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Rasmussen in 2023

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 15 December 2022
Prime Minister	Mette Frederiksen
Preceded by	Jeppe Kofod
Leader of the Moderates
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 June 2022
Preceded by	Party established
Prime Minister of Denmark
In office 28 June 2015 – 27 June 2019
Monarch	Margrethe II
Preceded by	Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Succeeded by	Mette Frederiksen
In office 5 April 2009 – 3 October 2011
Monarch	Margrethe II
Deputy	Lene Espersen Lars Barfoed
Preceded by	Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Succeeded by	Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Leader of Venstre
In office 17 May 2009 – 31 August 2019
Preceded by	Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Succeeded by	Jakob Ellemann-Jensen
Minister of Finance
In office 23 November 2007 – 7 April 2009
Prime Minister	Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Preceded by	Thor Pedersen
Succeeded by	Claus Hjort Frederiksen
Minister of the Interior and Health
In office 27 November 2001 – 23 November 2007
Prime Minister	Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Preceded by	Karen Jespersen (Interior) Arne Rolighed (Health)
Succeeded by	Karen Jespersen (Social Welfare) Jakob Axel Nielsen (Health and Prevention)
Member of the Folketing
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 September 1994
Constituency	Zealand (from 2015) North Zealand (2007–2015) Frederiksborg (1994–2007)

Personal details
Born	(1964-05-15) 15 May 1964 (age 61) Vejle, Denmark
Political party	Moderates (2021–present)
Other political affiliations	Venstre (1980–2021)
Spouse	Sólrun Jákupsdóttir
Children	3, including Bergur Løkke Rasmussen
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen

Lars Løkke Rasmussen K.1 (Danish: [ˈlɑːs ˈløkə ˈʁɑsmusn̩]; born 15 May 1964) is a Danish politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2019. He was Leader of the Venstre party from 2009 to 2019.

Rasmussen has been a member of the Folketing since 1994. He also served as County Mayor of Frederiksborg County from 1998 to 2001. Subsequently, he was the Interior and Health Minister from 27 November 2001 to 23 November 2007 as part of Anders Fogh Rasmussen's first and second cabinets, and then Minister of Finance from 23 November 2007 to April 2009 as part of Anders Fogh Rasmussen's third cabinet. On 5 April 2009, he succeeded Anders Fogh Rasmussen as prime minister following the latter's appointment as Secretary General of NATO.

In the 2011 general election, the government lost its parliamentary majority and Rasmussen tendered the government's resignation to Queen Margrethe II. He was succeeded by Helle Thorning-Schmidt of the Social Democrats on 3 October 2011. In the 2015 general election, the right-wing parties regained a majority in the Folketing. Rasmussen again became prime minister and formed his second cabinet in the same month. This cabinet was made up exclusively of Venstre members, but in November 2016 he was pressured to also include members of Liberal Alliance and Conservative People's Party, forming his third cabinet.

On 6 June 2019, he resigned from his position as prime minister after a general election, in which his government was defeated. However, he continued to lead a caretaker government until a new government was formed and sworn in. This was completed on 27 June 2019 and Rasmussen was succeeded as prime minister by Mette Frederiksen. He resigned as the chairman of Venstre in August 2019, and left the party in January 2021. He subsequently formed the Moderates, which campaigned on ending bloc politics, and won 16 seats in the 2022 Danish general election.

Early life

Lars Løkke Rasmussen was born in Vejle to Jeppe Rasmussen and Lise Løkke Rasmussen. His last name is Rasmussen, while Løkke is his middle name.

He graduated from high school in 1983, and was the president of the youth branch of Venstre from 1986 to 1989. He graduated with a law degree (cand. jur) from the University of Copenhagen in 1992. From 1990 to 1995 he worked as a self-employed consultant.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen is married to Sólrun Løkke Rasmussen (née Sólrun Jákupsdóttir). Together they have three children.

