Uffe Ellemann-Jensen (, informal: ; 1 November 1941 – 18 June 2022) was a Danish politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark in the Conservative-led

Poul Schlüter Poul Holmskov Schlüter (; 3 April 1929 – 27 May 2021) was a Danish politician who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1982 to 1993. He was the first member of the Conservative People's Party to become Prime Minister, as well as the first ...

Administration from 1982 to 1993. He was leader of the Danish

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 from 1984 to 1998 and President of the European Liberals 1995–2000. In 1998 Ellemann-Jensen founded

Baltic Development Forum The Baltic Development Forum is an independent think-tank and non-profit high-level and agenda-setting networking organisation with strategic partners and sponsors from large companies, major cities, institutional investors, business associatio ...

, a non-profit networking organisation dedicated to the business development of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

region. He was its first chairman from its founding to 2011, and was also honorary chairman following his resignation. He was also non-executive director of various boards of international companies.

Political career

A strong supporter of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

based upon his belief in Western cohesion, Ellemann-Jensen's stance led to many political battles with the left-wing opposition. Several times the opposition tried to topple him on issues of solidarity within NATO, but he survived. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen succeeded in convincing a majority in the Danish

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, the Folketinget, to actively support the U.S. led coalition against

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

during the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

. Furthermore, he led the Danish recognition of the renewed independence of the three Baltic countries in 1991, when Denmark was the first country to re-establish diplomatic relations with the three countries. In 1992, Ellemann-Jensen, together with his German colleague Hans-Dietrich Genscher, took the initiative to create the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty. In September 1992, Ellemann-Jensen and other senior officials visited southern

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

, one of the first foreign delegations to do so since the start of

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

there the year before. After the fall of the centre-right government, in which he also served as Deputy Prime Minister, in 1993 following the

Tamil case The Tamil Case (Danish: Tamilsagen) was a case about family reunification in Denmark of Tamil refugees from the Sri Lankan Civil War. The affair led to the resignation of the government led by Poul Schlüter in 1993. The scandal was first uncove ...

, outgoing prime minister Poul Schlüter attempted to have Ellemann-Jensen appointed acting prime minister until

Henning Dyremose Henning (surname), Henning is a surname, also used as a given name, with origins in East Prussia (now part of Germany). Henning may also refer to: People with Henning as a surname * A. J. Henning (born 2002), American football player * Andrew ...

(Conservative) could take over, but the attempt was dropped as royal cabinet secretary

Niels Eilschou Holm Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Saint ...

considered the maneuver unconstitutional. Instead, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen ( Social Democrats) was appointed prime minister following a "

Queen's round The politics of Denmark take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state in which the monarch of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II, is the head of state. Denmar ...

", and Ellemann-Jensen became leader of the opposition. Ellemann-Jensen was leader of the opposition until the 1998 general election, which he lost with a single seat. If his party had only 85 more votes, he would have been able to form a new centre-right government as Prime Minister. He decided then to leave politics and his successor as the leader of Venstre was Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who became Prime Minister of Denmark in 2001. The new active Danish foreign policy continued after Ellemann-Jensen's ten-year term as Foreign Minister and ultimately became a turning point in Danish foreign and defence policy. It later became known as the '' Ellemann-Jensen doctrine''. In 1995, Ellemann-Jensen was a candidate for the post of

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of NATO when

Willy Claes Willem Werner Hubert "Willy" Claes (; born 24 November 1938) is a Belgian politician who served as the eighth Secretary General of NATO, from 1994 to 1995. Claes was forced to resign from his NATO position after he was found guilty of corruptio ...

was forced to leave the role. He got the support of the U.S. government, but France blocked his candidature, preferring the Spanish candidate, Javier Solana. Ellemann-Jensen never tried to hide his disappointment with not getting the post that he had wanted all his political life. He participated eight times in the

Bilderberg conference The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defin ...

s: 1984, 1987 and every year between 1993 and 1998. After leaving politics, Ellemann-Jensen became a columnist for the Danish daily '' Berlingske Tidende'' and a contributor to

Project Syndicate Project Syndicate is an international media organization that publishes and syndicates commentary and analysis on a variety of global topics. All opinion pieces are published on the ''Project Syndicate'' website, but are also distributed to a wi ...

. Ellemann-Jensen became a central figure in the controversy following the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten's decision to print 12 satirical images of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

in September 2005. In his column, only days after the cartoons were printed, he argued that he thought the cartoons represented an "unnecessary provocation", believing they constituted in themselves a caricature of Denmark's "cherished

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

". Ellemann-Jensen remained in that position all through the controversy at the same time never missing an opportunity to support the Danish Prime Minister's stance that the government could not and should not take punitive action against the newspaper.

Personal life

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was the son of a member of 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 ...

