Lars Boje Mathiesen (born 21 May 1975) is a Danish politician who has been an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

member of the Danish Parliament, the

Folketing 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 ...

, since March 2023. Previously a member of the

Nye Borgerlige New Right ( da, Nye Borgerlige) is a national-conservative and right-wing populist Danish political party. The party was founded in the autumn 2015 by Pernille Vermund and Peter Seier Christensen. In the 2019 general election New Right won four ...

(New Right) political party before his expulsion in 2023, he was first elected to the Folketing at the 2019 general election for the Nye Borgerlige and again at the

2022 general election The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2022. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2022 United Nations Security Council election * 2022 national electoral calendar * 2022 local ...

. In February 2023, he succeeded

Pernille Vermund Ann Pernille Vermund Tvede (born 3 December 1975) is a Danish architect ( MAA) and politician known for co-founding and being the leader of the national-conservative political party Nye Borgerlige from 2015 until 2023. She was previously affili ...

as leader of the Nye Borgerlige, but was dismissed and expelled from the party in March after disputes over remuneration and campaign finances.

Background

Boje was born on 21 May 1975 in Skive and is the son of musician Peter Boje Mathiesen and Inge Burmølle Mathiesen. He grew up on a disused farm near Ribe, according to his own statement in a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

family. He is a trained primary schoolteacher, having studied at Ribe Seminarium and Nørre Nissum Seminarium in 2000 to 2005. He worked as a primary schoolteacher at various schools from 2005 to 2019. As a teacher, he has taught social studies,

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and

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. He studied

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and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

in the

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. Previously, he had his own hotel and café in Ribe.

Political career

Liberal Alliance (2013–2016)

Boje's career in politics started in 2013, where he was elected into

Aarhus Municipality Aarhus Municipality ( da, Aarhus Kommune), known as Århus Municipality ( da, Århus Kommune) until 2011, is a municipality in Central Denmark Region, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area ...

's municipal council, as a member of Liberal Alliance. He left the party in 2016 and, after a short unaffiliated period, joined Nye Borgerlige. He chose not to stand again in the next local election, but instead to seek a seat in the

Nye Borgerlige (2016–2023)

Lars Boje Mathiesen was elected a member of the Folketing at the 2019 general election on 5 June for

East Jutland East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

. In May 2021, he caused a social media backlash when he compared the right to free menstrual products to having "underpants in public toilets" in case someone soils themselves, a comparison that was described as "pure nonsense" by Charlotte Wilkens, chief physician at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at

Hvidovre Hospital Hvidovre Hospital is a hospital in Hvidovre near Copenhagen in Denmark. It is administered by the Capital Region of Denmark. The hospital was built from 1968 to 1979 and was officially opened on March 26, 1976. The hospital stands out for not ...

Leadership (February–March 2023)

On 10 January 2023,

announced her intention to step down as leader of Nye Borgerlige, explaining her resignation with a desire to get her "life and family back". At an extraordinary national executive (''hovedbestyrelse'') meeting on 17 January, Boje announced his candidature for the leadership post, receiving support from most of the parliamentary group. On 25 January 2023, it was announced that no other candidate than Boje had entered the race. Consequently, he unanimously assumed office at the party's convention in

Fredericia Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vejle. It was founded in 16 ...

on 7 February 2023. Some commentators predicted that the election of Boje would move the party towards a less pragmatic, less national conservative and more liberal and

protest party A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoilt vote, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current politics, political system. Protest voting take ...

-like position, though Boje himself stated that he would continue the political line of Vermund. However, he remained only party leader for a month, as on 10 March it was announced that the national executive of Nye Borgerlige had, the day prior, unanimously chosen to dismiss Boje as party leader and expel him from the party because of disputes over remuneration and campaign finances. At the same time, Vermund conveyed her willingness to once again take over as party leader and to run in the next general election. In October 2023, she was unanimously elected as party chairman once more. As a side effect of Boje's expulsion, the party is set to lose a substantial part of its public funds, effective after 12 months. Boje continued in the Folketing as an independent. On 12 April, Boje hinted at the possibility of founding his own party.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathiesen, Lars Boje Living people 1975 births Danish municipal councillors People from Skive Municipality The New Right (Denmark) politicians Members of the Folketing 2019–2022 Members of the Folketing 2022–2026