Social Democrat Premier Picks Wammen as New Danish Finance Chief
Social Democrat PM Picks Wammen as New Danish Finance Minister
(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s new prime minister named a 20-member all-Social Democratic cabinet that features Nicolai Wammen, a former mayor seen as fiscally responsible, as the Nordic country’s next finance minister.
Wammen, who has also had two brief stints as as European Minister and Defense Minister, will have his work cut out trying to mediate between the competing demands of the government’s parliamentary allies. The center-left bloc won the June 5 elections by promising greater spending on welfare, education and combating climate change. Their 18-page agreement is thin on details, stating only that the government will seek to keep the nation’s public finances in balance in 2025 and 2030.
Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the Social Democrats and the country’s youngest prime minister, also named Jeppe Kofod, a prominent member of the European Parliament, as foreign minister.
The business minister, who will oversee the country’s banks, was named as Simon Kollerup, a 33-year-old career politician.
The cabinet is seen as fairly young and inexperienced, with an average age of 41.8, according to TV2, a Danish broadcaster.
But Frederiksen insisted she had built a team of skilled, hardworking and diligent individuals who like to “get up early and go to bed late.”
The 41-year-old was congratulated via Twitter by Donald Tusk, the European Union’s president. Frederiksen will make her debut on the EU stage on Sunday, when she is expected to take part in a special summit on the bloc’s top jobs.
Frederiksen heads a minority government that relies on the parliamentary support of three other center-left parties, the left-wing Red-Green Alliance, the center-left Socialist People’s Party and the centrist Social Liberals. The last time the Social Democrats governed alone was in the early 1980s.
Frederiksen’s cabinet has seven women, including herself. It has two fewer ministers than the previous center-right government of Lars Lokke Rasmussen. Here is the full list of the new cabinet:
- Prime Minister: Mette Frederiksen
- Finance Minister: Nicolai Wammen
- Foreign Minister: Jeppe Kofod
- Justice Minister: Nick Haekkerup
- Social and Interior Minister: Astrid Krag
- Tax Minister: Morten Bodskov
- Energy Minister: Dan Jorgensen
- Food and Fisheries Minister: Mogens Jensen
- Health Minister: Magnus Heunicke
- Transport Minister: Benny Engelbrecht
- Development Minister: Rasmus Prehn
- Children and Education Minister: Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil
- Defense Minister: Trine Bramsen
- Research and Science Minister: Ane Halsboe-Jorgensen
- Business Minister: Simon Kollerup
- Integration Minister: Mattias Tesfaye
- Employment Minister: Peter Hummelgaard
- Housing Minister: Kaare Dybvad
- Environment Minister: Lea Wermelin
- Culture Minister: Joy Mogensen
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Rigillo in Copenhagen at nrigillo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christian Wienberg at cwienberg@bloomberg.net;Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net
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