Jump to content

Helle Thorning-Schmidt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 130.226.178.140 (talk) at 13:44, 21 March 2012 (→‎Tax case controversy and fallout from news leak case). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Prime Minister of Denmark
Assumed office
3 October 2011
MonarchMargrethe II
Preceded byLars Løkke Rasmussen
Leader of the Social Democrats
Assumed office
12 April 2005
Preceded byMogens Lykketoft
Member of Parliament
Assumed office
8 February 2005
Member of the European Parliament
for Denmark
In office
10 June 1999 – 13 July 2004
Personal details
Born (1966-12-14) 14 December 1966 (age 57)
Rødovre, Denmark
Political partySocial Democrats
Spouse(s)Stephen Kinnock
(m. 1996–present)
Children2 daughters
Alma materUniversity of Copenhagen
College of Europe

Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Danish pronunciation: [ˈhɛlə ˈtoɐ̯neŋ ˈsmed]; born 14 December 1966)[1] is a Danish politician and the current Prime Minister of Denmark. She has been leader of the Danish Social Democrats since April 2005 and prime minister since October 2011.

Thorning-Schmidt served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004 before being elected to the Danish Parliament in 2005. She replaced Mogens Lykketoft as party chair after the 2005 parliamentary election, leading her party through the 2007 parliamentary election which was won by the opposing centre-right alliance. Following the September 2011 parliamentary election and two weeks of negotiations with the other opposition parties, she was appointed Prime Minister by Queen Margrethe II. She is the first woman to become Prime Minister of Denmark. Thorning-Schmidt holds degrees in political science from the University of Copenhagen and the College of Europe.[1]

Early life, education and personal background

Helle Thorning-Schmidt was born in Rødovre to Holger Thorning-Schmidt, a lecturer in mathematics and national economics at the University of Copenhagen, and his wife Grete. Her parents were both politically conservative[2] and she grew up in the Copenhagen suburb of Ishøj. She attended Ishøj Gymnasium, from which she graduated in 1985. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old.[3]

Thorning-Schmidt studied political science at University of Copenhagen, earning a cand.scient.pol. degree in 1994. She also holds a master's degree in European studies specialising in policy and public administration from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where she studied from 1992 to 1993 (she is an alumna of the Charles IV promotion). At the time, Denmark had a quota administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of one student at this prestigious institution, and Thorning-Schmidt was selected.[4] In addition to her native Danish, she speaks fluent English and French.

She married Stephen Kinnock in 1996, so becoming the daughter-in-law of Neil Kinnock, Baron Kinnock, former leader of the British Labour Party and European Commissioner, and Glenys Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, former British Minister for Europe. She met her husband while they were both attending the College of Europe. They have two daughters, Johanna and Camilla. Helle lives in Copenhagen with their children, while her husband currently resides in Davos, Switzerland, where he works as a director for the World Economic Forum.[5]

She became a Social Democrat during her studies in Belgium and joined the Danish Social Democrats in 1993.[6]

Early career in Europe

From 1994 to 1997, Thorning-Schmidt led the secretariat of the Danish delegation of Social Democrats in the European Parliament.[1] After her time in Brussels she worked as an international consultant with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions until being elected MEP in 1999.[1]

Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the Party of European Socialists. During the five-year term, she was a member of the Employment and Social Committee and served as a substitute on the Constitutional Committee.[7] She co-founded the Campaign for Parliament Reform (CPR).[8]

Member of the Folketing

In the 2005 Danish parliamentary election Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the Folketing.[1]

Leader of the Social Democrats in opposition

Thorning-Schmidt as leader of the opposition

After the defeat in the 2005 election, in which the Social Democrats lost five seats and failed to regain the majority it had lost in the 2001 election, former Minister of Finance and party leader Mogens Lykketoft resigned his post, taking responsibility for the poor election results. In his speech of resignation on election night, 8 February 2005, he called for a leadership election in order to determine who should lead the party into the next election.[9] Thorning-Schmidt campaigned for the party leadership as a moderate candidate and was elected by the party members on 12 April 2005, ahead of the other candidate, Frank Jensen. She led the Social Democrats in the 2007 election, in which her party suffered modest losses and was forced into a third term in opposition. The party was also unable to regain its position as the largest party in the Folketing.[10]

She was against holding a referendum on the European Reform Treaty.[11] During her 2007 campaign she promised to relax restrictions on asylum seekers and immigrants.[12] She also opposed tax cuts announced by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, instead stating she would like to see more funding for welfare. The party also campaigned on a platform of combating increased inequalities in society, and fighting global warming by supplying 45% of Denmark's energy from renewable sources by 2025.[13]

