Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Helle Thorning -Schmidt [ hɛlə toɐ̯neŋ smed ] ( born December 14, 1966 in Rødovre ) is a Danish politician. Since April 12, 2005, she is leader of the Socialists and, since October 3, 2011 Danish Prime Minister. It is available in both offices to the first woman.

Helle Thorning -Schmidt was subject, as opposition leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen in the general election in 2007, but prevailed in the election of 15 September 2011, with its center-left alliance against the coalition of Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen by.

Youth, Family and Education

Helle Thorning -Schmidt grew up in Ishøj south of Copenhagen. When she was ten years old, her parents divorced; she lived with her mother from now on. In high school Ishøj they experienced their politicization in a "very red direction," as she says.

In the 1980s she became involved in the peace movement, the ANC, at the festivals of the DKP newspaper og Folk land and in student politics.

At the University of Copenhagen, she studied political science. Special interest she developed it for the European Union. To date, she is convinced that the EU is the right tool to make Europe more social and environmentally conscious.

By dealing with the European Movement she came in contact with the Social Democrats and learned the politician Ritt Bjerregaard know in whose "Coffee Club" it was recorded.

Your further education completed Helle Thorning- Schmidt at the private and fee-based College of Europe in Bruges. There she met her future husband, Stephen Kinnock know, a son of the former head of the British Labour Party, Neil Kinnock. The College she graduated in 1993 with a MA in European Studies. In 1994 the MA in Political Science at the University of Copenhagen.

After her studies she was secretary 1994-1997 Head of the Danish Social Democrats in the European Parliament in Brussels. During this time she married and had her first daughter.

In 1997 she returned to Denmark, where she was a consultant of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions ( Landsorganisationen i Danmark ) for international affairs. This position she held until 1999 when she ran for the European Parliament itself. During the election campaign for the European elections in 1999 she was pregnant with her ​​second daughter.

The four-member family lives in Østerbro, a suburb of Copenhagen.

Political career

European Parliament

1999 Helle Thorning -Schmidt was selected for the Danish Social Democrats in the European Parliament. During this fifth legislature Thorning-Schmidt was thus a member of the Group of the Party of European Socialists. She was a member of the Employment and Social Committee and the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament. As a politician, she was active labor market eg against social dumping. She was co-founder of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

With the end of the term its mandate ended in the summer of 2004, after which they ran to the Danish Folketing election of 2005.

Party chairman

On February 8, 2005 Helle Thorning -Schmidt was elected to the Folketing. She took in her constituency, the first direct mandate for the Social Democrats for 25 years. The party experienced nationwide but one of the worst debacles in its history, as they only received 25.8 % of the vote ( 2001 or 29.1 %).

Helle Thorning -Schmidt dissolved on 12 April 2005 Mogens Lykketoft in the party leadership of the Danish Social Democrats, who had managed his office made ​​available on the evening of the election defeat in 2005. For the first time in history, the chairman of the Social Democrats election a ballot was held in the form, in which Helle Thorning -Schmidt with 53.2 % against Copenhagen Mayor Frank Jensen, which was attributed to the party's left wing, prevailed. Thorning -Schmidt was, however, as a representative of the right wing of the party.

The top candidate in 2007

After a new election to the Folketing was proclaimed on 25 October 2007, entered Thorning- Schmidt is the top candidate of the opposition parties ( Social Democrats, socialists, radicals Venstre ) for the office of Danish Government. Despite an intensive election campaign under the slogan " We choose prosperity " lost their party again voting shares ( now only 25.5 %). Lack of personnel alternatives for the party presidency, however, was not put her seat in question.

In opposition, they relied repeats the foreign and alien political line of the government, but did not become a resolute adherence to the Danish welfare state social policy significantly by the Government from.

Prime Minister

For the election on 15 September 2011, the Social Democrats again Thorning-Schmidt nominated as a top candidate. Although the party with 24.8 percent of the vote achieved the worst result in its history, which led by Thorning -Schmidt 's center-left coalition put overall. Queen Margrethe II, she commissioned on 2 October 2011 official with the government. Thorning -Schmidt formed a three-party government with the social-liberal Det Radical Venstre and the Socialist People's Party. On October 3, Thorning -Schmidt was appointed prime minister and asked her Cabinet before. On 30 January 2014, the Socialist People's Party left the coalition, the government Thorning -Schmidt II was appointed on 3 February 2014.

Trivia

Due to their fashionable appearance is in the tabloids likes of " Gucci Helle " the speech.

Publications

  • Bjarke Larsen, Flemming Ytzen (ed.): En dollar om dagen - 17 essays om danskerne, globaliseringen above verdens fattige. Pressto, 2001.
  • Tine Aurvig Brøndum, Morten Bødskov, Villy Dyhr, Lars Olsen, Helle Thorning- Schmidt: Forsvar for fællesskabet. Forlaget Fremad, 2002.
  • Epostler ( letters and calls). Sansoni, 2003.
  • Charlotte Antonsen, Ole Olesen Buchardt (ed.): Europe's role værdier og i verde, Peter la Cours Forlag, 2007.
  • Matthias Platzeck, Peer Steinbrück, Frank -Walter Steinmeier ( ed.): The amount of time - social democracy and progress in the 21st century, 2007.
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