Denmark Officially Appoints First Woman Prime Minister
Denmark’s queen Sunday appointed the country’s first woman prime minister after Social Democratic leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt reached a deal on a coalition cabinet with two other parties.
"I have been asked to form the next government," Thorning-Schmidt, 44, daughter-in-law of former British Labor party leader Neil Kinnock, said as she left the Royal Palace to applause from some 400 bystanders.
Thorning-Schmidt said the new government with the Social Liberal and Socialist People’s parties would appoint its ministers on Monday.
The presentation of the government platform and ministers on Monday will come in time for Thorning-Schmidt to give the prime minister’s speech at the opening of parliament on Tuesday, as required by the Constitution.
The three parties have been negotiating to form a government since the September 15 general elections which gave the center-left a wafer thin victory over the center-right government of Liberal leader Lars Loekke Rasmussen.
The three parties of the new center-left government have 77 seats in parliament, but with the support of the left-wing Red Green Party, they have a total of 89 seats. The former center-right government and its supporters have a total of 86 seats.
A majority in the 179-seat Folketing is 90 seats, with the final four seats reserved for two representatives each from the autonomous overseas territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Three of these seats are center-left, while one is center right, assuring the Helle Thorning-Schmidt administration of a majority.
A news blackout on new government policy has been in place since negotiations began, but some policy indications have emerged in recent days.
According to Danish media, the previous government’s reform of the early retirement system will remain in place as will the 24-year-rule for the introduction of foreign spouses but within a relaxed immigration policy.
Climate policy is to be introduced calling for a record reduction in CO2 levels, and as well as a package to kick-start the economy.
Source: Agence France Presse
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