Thorkild Simonsen (7 July 1926 – 4 September 2022) was a Danish politician and member of the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

. He was mayor of

Århus 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 ...

from 1982 to 1997 and

Interior Minister of Denmark The Minister of the Interior and Health of Denmark ( da, Indenrigs- og sundhedsminister) is a member of the Danish cabinet and the head of the Ministry of the Interior and Health. After the 2007 Folketing elections, the ministry was disbanded, ...

from 1997 to 2000 in the Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen III and IV. Simonsen was a member of Århus city council from 1966 to 1997 and mayor from 1 January 1982 to 1997, when he left the position to become Minister of Interior Affairs.

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen Poul Oluf Nyrup Rasmussen (, informally Poul Nyrup, born 15 June 1943) is a retired Danish politician. Rasmussen was Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) from ...

had called for a tightening of the laws on immigration and refugee issues that the previous minister

Birte Weiss Birte Weiss (born 1 May 1941) is a Danish journalist and social democrat politician, who served in various capacities in the government of Denmark. She works as a journalist for the newspaper ''Weekendavisen''. Early life and education Weiss wa ...

refused to implement and caused her to resign in protest.Skou, Kaare R. (2005). ''Dansk politik A-Å'' . Aschehoug, pp. 608-609. . Although Simonsen was not a member of parliament, he was the problem solver that Nyrup Rasmussen hoped would be able to bring greater clarity to the government's policy on the immigration and refugee issues, issues on which the government had received considerable criticism in particular by 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 ...

. Simonsen died on 4 September 2022, at the age of 96.

References

Thorkild Simonsen
Biography from

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 ...

. Retrieved on 2007-09-16. 1926 births 2022 deaths Danish Interior Ministers Mayors of places in Denmark Social Democrats (Denmark) politicians People from Aarhus {{Denmark-mayor-stub

See also

References