In a statement, the Prime Minister’s office confirmed that three new ministerial roles – as ministers for the green tripartite deal, a Europe minister and a minister for national security and disaster contingency – will be taken by Jeppe Bruus, Marie Bjerre and Torsten Schack Pedersen respectively.
Social Democrat Bruus and Liberal (Venstre) MP Bjerre leave their current ministerial roles to take on their new posts. Bruus was formerly tax minister and Bjerre minister for digitisation and equality.
Four new ministers, including Schack Pedersen, have meanwhile been promoted to give a record-high 25 ministers on the government’s new roster.
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The promotions include Social Democratic former political spokesperson and immigration hardliner Rasmus Stoklund, who becomes tax minister.
Caroline Olsen, a spin doctor for Moderate leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen, is the new digitisation minister, with Bjerre’s former brief now split.
Meanwhile, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen Sophie Hæstorp Andersen will leave that position to become Minister for Social Affairs and Housing, replacing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil. Rosenkrantz-Theil has said she will attempt to become the next mayor of Copenhagen by standing for election.
Hæstorp Andersen was previously an elected member of parliament before leaving in 2014 to become chairperson of the Greater Copenhagen health authority. She has been Lord Mayor of Copenhagen since 2021.
“I am proud and happy. In all the years I have been in politics I have worked for those who are most vulnerable,” the new social affairs minister told newswire Ritzau.
Moderate party leader Rasmussen, who is also foreign minister, said the reshuffle would strengthen the government and help implement the landmark “tripartite” agricultural deal, which was agreed in June and will see Denmark impose a world-first CO2 tax on emissions from farming.
“I am first and foremost pleased that we are strengthening the government in some important areas and improving the way we work,” he told media prior to attending an EU meeting in Brussels.
“The tripartite deal has an ambitious vision of how we reorganise Denmark”, he said, adding that it needs “a bus driver to get behind the wheel and keep to the timetable”.
He also praised the appointment of Bjerre as minister focused on European issues ahead of Denmark’s EU presidency in the second half of 2025.
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