Although her party again lost two seats in the 2007 election reducing the total to 45 seats, her leadership was not questioned by her party.[14] In June 2008, according to a Gallup poll, the opposition centre-left was at 49.8% compared to 49.6% for the centre-right. This would leave the centre-left with 88 seats, two short of a majority, discounting the Faroe Island and Greenland seats.[15] Since late 2009 the opposition enjoyed large majorities in the polls, and according to polls carried out in January 2011 the opposition led the governing coalition under Lars Løkke Rasmussen by 5–7 points and the Social Democrats led Venstre by 7–10 points which would make the Social Democrats the largest party by far in the Folketing.[16]

Both Margrethe Vestager (Social Liberal Party) and Villy Søvndal (Socialist People's Party) have pledged their support to Thorning-Schmidt after a potential election victory.[17] After the last election Helle Thorning-Schmidt started working towards forming a centre-left government coalition consisting of the Socialist People's Party and the Social Liberal Party with parliamentary support from the small Red-Green Alliance.[18][19] As the leader of the largest opposition party in Denmark, she has been described by the media as the leader of the Danish opposition.[20]

Appointment as Prime Minister

See also: Danish parliamentary election, 2011 and Cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Thorning-Schmidt, just after she was appointed Prime Minister.

In the 2011 parliamentary election, she was re-elected to parliament. Although the ruling Liberal Party became the largest party and gained a seat and the Social Democrats lost a seat, the opposition parties combined obtained more seats than the government coalition. Her four-party bloc gained a majority of 89 seats in the 179-seat parliament against 86 for the sitting Prime Minister and his center-right parliamentary supporters.[21] Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen formally tendered his resignation to Queen Margrethe on 16 September 2011. Rasmussen's cabinet remained in office as a caretaker government[22] until 3 October, when Helle Thorning-Schmidt was appointed Prime Minister by the Queen following negotiations with the other opposition parties.

Prime Minister of Denmark

Helle Thorning-Schmidt officially began her first term as Prime Minister on 3 October 2011, after having presented her cabinet to the Queen and having received her official appointment.[23] Thorning-Schmidt presided over the successful conclusion of NATO's strike missions in Libya, to which Denmark was a contributor, less than three weeks after taking office.[24]

Tax case controversy and fallout from news leak case

The Danish tax authorities (SKAT) investigated reports that Thorning-Schmidt's husband, Stephen Kinnock, was guilty of tax evasion. Kinnock had declared that he was not a resident of Denmark and thus not subject to Danish taxes, while at the same time Thorning-Schmidt had declared, in an application for dispensation for Kinnock to own property in Denmark, that he resided in Denmark "every weekend of the year from Friday through Monday".[25] Thorning-Schmidt attributed the discrepancy to a "big and sloppy error".[25] On 16 September 2010, Danish tax authorities acquitted the couple and the charges of tax evasion were dropped.[26]

A week before the September 15 election to the Danish Parliament, the 2010 decision from SKAT surfaced, in the Danish tabloid B.T. The case had been leaked to the newspaper several months previously. It turned out that Thorning-Schmidt from 2000 to 2008 had made use of tax deductions applicable to her husband, even though he was not subject to Danish taxes and had no income in Denmark. The mistake was corrected by SKAT for the three years from 2006 to 2008, and Thorning-Schmidt paid the amount she had saved due to the error. She was however not required to pay the amounts saved for the six years from 2000 to 2005, because of the statutory time limit for liability in such cases.[27] At the same time the police started to look into the source of the leak, as it constituted a breach of the professional secrecy, punishable by prison sentence under Danish law.

In November 2011 the daily Politiken reported that Tax Ministry deputy chief Peter Loft had attended several meetings attending to the Thorning-Schmidt case and had tried to insert comments into the final resolution text. This would be unlawful under Danish law as the Tax Ministry may not interfere with the decisions taken in individual tax cases.[28] This set of a flurry of speculation in the press, as to whether there had been political pressure from the then government to pursue a stricter course in the tax case. Tax Minister in the new government Thor Möger Pedersen subsequently asked Peter Loft and the director of the revenue service's Copenhagen branch, Erling Andersen, to each prepare a report on the happenings. On 2 December Pedersen announced that he had found such big discrepancies between the two reports that he would set down a commission of inquiry to determine the actual course of events.[29]