. In 1971, his first marriage was dissolved and he married . He had four children, among them Jakob Ellemann-Jensen and

Karen Ellemann Karen Ellemann Kloch, formerly Karen Ellemann Karabian, (born 26 August 1969 in Charlottenlund) is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Venstre political party. She is a former minister, having held the positions of Mini ...

. He was an avid

hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

and fly fisher.

Awards

On 18 December 2002, Ellemann-Jensen was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Dannebrog. On 12 February 2010, Ellemann-Jensen received the highest accolade of the Republic of Macedonia, the

Order 8-September Order 8-September is a high Macedonian distinction. It is named in honor of 8 September, the Independence Day of North Macedonia. The awards are basic stellate shape with dimensions of 81 mm. It is awarded to Heads of State, parliaments and gove ...

for his contribution to the strengthening of Danish-Macedonian relations and for promotion of Macedonia in its initial years of independence in the early 1990s.

Illnesses and death

In 1989, Ellemann-Jensen underwent surgery for two spinal disc herniations in his neck, but broke two

cervical vertebrae In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In ...

during the operation; subsequently, he wore a neck brace for half a year. He had a stent inserted in his heart and, following a

blood clot A thrombus (plural thrombi), colloquially called a blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of c ...

, a

pacemaker An artificial cardiac pacemaker (or artificial pacemaker, so as not to be confused with the natural cardiac pacemaker) or pacemaker is a medical device that generates electrical impulses delivered by electrodes to the chambers of the heart eith ...

. He had another blood clot in an

IC3 The IC3 (or class MF) is a Danish-built high-comfort medium/long distance diesel multiple-unit train. The sets were built by ABB Scandia (later purchased by Adtranz, which itself was subsequently acquired by Bombardier Transportation) in Rand ...

train to

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

in 2003, after which he stopped smoking. He furthermore had

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. He had a

tumor A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

that pressed against his

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spi ...

removed in 2019. In a 2021 interview with Ellemann-Jensen, it was reported that an "old cancer ..was stirring again", and referring to his health problems, he stated that he was "a wandering example of medical science's progress". In August 2021, the thenfully vaccinated Ellemann-Jensen was admitted to hospital with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

for three weeks; he was then in further treatment for two weeks. Ellemann-Jensen had a successful

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

surgery at an apparently early stage of the disease in January 2011. Subsequently, however, the cancer flared up again, and on 13 June 2022 he was admitted to

Rigshospitalet Rigshospitalet (meaning ''The National'', ''State'' or ''Hospital of the Realm'', but not usually translated) is the largest public and teaching hospital in Copenhagen and the most highly specialised hospital in Denmark. The hospital's main buildi ...

, where he died on 18 June at the age of 80.

Bibliography

* ''De nye millionærer'' (''The new millionaires''), 1971 * ''Det afhængige samfund'' (''The dependent society''), 1972 * ''Hvad gør vi ved Gudenåen?'' (''What should we do about Gudenåen''), 1973 * ''Den truede velstand'' (''The threatened wealth''), 1974 * ''Økonomi'' (''Economy''), 1975 * ''Da Danmark igen sagde ja til det fælles'' (''When Denmark once more said yes to the common''), 1987 * ''Et lille land, og dog'' (''A small country, or perhaps not''), 1991 * ''Olfert Fischer i Golfen'' ('' Olfert Fischer in the Gulf''), 1991, with Sv. E. Thiede * ''Din egen dag er kort'' (''Your own day is short''), 1996 * ''Rent ud sagt – indfald og udfald'' (''Plainly spoken – ideas and attacks''), 1997 * ''Sådan set'' (''In a manner of speaking''), 1997 with Erik Werner * ''EU – derfor'' ('' EU – the reason''), 1998 * ''Ude med snøren'' (''Having the fishing line out''), 2001 * ''Østen for solen'' (''East of the sun''), 2002 * ''FODfejl'' (''Stepping in it''), 2004 * ''Ude med snøren – fisk og mennesker jeg har mødt'', 2004, , autobiography featuring recreational fishing * ''Vejen, jeg valgte'', 2009, * ''Nu gik det lige så godt, men så gik verden af lave'', 2009, , about the effects of the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

References

;Comments ;Citations ;Literature *

External links

CV of Chairman Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
at the website of

Commentary by Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
at the website of

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellemann-Jensen, Uffe 1941 births 2022 deaths Foreign ministers of Denmark Members of the Folketing People from Assens Municipality Venstre (Denmark) politicians Leaders of Venstre (Denmark) Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class Grand Crosses of the Order of the Dannebrog Recipients of Nersornaat Commanders Grand Cross of the Order of the Polar Star Grand Crosses of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau Grand Crosses of the Order of Prince Henry Order of Duke Trpimir recipients Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic