support the Labour Party. As mayor, Bakke-Jensen decided that Båtsfjord should have its own high school within the municipality.

Military service

From 30 August 1990 to 29 November 1991, he was in Lebanon as a soldier in contingents 26 and 27, where he was a radio operator in Tibnin in southern Lebanon.
Later, he spent several years in the Homeguard, where he took a squad leader and later a platoon commander course. He has also taken the elite course at the Norwegian Defence Staff College.

Storting committees