Lars Løkke Rasmussen

Lars Løkke Rasmussen (; born 15 May 1964) is a Danish politician serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Leader of the Moderates since 2022. He previously served two non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Denmark between 2009 and 2011 and then again between 2015 and 2019, and as Leader of Venstre between 2009 and 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 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 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. 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 lead Denmark during the 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. 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 right-wing 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 U.S. President Donald Trump, Washington, D.C., 30 March 2017

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. , 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.

After the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, Rasmussen said, "Iran must never develop nuclear weapons," and "the U.S. acted to prevent this." He urged the parties to return to negotiations to avoid further escalation.

In January 2026, Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic foreign minister Vivian Motzfeldt met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Vice President JD Vance to discuss the US threats of conquering Greenland. Following the meeting, he stated that "not respecting Greenland's territorial integrity is completely unacceptable" and that the two countries still had "fundamental differences" about the issue. He also described the meeting as constructive despite the differences on the matter.

Controversies Tax spending Rasmussen has on several occasions been accused of spending tax payer money on himself and his family. In the spring of 2008, he was accused by the media - essentially the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet - of having charged his official accounts with considerable expenses he should have paid himself, e.g. restaurants, cigarettes, taxis, and hotels, both as county mayor and as minister. All of this has been well documented, according to several independent media sources, although all charges were dropped and there was never a court trial. It was something that was according to the rules of the party Venstre. In May 2007, Rasmussen was again accused by Ekstra Bladet of having his ministry pay for a hotel room in Copenhagen when he privately attended a Paul McCartney concert in Horsens in 2004. Since the many serious scandals surrounding Rasmussen were brought to the attention of the public, Venstre has suffered in the polls.

Global Green Growth In 2013, the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) was criticized by two member countries for its financial management: Norway withheld $10 million in donations, citing excessive spending on flights and food by GGGI former Council Chairman Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and both Norway and Denmark demanded an Audit of the organization's finances before renewing support for 2014. Rasmussen was, as the chairman, accused of being greedy, while the other members of GGGI were not accused.

School pressure In 2018, Rasmussen's wife Sólrun Løkke Rasmussen, facing termination from her job as a teacher, was called to a meeting with the head of the school where she worked. Rasmussen, as his wife's civil assessor, accompanied her to the meeting, along with his bodyguards. His wife was fired at the meeting. The case resulted in criticism as Rasmussen's presence, as then-Prime Minister, could be perceived as inappropriate pressure on the school leader; for meetings of this sort, it is usually the union representative that functions as the civil assessor.

Little Danes Experiment

While prime minister, in response to calls from Greenland for a formal investigation into and an apology from the Danish government regarding the 1951 Little Danes Experiment, where Inuit children were stolen from their families to be "re-educated" into Danish culture, Rasmussen refused to make an apology. Instead, he said that: "History cannot be changed. The government regards the colonial period as a closed part of our shared history. We must be pleased with the fact that times have changed." Just as Rasmussen refused to apologise, so too did following prime ministers of Denmark, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt declined to participate in an investigation. In 2019, two Greenlandic members of the Folketing made demands: Aaja Chemnitz (Inuit Ataqatigiit) demanded that an apology be made, and Ineqi Kielsen (Siumut) demanded that an investigating commission be made. As a result of Kielsen's request, Rasmussen agreed with Greenlandic prime minister Kim Kielsen to create a commission, though he again refused to make an apology.

Accusations of attempted bribery In June 2025, a video tape was leaked by Mads Brügger, revealing that Rasmussen offered former Moderate MP Mike Fonseca about 370.000 Danish kroner in exchange for Fonseca leaving the Folketing and giving his mandate to the Moderate Party, after Fonseca was revealed to be in a relationship with a 15-year old girl. Afterwards, chairman of the Citizens Party Lars Boje Mathiesen filed a motion of no confidence against Rasmussen, and Rasmussen was also reported to the Danish Police by lawyer Klaus Ewald.

Kirsten Birgit was not allowed to joke about Løkke and alcohol For New Year’s 2026, the well-known comedian Frederik Cilius, in his role as the outspoken Kirsten Birgit, was set to deliver a roast for a New Year recap program on the channel TV2 Charlie. Frederik Cilius had been told he had free rein in his performance. However, TV 2 became concerned about a number of crude jokes about the country’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s drinking habits, as they feared they could be defamatory, and therefore asked for them to be removed from the roast.

Frederik Cilius, however, refused to agree to this, and as a result, the collaboration was terminated. Instead, comedian Lasse Rimmer delivered an edited roast. This led to a public debate, both about political freedom of expression and about Lars Løkke’s widely known alcohol abuse.

Personal life His son Bergur Løkke Rasmussen was a Member of the European Parliament from 2022-2024, and is currently a member of the Regional Council of the Capital Region of Denmark.

Honours National honours

Foreign honours Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (2017) Sash of Special Category of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (2016) Grand Gwanghwa Medal of the Order of Diplomatic Service (2011)