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Helle Thorning-Schmidt

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Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Prime Minister of Denmark
Designate
Assuming office
MonarchMargrethe II
SucceedingLars 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
1999–2004
Personal details
Born (1966-12-14) 14 December 1966 (age 57)
Rødovre, Denmark
Political partySocial Democrats
SpouseStephen Kinnock
Alma materUniversity of Copenhagen
College of Europe

Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Danish pronunciation: [ˈhɛlə ˈtoɐ̯neŋ ˈsmed]; born 14 December 1966) is a Danish politician and the current leader of the Danish Social Democrats.

As the candidate of the Social Democrats' right wing,[1] she replaced Mogens Lykketoft as party chairman after the 2005 election. She led her party through the 2007 Danish parliamentary election but failed to gain a majority. Following the 2011 elections on 15 September 2011, she is expected to be appointed Prime Minister of Denmark. If appointed by Queen Margrethe, she will become Denmark's first female Prime Minister.

She served as a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2004 before being elected to the Danish Parliament in 2005.

Thorning-Schmidt holds advanced degrees of political science from the University of Copenhagen and the elite College of Europe.

Early life, education and personal background

Helle Thorning-Schmidt was born in Rødovre in 1966 to Holger Thorning-Schmidt, a lecturer in mathematics and national economics at the University of Copenhagen, and his wife Grete. Her jewish 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]

She graduated with a candidate's degree (cand.scient.pol.) in political science from the University of Copenhagen in 1994. She also holds a master's degree in European studies specialising in policy and public administration from the College of Europe, an elite university in Bruges, Belgium where she studied 1992–1993 (she is an alumna of the Charles IV promotion). In addition to her native Danish, she speaks fluent English and French.

Through her marriage to Stephen Kinnock, she is the daughter-in-law of Neil Kinnock, former leader of the British Labour Party and European Commissioner, and Glenys Kinnock, former British Minister for Europe. She met her husband when they were both attending the College of Europe in Belgium. They have two children.

She became a social democrat during her studies in Belgium and joined the Danish Social Democrats in 1993.[4]

Early career

From 1994 to 1997 she led the secretariat of the Danish delegation of social democrats in the European Parliament. After her time in Brussels she worked as an international consultant with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions until being elected MEP in 1999.

Member of the European Parliament 1999-2004

In 1999, Helle Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the European Parliament as a member of the Party of European Socialists with more than 22.000 personal votes. During the five year term, she was a member of the Employment and Social Committee and the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament. She co-founded the Campaign for Parliament Reform (CPR).

Member of Folketing

In the 2005 Danish parliamentary election Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the Folketing. Since 2005 she has represented a constituency in a part of the Danish capital Copenhagen called Østerbrokredsen.

Leader of the Social Democrats in opposition

After the defeat in the 2005 election where the Social Democrats lost 5 seats and failed to regain the majority it lost in the 2001 election former Minister of Finance and then-party leader Mogens Lykketoft resigned his position in the party, 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.

She campaigned for the party leadership as a moderate candidate and was elected by the party members on April 12, 2005, ahead of the other candidate, the more left-wing Frank Jensen.

She led the Social Democrats through the 2007 Danish parliamentary election where 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.

She was against holding a referendum on the European Reform Treaty.[5] During her 2007 campaign she promised to relax restrictions on asylum seekers and immigrants.[6] She also opposed tax cuts announced by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, instead she would like to see more money spent on welfare. The party also campaigned on a platform of combating increased inequalities in society, and fighting global warming by making 45% of Denmark's energy from renewable sources by 2025.[7]

Although her party again lost two seats in the 2007 election (now 45 seats), her leadership wasn't questioned by her party.

According to a June 2008 opinion poll carried out by Gallup, the opposition centre-left was on 49.8% compared to 49.6% to the centre-right. This would leave the centre-left on 88 seats, two short of a majority, discounting the Faroe Island and Greenland seats.[8] Since late 2009 the opposition has enjoyed large majorities in the polls, and according to polls carried out in January 2011 the opposition leads the governing coalition under Lars Løkke Rasmussen with 5-7 points and the Social Democrats leading Venstre with 7-10 points which would make the Social Democrats the largest party by far in the Folketing.[9]

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.[10] Since the last election Helle Thorning-Schmidt has been 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 should these parties obtain a majority in the next election.[11][12]

As the leader of the largest opposition party in Denmark, she has been described by the media as the leader of the Danish opposition.

Prime Minister-designate

Main article: Danish parliamentary election, 2011

In the 2011 parliamentary election, she was relected 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. Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen hence announced his resignation. A new Prime Minister will be appointed by the Queen following a complicated, traditional procedure, during which the candidate will first need to secure parliamentary support. If appointed, Thorning-Schmidt will be the first female Prime Minister of Denmark.[13]

Controversy

Danish tax authorities (SKAT) and police have been investigating reports that Kinnock committed tax evasion for declaring he is not a resident of Denmark and thus not subject to Danish taxes, while at the same time Thorning-Schmidt declared, in an application for dispensation for Kinnock to own property in Denmark, that he resides in Denmark "every weekend of the year from Friday through Monday".[14] Thorning-Schmidt attributes the discrepancy to a "big and sloppy error".[14]

However on September 16 2010, Danish tax authorities acquitted the couple and allegations and investigations of tax evasion was dropped.[15] After experiencing a decline in support, the Social Democrats regained much of the lost support after the conclusions made by the authorities.[citation needed]

In September 2011 the 2010 decision from SKAT surfaced in the Danish newspaper B.T.. It turned out that Thorning-Schmidt from 2000 to 2008 had made use of tax deductions given to her husband, even though he was not subject to Danish taxes and had no income in Denmark. The mistake was fixed by SKAT for the three years from 2006 to 2008, and Thorning-Schmidt was forced to pay back the money gained by the tax evasion. She was however able to keep the unjustified gain for the six years from 2000 to 2005, because the case was outdated.[16]

References

  1. ^ http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10010163
  2. ^ http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/artikkel.php?artid=10010163
  3. ^ http://www.vejleamtsfolkeblad.dk/artikel/196111:Navne--Helle-Thorning-har-mistet-sin-far
  4. ^ http://www.information.dk/277877
  5. ^ Denmark announces snap elections, BBC News 24 October 2007
  6. ^ Danes in poll tussle over migrants, BBC News 13 November 2007
  7. ^ Denmark: A political guide, The Guardian 9 November 2007
  8. ^ Oppositionen går på ferie med flertal - Politik
  9. ^ http://borsen.dk/nyheder/politik/artikel/1/199773/vaelgerne_straffer_pia_kjaersgaard.html
  10. ^ http://borsen.dk/nyheder/politik/artikel/1/143035/vestager_peger_paa_helle_thorning.html
  11. ^ http://www.bt.dk/politik/roed-dominans
  12. ^ http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Politik/2010/12/02/232622.htm
  13. ^ Traynor, Ian (2011-09-14). "Denmark election tipped to oust rightwing government". The Guardian. London. Retrieved September 14, 2011. [...] looks likely to end this week, with a Social Democrat tipped to become the Danes' first female prime minister.
  14. ^ a b Danish politics rocked over Kinnock tax status, BBC News 3 August 2010
  15. ^ Revisor: Skat frikender Thorning i skattesag, Politiken 16 September 2010
  16. ^ Thorning fik uberettiget fradrag i seks år, B.T. September 17th, 2011
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