Søren Gade Jensen (born 27 January 1963) is a Danish
politician
A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
Folketing
The Folketing ( , ), 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 and Greenland. E ...
from 2001 to 2019 and again in
2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
. Before entering politics, he was a military officer and businessman. He was formerly a
Member of the European Parliament
A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...
from 2019 to 2022.
He was also CEO of the Danish business organization ''Landbrug & Fødevarer'' from 2012 to 2014.
Political career
Minister of Defence, 2004–2010
Gade served as
Defence Minister
A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...
from 2004 to 2010, when he replaced Svend Aage Jensby. During his time in office, he led Danish efforts to maintain public support for the deployment of 750 troops in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
. Gade resigned from his position due to a long time conflict with the media after the publishing of a fake Arabic translation of
Thomas Rathsack
Thomas Rathsack is a lecturer and former member of the Danish Jaeger Corps.
He served with the Royal Life Guards as a sergeant before getting accepted into the Jaeger Corps in 1990. After retiring from the army he worked as a photographer and ...
's book, telling the defence's methods in the Afghan war.
Member of the European Parliament, 2019–2022
Gade was elected to the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
in
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
. A member of the
Renew Europe
Renew Europe (or simply Renew) is a liberal, centrist to centre-right, pro-European political group of the European Parliament founded for the ninth European Parliament term. The group is the successor to the Alliance of Liberals and Dem ...
group, he served as chair of the
Committee on Fisheries
The Committee on Fisheries (PECH) is a committee of the European Parliament.
Chris Davies was the chairman (2019 – 2020) - until the United Kingdom left the European Union.
Committee mandate
PECH is the European Parliament committee responsi ...
and as member of the
Committee on Transport and Tourism
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...
. Within the Committee on Transport and Tourism, he was part of the Tourism Task Force (TTF). In 2020, he also joined the Special Committee on Beating Cancer.
In addition to his committee assignments, Gade was the chair of the Parliament's delegation for relations with
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
.
Return to national politics
In 2022, following his re-election to the Folketing, a majority of parties supported Gade's candidacy for the position of speaker of the Folketing. Gade was officially confirmed as speaker on 16 November 2022.
Controversy
In 2015, the newspaper ''
Jyllands-Posten
(; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies.Blackwater whose contractors killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 in
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
's Nisour Square in 2007.
Other activities
*
European Leadership Network
European Leadership Network (ELN) is a pan-European think-tank focusing on European foreign, defence and security issues based in London, United Kingdom.
History and organisation
The ELN was founded as part of a project by the Nuclear Security ...
(ELN), Member of the Advisory Board
Personal life
In January 2008, Gade lost his wife Helle Buskbjerg Poulsen after years of cancer.