Kirsten Jacobsen

Kirsten Jacobsen ( Larsen; 18 February 1942 – 2 December 2010) was a Danish real estate agent and politician who was an elected member of the Folketing for the North Jutland County constituency for two non-consecutive periods from 1973 to 1981 and then between 1988 and 2001. She was first a member of the Progress Party, the Freedom 2000 Group an independent and The Conservative People's Party. Jacobsen was also a member of both the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Nordic Council. She was leader of the Progress Party from 1995 to 1997. Jacobsen was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1991 and was upgraded to Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog five years later.

Early life On 18 February 1942, she regularly maintained that she was born in Nørresundby. She also attended Aalborg Business School.

Career Jacobsen became a member of the newly founded Progress Party in 1972, and was elected to represent the North Jutland County constituency in the Folketing, a seat she held from 4 December 1973 to 7 December 1981. During her first term, she became a member of the Nordic Council between 1973 and 1981, Jacobsen was able to become deputy chair of Parliament's Housing Committee, the Political-Economic Committee as well as the Tax Committee due to her interest in those fields. She was deputy chair of Progress Party's parliamentary group between 1975 and 1976. When this was announced, Jacobsen and three other party members formed the Freedom 2000 group in protest of Mogens Glistrup returning to the Progress Party. She became an independent in February 2001 and left the Folketing at the 2001 Danish general election that 20 November.

During her career, Jacobsen established an alternative complaints centre that received 6,000 enquries per year from citizens. This enabled her to know what the population were thinking of. In 1998, she authored her biography, Kirsten. In it, Jacobsen says she did not join other parties while in parliament due to their higher levels of discipline. She was named Politician of the Year in 1993. Jacobsen became a member of The Conservative People's Party in 2008.

Personal life From 21 May 1960 to their divorce in 1972, she was married to the electric wholesaler Niels Willum Wisbech Jacobsen. They had three children. Jacobsen remarried to the Norwegian real estate agent Erik Stormfelt on 30 June 1979 and remained married until his death on 20 December 1997. She was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1991 and was upgraded to Knight First Class of the Order of the Dannebrog five years later. Jacobsen died at a Copenhagen hospice on 2 December 2010.