Thorkild Simonsen is a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 politician and member of the Social Democrats

Social Democrats (Denmark)

The Social Democrats , is a Danish political party committed to the political ideology of social democracy. It is the major coalition partner in Denmark's government since the 2011 parliamentary election, and party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt is the current Prime Minister of Denmark...

. He was mayor of Århus municipality from 1982 to 1997 and Interior Minister of Denmark from 1997 to 2000 in the Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen III

Cabinet of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen III

After the Centre Democrats left the government coalition in 1996, the sitting Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was able to form a government coalition of his own Social Democrats and the Danish Social Liberal Party...

 and IV

Cabinet of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen IV

After the 1998 Danish parliamentary election, the sitting Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was able to reform the government coalition of his own Social Democrats and the Danish Social Liberal Party...

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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

Prime Minister of Denmark

The Prime Minister of Denmark is the head of government in Danish politics. The Prime Minister is traditionally the leader of a political coalition in the Folketing and presides over the cabinet....

 Poul Nyrup Rasmussen

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen , informally Poul Nyrup, born 15 June 1943), was Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and is currently President of the Party of European Socialists . He was the leader of the governing Social Democrats from 1992 to 2002...

 had called for a tightening of the laws on immigration and refugee issues that the previous minister Birte Weiss refused to implement and caused her to resign in protest. 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

Danish People's Party

The Danish People's Party is a political party in Denmark which is frequently described as right-wing populist by political scientists and commentators. The party is led by Pia Kjærsgaard...

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