Political career

Venstres Ungdom chairmanship and Afghanistan mission

Lars Løkke Rasmussen served as chairman of the youth branch of Venstre from 1986 to 1989. One of his initiatives was to establish an alternative to Operation Dagsværk — an annual one day fundraising campaign by high school students collecting money for third world countries — since Operation Dagsværk at the time was spearheaded by members of the Danish Communist Youth. Rasmussen's campaign was supported by the party youth branch, and raised 600,000 DKK which were spent on school equipment in Soviet occupied Afghanistan. Lars Løkke Rasmussen led a Danish delegation to Afghanistan delivering the collected funds, and a photograph taken by photographer Jørn Stjerneklar shows him and two other delegation members disguised as Afghans. Another photo shows him holding an AK-47, while standing together with three Mujahideen. The photos have generated a lot of media attention in Denmark, after the Danish participation in the war in Afghanistan and especially as Rasmussen moved up the rankings at Venstre.

County Mayor and deputy chairman of Venstre

Rasmussen was elected deputy chairman of Venstre in 1998, at the same time as Anders Fogh Rasmussen assumed the position as party leader after Uffe Ellemann-Jensen. In 1998, he was elected as county mayor of Frederiksborg County, a position he occupied until 2001, when he joined the first Fogh Rasmussen cabinet.

Minister of the Interior and Health

Lars Løkke Rasmussen served as Interior and Health Minister between 2001 and 2007 until he was appointed Minister of Finance in 2007. He was responsible for negotiating a 2002 agreement between Venstre, the Conservatives, the Social Democrats and the Danish People's Party giving patients in public hospitals the right to select a private hospital, provided that the public hospital had been unable to treat the patient within two months. In 2007, this time limit was lowered to one month. Since 2002, the government has awarded extra funds earmarked at reducing the waiting list at National Health Service hospitals, a grant sometimes referred to by the media as Løkkeposen (A pun on 'lykkepose' the Danish word for a goodie bag). He also represented the government during negotiations regarding a reform of the system by which richer municipalities transfer part of their tax incomes to poorer municipalities.

Municipal reform of 2007

As Minister of the Interior and Health, Lars Løkke Rasmussen spearheaded the municipal reform that reduced Denmark's 271 municipalities to 98, and abolished the 14 counties and replaced them with five regions.

Minister of Finance

After then Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen won his second reelection in 2007 he created his third cabinet in which Lars Løkke Rasmussen was appointed Minister of Finance. This was seen as a clear indicator that Rasmussen was next in line to follow Fogh as leader of Venstre and prime minister, when Fogh would leave Danish politics. As Finance Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen led the negotiations concerning funds to banks affected by the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

Tax reform of 2009

In February 2009, Lars Løkke Rasmussen was the chief negotiator in the political agreement behind a major tax reform, implementing the government's ambition of reducing income tax and increasing taxes on pollution. The reform was, according to Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the biggest reduction of the marginal tax rate since the introduction of the income tax in 1903. The opposition accused it of being historically skewed in favouring those with high-income jobs and giving very little to those with low-income jobs.

Prime Minister of Denmark

Rasmussen outside Amalienborg Palace immediately after his appointment as Prime Minister by Queen Margrethe.

On 4 April 2009, NATO decided that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen would replace Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as Secretary General of NATO. On the same day, Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that he would resign as prime minister on 5 April 2009. As deputy of the largest party in the government, Lars Løkke Rasmussen thus took over the post as Prime Minister of Denmark. An opinion poll released on the day of Lars Løkke Rasmussen's takeover revealed that Danes believed that he only beat Helle Thorning-Schmidt as the person best suited for bringing Denmark through the 2007–2008 financial crisis, and that Thorning-Schmidt would have been better suited to combatting unemployment, reducing hospital waiting lists, securing the welfare society of the future, and representing Denmark internationally. On 7 April 2009, Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced the new set of ministers in his Cabinet.

COP15 - December 2009

Lars Løkke Rasmussen has been sharply criticized from many sides for his handling of the COP15 leadership.

At the first meeting of the summit high level section, led by Lars Løkke Rasmussen, a number of countries protested the Danish handling of the negotiations. ”We cannot continue to talk about procedure. We must move forward. The World awaits us”, said Lars Løkke Rasmussen responding to criticism of the Danish led negotiations coming from several countries who regarded them as undemocratic.

