Mette Frederiksen (born 19 November 1977) is a Danish Social Democrat politician. She has been a member of the Folketing, the parliament of Denmark, since 2001,[1] and served in Helle Thorning-Schmidt's government as Minister of Employment from 2011 to 2014, and as Minister of Justice from 2014 to 2015. On 28 June 2015, she succeeded Thorning-Schmidt as leader of the Social Democrats.[2]
Following the 2019 parliamentary elections, in which the opposition "red bloc" of left-wing and centre-left parties (Social Democrats, Social Liberals, Socialist People's Party, Red Green Alliance, the Faroese Social Democratic Party and Greenland's Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut) won an absolute majority of 94 out of 179 seats in the Folketing, she has been commissioned by Queen Margrethe II to lead the negotiations to form a new government. Should she be successful in this regard, Frederiksen would become the youngest prime minister in Danish history at the age of 41, as well as the second woman in the role after her fellow Social Democrat Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
Early life[edit]
Frederiksen was born in Aalborg; her father was a typographer, and her mother a teacher.[1] She attended the Aalborghus Gymnasium, and studied administration and social science at Aalborg University, graduating in 2000.[1]
Frederiksen working as a youth consultant for LO, The Danish Confederation of Trade Unions.[1]She was elected as a member of parliament for Copenhagen County in the general election held on 20 November 2001.[1] After her election, Frederiksen was named as her party's spokesperson for culture, media, and gender equality.[1] She became her party's spokesperson for social affairsafter the 2005 parliamentary election.[1] Also following the 2005 election, she served as the vice-chairperson of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic party.[1]
In May 2010, it was revealed that Frederiksen's daughter, along with the children of several other prominent Social Democrat politicians, was being educated at a private school.[3] Along with her colleagues, Frederiksen was accused of hypocrisy by the Danish press as her party had long seen the promotion of public education as a key policy.[3] In 2005, Frederiksen had openly criticised parents who sent their children to private schools.[3] Frederiksen responded to the criticism by saying that her opinion on private education had become more nuanced since her remarks in 2005 and that it would have been hypocritical of her to put her own political career ahead of her daughter's best interest.[4]
Under Frederiksen's leadership of the Social Democrats, the party has moved to the left on economics but become more skeptical of mass immigration.[5][6] In a recent biography, she said: "For me, it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalisation, mass immigration and the free movement of labour is paid for by the lower classes."[7]
Political positions[edit]
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Frederiksen is a vocal opponent of prostitution, and has for many years strongly advocated for the prohibition of the purchase of sex, like in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mette_Frederiksen
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