Mogens Lykketoft (; born 9 January 1946) is a Danish politician who served as Leader 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 ...

(''Socialdemokraterne'') from 2002 to 2005. He succeeded

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 ...

as party leader. After losing the 2005 parliamentary election, he resigned his office. In the Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen I, II, III and IV which governed from 1993 to 2001, he held positions as

Finance Minister 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", ...

and Foreign Minister. During the cabinet of Helle Thorning Schmidt from 2011 to 2015 he was Speaker of the Folketing. In June 2015 he was unanimously elected the President of the United Nations General Assembly presiding over the 70th session of the General Assembly beginning 15 September 2015.

Early life

Lykketoft was born out of wedlock and put up for adoption. He was adopted twice, since his first adoptive father died when he was only a few months old. The second time he was adopted by shopkeeper Axel Lykketoft and Martha Lykketoft. He was the only child in the family and had, according to himself, a safe and secure childhood. Lykketoft matriculated in mathematics from Frederiksberg Gymnasium, an upper secondary school, in 1964 and went on to study at the University of Copenhagen. In 1971 he became Cand.polit. (a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in economics by the University of Copenhagen). At Copenhagen University Lykketoft became a member of Frit Forum, the Social Democratic student organisation. From 1965 to 1970 he was part of its management committee and he was its national chairman for the academic year 1968/69. From 1975 to 1981 he was department head in "The Economic Council of the Labour Movement", a Danish think tank made up of trade union leaders and Social Democratic MPs. He had been working at the think tank since 1966.

Political career

Member of the Folketing

On 20 January 1981 Prime Minister

Anker Jørgensen Anker Henrik Jørgensen (13 July 1922 – 20 March 2016) was a Danish politician who served at various times as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Denmark. Between 1972 and 1982 he led five cabinets as Prime Minister. Jørgensen was Presiden ...

picked him to be Taxation Minister. He was minister for less than 20 months before the Social Democratic government resigned. In the 1981 general election he became MP for the

Copenhagen County Københavns Amt () is a former county (Danish, ''amt'') on the island of Zealand (''Sjælland'') in eastern Denmark. It covered the municipalities in the metropolitan Copenhagen area, with the exception of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg. Effective ...

constituency. He has been member of the Folketing (the Danish parliament) ever since, standing for election eleven times. Since 2007 he has been representing Greater Copenhagen greater constituency. In 1987 he unsuccessfully tried to be kingmaker at the election of a new leader of the Danish Social Democrats. The attempt put him in opposition to the new leader Svend Auken. Five years later he was more successful when his new candidate,

, challenged and defeated Auken at an extraordinary congress of the Social Democrats. After the resignation of the Conservative/Liberal government in January 1993 Lykketoft became Finance Minister in the cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen ( I, II, III, IV). He is the longest serving Finance Minister in modern Danish history. He became Foreign Minister in December 2000 and continued as such until the government lost the general election of 2001. After Poul Nyrup resigned Lykketoft was elected Leader of the Social Democrats, a position he held until he failed to unseat the Liberal/Conservative government 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 ...

at the general election of 2005. From 2005 to 2011 he was the Foreign Policy Spokesman for the Social Democratic parliamentary group.

Speaker of Folketing

In October 2009 he became member of "the Præsidium of the Folketing" (the unified leadership of the Danish parliament). And after the election victory of the Socialist-

Social Democrat 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 soc ...

- Social Liberal coalition in the 2011 general election he became President of the Parliament of Denmark. As President or Speaker of the Folketing he has been on official visits to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

(2014),

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

(2014), Slovakia (2013),

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

(2013), The Bundestag in Berlin (2013) and The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

in Washington (2012). He has also been on work visits to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

(2014), Palestine (2014), Mongolia (2013), Burma, (2013), Albania (2012), Bulgaria (2012), Vietnam (2012) and Indonesia (2012).

UN General assembly

In 2013 Lykketoft was nominated to the position of President of the United Nations General Assembly by the Danish government. He was the only official candidate for the

WEOG The Group of Western European and Other States, also known as the Western European and Other States Group or WEOG, is one of the five United Nations regional groups and is composed of 28 Member States mainly from Western Europe, but also from ...

group. When elected he will not resign as a Danish MP but rather take a leave of absence returning to the Folketing after his UN appointment has ended. He will run for office in the upcoming Danish general election.

Israel/Palestine visit

During his February 2014 visit to Palestine he did not at the same time meet with Israeli officials, this made the speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein express regret of the fact that Lykketoft unlike other world leaders decided not to include Israel in his visit of the region. Edelstein further said: ''"I do not understand how a visit to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, goes along with Denmark's democratic values."'' Lykketoft said that he was keen to hear both parts in the conflict and he had tried to schedule a meeting with the

speaker of the Knesset The Speaker of the Knesset ( he, יוֹשֵׁב רֹאשׁ הכנסת, Yoshev Rosh HaKnesset, Chairman of the Knesset) is the presiding officer of the Knesset, the unicameral legislature of Israel. The Speaker also acts as President of Israel whe ...

. But he was told that Edelstein was unable to meet him during his visit. During an interview Lykketoft stated: ''"There was this Israeli reaction from the spokesman in the foreign ministry that it was kind of diplomatically impolite to go to Palestine without having an arrangement with the Israeli side."'' In December 2014 he was asked his opinion about the Swedish recognition of an independent Palestine state. He answered the interviewer:''"I think the movement in European parliaments and from the government of Sweden to recognize the State of Palestine is a reaction to the observation that the present Israeli government has no intention to contribute to formation of a sovereign Palestinian state, while this is expressed by the vast majority of member states in the United Nations through numerous resolutions."''

Personal life

He was married for the first time in 1967 to librarian Aase Toft. The family lived in

Albertslund Albertslund is a Copenhagen suburb in Albertslund Municipality, Denmark. It is located west of central Copenhagen, with a population of around 30,000. Albertslund is a planned community or new town mainly built in the 1960s and 1970s. The s ...

and was next-door neighbors to his good friend

and his family. in January 1979 Aase Lykketoft died from an

intracranial hemorrhage Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), also known as intracranial bleed, is hemorrhage, bleeding internal bleeding, within the Human skull, skull. Subtypes are intracerebral bleeds (intraventricular bleeds and intraparenchymal bleeds), subarachnoid bleed ...

. He has two children from his first marriage, Maja, born in 1969, and Kit, born in 1972. He also has five grandsons. Two years after his first wife died he got married for the second time, this time to Helle Mollerup, the ex-wife of Poul Nyrup. In 1986 he divorced Helle Mollerup and later married MP Jytte Hilden. From 1993 to 1997 they were both ministers in the Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen ( I, II, III). They divorced in 2004. Since 2005 Lykketoft has been married to author Mette Holm. They have written three books together.

Publications

*Editor of "Magtspil og Sikkerhed" (Power Play and Security), 1968 *Editor of "Kravet om lighed" (The Demand for Equality), 1973 *Author of "Skattereform '78?" (Tax Reform '78?), 1978 *Co-author of "Anno 2001 – en socialdemokratisk science fiction" (Anno 2001 – Social Democratic Science Fiction), 1986 *Author of "Sans og samling – en socialdemokratisk krønike" (Sense and Cohesion – A Social Democratic Chronicle), 1994 * Author of "Den danske model – en europæisk succeshistorie"
The Danish Model – a European success story
, 2006 * With Mette Holm **"Kina drager" (China allures), 2006 **"Kina – Kapitalisme med særlige kinesiske kendetegn" (China – Capitalism the Chinese way), 2008 **"Burma Myanmar", 2012

References

External links