Many developing countries viewed this statement as arrogant. Procedure is a major element in UN negotiations. ”This is not about procedure. This is about content. We have stated that the results in Copenhagen must come in two texts. One cannot simply present a text pulled from the clouds”, replied the Chinese delegate in the auditorium.

Stanislaus Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator for the Developing Nations' organisation G77, cross examined what exactly Rasmussen meant when stating that the chairmen of the negotiating groups should be "people whom we trust". Criticism of the Office of the Prime Minister was supported by China, India and Brazil. The last had been regarded as an ally by the Danish delegation.

The international press, too, has been severe in its criticism of the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office. The BBC's climate correspondent stated: "According to all my sources, the Prime Minister's Office is on the verge of a melt-down. They have no modus operandi, or the diplomatic experience needed to plan one in advance. Ed Miliband, the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, was quoted for stating that "Denmark is doing a reasonable job".

Budget cuts

Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Russian President Dmitrij Medvedev in the Prime Minister's office at Christiansborg in Copenhagen, Denmark, 28 April 2010.

In May 2010 Rasmussen's government announced major spending cuts and measures designed to increase revenues, notably to unemployment insurance (cut from a maximum of four years to two), foreign aid (cut from 0.83% of GDP to 0.76%), cuts to child support payments, and miscellaneous tax reforms designed to increase revenues. The cuts were designed to save the government 24 billion DKK.

2011 election

Rasmussen led Venstre in the September 2011 parliamentary election. He sought to renew the mandate of the rightwing coalition that had been in power since 2001. Although his party gained a seat, the opposition parties combined obtained more seats than the parties supporting the incumbent government. On 16 September 2011, Rasmussen tendered the government's resignation to Queen Margrethe. He remained in office as head of a caretaker government until his successor, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, was appointed on 3 October 2011.

2015 election and return to government

Rasmussen with UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Copenhagen, 10 October 2016

Rasmussen with U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington, D.C., 30 March 2017

Rasmussen with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Copenhagen, 26 June 2018

Rasmussen led Venstre in the June 2015 general election. His Blue Bloc won a tight election in which his party came third overall, winning Rasmussen the ability to form a government.

All members of Lars Løkke Rasmussen's second Cabinet, composed solely of members of Venstre, were sworn in on 28 June 2015 in the Danish Parliament. As of July 2015^[update], his Cabinet consists of seventeen ministers.

In 2015, Rasmussen denied US Senator Bernie Sanders's characterization of Denmark as socialist, noting that the nation had a market economy.

On 28 November 2016 Rasmussen presented Lars Løkke Rasmussen III Cabinet, composed of members of Venstre, Conservative People's Party and Liberal Alliance.

On 31 May 2018 it was announced that Denmark would be banning full-face veils.

After premiership

2019 general election

Though Venstre made the largest gains of any party in the 2019 general election, support for the Danish People's Party and Liberal Alliance collapsed, costing Rasmussen his majority. With the result beyond doubt on election night, Rasmussen conceded defeat to the "red bloc" under the Social Democrats' Mette Frederiksen. On 6 June 2019, he announced his resignation. On 31 August 2019, Rasmussen resigned from his position as the chairman of Venstre party following weeks of pressure from party members.

Leader of the Moderates

In 2021 Rasmussen founded a new party, the Moderates. In the 2022 Danish general election, the Moderates became the third largest party winning 16 seats. Rasmussen himself received 38,439 personal votes. Following lengthy government negotiations, he was appointed minister of foreign affairs in Mette Frederiksen's second cabinet.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

In July 2024, he attended the 2024 NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., where he met with Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz. They discussed the threat posed by Iran.

Løkke Rasmussen and his Nordic counterparts signed a joint letter in late October 2024 condemning Israel's planned bill that would seek to ban the UNRWA from operating in the country and in effect the Palestinian areas. Furthermore, they urged the Knesset to reconsider passing the bill.