He left the party in 2001, and failed to get re-elected to parliament again in the election later the same year, having stood for a local electoral list.

After finishing his secondary education in 1954,[1] he came through the Russian language course of the Norwegian army,[2] and achieved the law degree cand.jur.

[2] In addition to Norwegian, Gundersen had a fluent command of Russian, English, German, French and also spoke some Spanish.

[1] In the mid-1970s Gundersen left both the Conservative Party and the Church of Norway, as he according to himself "wanted to stand completely free."

He lost his seat in 1985, and the same year he wrote the memoir-like Fri og frank på Tinget.

[1] In February 2001, Gundersen left the party due to not being renominated for a safe seat in Akershus.

[4] Gundersen regarded himself as a libertarian,[5] and was noticed in the Norwegian public debate for numerous unexpected inputs.

Later, during his time as a politician for the Progress Party, he argued in favor of boycott of such countries as Iran, China and Cuba, and against immigration.

[8] He claimed that Norwegians are a homogenous people, poorly able to absorb large ethnic minorities who are mostly loyal to their own culture, and that potential problems regarding this will only become more evident in the future.

[10][11] In early 2001 he nonetheless praised Muslims in cities like Cairo and Istanbul for taking more personal care of their friends and family, instead of merely being dependent on public welfare programs which is common in countries like Norway.