Petter Nilssen

Who is Petter Nilssen?

Petter Nilssen was a Norwegian politician for the Labour and Social Democratic Labour parties.

He was born in Lillehammer. He was a son of shoemaker Mathias Nilssen and Eline Pedersen, and an older brother of Labour Party secretary Magnus Nilssen. Nilssen was an active socialist already in the 1880s, and was involved in the early labour movement as a founder of worker's associations. He founded worker's associations, and later social democratic associations, in Hønefoss, Lillehammer and Kristians Amt. He was a national board member of the Labour Party from 1909 to 1918, and a member of Lillehammer city council from 1902 to 1928.

He stood several times for national election. He was the Labour Party's candidate in the Norwegian parliamentary election, 1906 in the single-member urban constituency Lillehammer, Hamar, Gjøvik og Kongsvinger. He was beaten in the first round by Conservative candidate Axel Thallaug, who was also from Lillehammer, but Nilssen edged out the Liberal and Labour Democrat candidates. In the second round Nilssen lost to Thallaug with 1,045 versus 1,284 votes.