Claus Hjort Frederiksen (born 4 September 1947) is a Danish politician of the Venstre party, who served as the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

Minister for Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

from 2016 to 2019, and as

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

from 2015 to 2016, having previously served in that position from 2009 to 2011, as member of the first Løkke Rasmussen Cabinet. From 2001 to 2009, he was Minister of Employment in the

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second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

, and third cabinets of

Anders Fogh Rasmussen Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of polit ...

. He is a member of the

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

party Venstre. He was a member of the Danish Parliament

Folketinget The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands a ...

since

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

until 2022. Hjort was one of the main strategist behind the strategy shift in Venstre following the defeat in the 1998 general election known as the so-called Hjort doctine (

: ''Hjort-doktrinen'').

Early life

He graduated in Law from

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

Political career

Frederiksen served as party secretary of ''Venstre'' 1985–2001, and as such he served as Fogh Rasmussen's closest advisor in creating the political program that eventually led to Fogh Rasmussen's ascent to the office of Prime Minister. The political program involved a closer relationship and dependency on the

Danish People's Party The Danish People's Party ( da, Dansk Folkeparti, DPP/DF) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Denmark. It was formed in 1995 by former members of the Progress Party (FrP). The DPP lent its support to the Venstre– C ...

and Frederiksen has notedly remarked that there exists a special community of values between said party and ''Venstre''. Frederiksen was first elected into the Folketing in the 2005 election, and was reelected in the following elections in 2007,

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Controversies

In 2009 radio journalist Jesper Tynell won the

Cavling Prize The Cavling Prize is a prestigious Danish journalist award. It is awarded annually in January to "a journalist or a group of journalists who have shown initiative and talent in the past year." It is generally considered the most prestigious priz ...

for a series of 15 radio spots in DR P1's ”Orientering” showing heminister's less democratic methods". Among the revelations were: * Claus Hjort Frederiksen (as Minister of Employment) gave the parliament false information. * The Minister abolished the requirements to foreign worker safety in dangerous jobs - in secret and outside parliament. * The Ministry asked the municipal administers to rule (the so-called 300-hour rule) in an illegal manner. * The Ministry ordered misleading figures from Arbejdsmarkedsstyrelsen to turn the public debate to their advantage. * Officials deleted incriminating documents from the Ministry's own archives.

Treason charges

In January 2022, Claus Frederiksen announced he had been charged with violating a section of the

Danish penal code The Danish Penal Code, also known as the Danish Criminal Code ( da, Straffeloven),Retsinformation.dStraffeloven./ref> is the codification of and the foundation of criminal law in Denmark. The updated official full text covers 29 chapters and is als ...

which includes

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

for leaking state secrets, which carries a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. According to his party, Frederiksen was charged with leaking information to the media. Though the specifics of the leaked information is not publicly known, many have speculated it is related to interviews wherein Frederiksen revealed information about Danish cooperation with the American

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

References

External links

*
Official website
, - , - , - 1947 births Politicians from Copenhagen Living people Venstre (Denmark) politicians Government ministers of Denmark Employment ministers of Denmark Danish Finance Ministers Danish Defence Ministers Members of the Folketing 2005–2007 Members of the Folketing 2007–2011 Members of the Folketing 2011–2015 Members of the Folketing 2015–2019 Members of the Folketing 2019–2022 {{Denmark-politician-stub