Further controversy erupted when 2 days later, the tabloid daily, Ekstra Bladet, reported that they had also been offered the confidential information that was made public during the election campaign. The source of the leak was determined to be Peter Arnfeldt, spin doctor for then Minister for Taxation Troels Lund Poulsen.[30] This led to intense media speculation that the former government, and specifically Troels Lund Poulsen, were engaged in leaking confidential tax information in an active attempt to discredit the opposition leader in the then imminent election, a hitherto unseen level of abuse of power in Danish political life. The commission of inquiry that had already been announced two days previously, was broadly supported by the Danish Parliament to also look into whether the former government was involved in, or knew of, the leak.[31] On the same day Troels Lund Poulsen announced he would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from the Danish Parliament. In March 2012 Peter Loft was suspended from his post as deputy chief, for the duration of the 2 year investigation period. [32]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Folketinget - Helle Thorning-Schmidt (S)". ft.dk. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  2. ^ "Profil: Helle Thorning-Schmidt – VG Nett om Danmark". Vg.no. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  3. ^ "Vejle Amts Folkeblad – Navne – Helle Thorning har mistet sin far". Vejleamtsfolkeblad.dk. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  4. ^ Olav Hergel. "Portræt: Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Den Første af Danmark" (in Template:Da icon). Politiken.dk. Retrieved 17 September 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  5. ^ "BBC News - Profile: Danish PM-elect Helle Thorning-Schmidt". Bbc.co.uk. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  6. ^ "Det bliver i hvert fald en moderne velfærdsdansker". information.dk. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  7. ^ "Helle Thorning-Schmidt", European Parliament. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  8. ^ Nick Clegg and Michiel van Hulten, "Reforming the European Parliament". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  9. ^ "Tale efter Folketingsvalget 2005", Danske taler. Template:Da icon Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  10. ^ "Helle Thorning-Schmidt", Den Store Danske. Template:Da icon Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  11. ^ Denmark announces snap elections, BBC News 24 October 2007
  12. ^ Danes in poll tussle over migrants, BBC News 13 November 2007
  13. ^ Denmark: A political guide, The Guardian 9 November 2007
  14. ^ Munk, Andreas. "Helle Thorning - en socialt anlagt slider", DR, 2 October 2011. Template:Da icon Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  15. ^ Oppositionen går på ferie med flertal "Oppositionen gaar på ferie med flertal", Berlingske, 28 June 2008, Template:Da icon Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  16. ^ "Vælgerne straffer Pia Kjærsgaard". Borsen.dk. 21 January 2011. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  17. ^ "Vestager peger på Helle Thorning". Borsen.dk. 20 October 2008. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  18. ^ "Rød dominans – Politik". BT.dk. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  19. ^ "Greens: Markant rødt flertal – dr.dk/Nyheder/Politik". Dr.dk. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  20. ^ "Danish opposition wins vote, delivering first woman PM | Deccan Herald". Deccanherald.com. 2011-09-16.
  21. ^ "Global Players: Helle Thorning-Schmidt | Thomas White International". Thomaswhite.com. 2011-10-04.
  22. ^ Marie Hjortdal. "Løkke går af – nu begynder spillet om magten" (in Template:Da icon). Politiken.dk. Retrieved 16 September 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  23. ^ "Appointment of New Government in Denmark", Embassy of Denmark Lithuania. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  24. ^ "NATO: to decide Friday to end the aerial campaign over Libya, diplomats say". The Washington Post. 20 October 2011. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  25. ^ a b Danish politics rocked over Kinnock tax status, BBC News 3 August 2010
  26. ^ Revisor: Skat frikender Thorning i skattesag, Politiken 16 September 2010
  27. ^ Thorning fik uberettiget fradrag i seks år, B.T. 17 September 2011
  28. ^ Ministers højre hånd skrev afsnit i Thorning-sag, Politiken 11 November 2011
  29. ^ Kommission skal kulegrave skattesag, DR 02 December 2011
  30. ^ Avis: Troels Lunds spindoktor ville lække Thornings skattepapirer, Politiken 4 December 2011
  31. ^ Undersøgelseskommissionen ventes klar hurtigt, Politiken 05 December 2011
  32. ^ [1], Politiken 21 March 2012

Media related to Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Wikimedia Commons

Wikinews has related news:
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Social Democrats
2005–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of Denmark
2011–present 		Incumbent

Template:Danish parliamentary election, 2007 navigation

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helle_Thorning-Schmidt&oldid=483129006"