Johnny Søtrup (born 21 July 1949) is a Danish politician. A member of Venstre, Denmark's Liberal Party, he has been mayor of

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

since 1994.

Career as Esbjerg's mayor

In 1994, against all expectations, Søtrup was elected mayor of

in the southwest of

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, Denmank, toppling the well established Social Democrats and heading 16 members of the Venstre party on the city council. In July 1999, Søtrup hit the headlines as he returned from Athens with an Olympic torch as Esbjerg hosted the summer edition of the

European Youth Olympic Days The European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) is a biennial multi-sport event for youth (14 to 18 years old) athletes from the 50 member countries of the association of European Olympic Committees. The festival has a summer edition, held for the fir ...

. In November 1999, he oversaw the transfer of

Esbjerg Harbour The Port of Esbjerg on the southwest coast of Jutland is a competitor to Aarhus and Hamburg for freight. Built by the State in 1868, it was once Denmark's principal fishing harbour but today has become Europe's leading port for shipping offshore ...

Esbjerg Municipality Esbjerg Municipality () is a municipality (Danish, '' kommune'') in Region of Southern Denmark on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. Its mayor is Jesper Frost Rasmussen, from the Venstre (Center-Right Party) political pa ...

. Under Søtrup's mayoralty, in 2003 work began on the extension of the Esbjerg Sports Park ( Esbjerg Idrætspark), including the construction of a stadium stand seating 3,500. In 2004, Søtrup expressed satisfaction at the city council's approval of Esbjerg's gigantic Dokken project with a conference centre and a 125-meter tower which would be Denmark's tallest building. He was also delighted to hear in May 2006, as a result of its strong support for talented young people, Esbjerg had been selected by

Jyllands-Posten ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulat ...

as Danish City of the Year. The city had also received the award in 1997. Søtrup's city council decided to further improve Esbjerg's sports facilities in 2008 with the allocation of DKK 105 million for a new football stadium accommodating 18,000. Søtrup qualified the design as Denmark's finest. In 2009, Søtrup embarked on his fifth term as mayor, consolidating his position and his success in bringing culture and jobs to the city of Esbjerg. He suffered a heart attack in August 2011 and was hospitalized in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

. He was soon back at work, encouraging the establishment of off-shore and wind-turbine firms in the area with the promise of new jobs. By contrast, he experienced one of his most difficult days in May 2012 when Danish Crown announced the closure of its Esbjerg meat-packaging plant affecting 500 employees. The municipal elections in November 2013 brought Søtrup further success when he received 10,677 personal votes, some 8,000 more than John Snedker, his Social Democrat rival.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotrup, Johnny Venstre (Denmark) politicians Mayors of places in Denmark Living people 1949 births People from Esbjerg