Lars Boje Mathiesen^da (born 21 May 1975) is a Danish politician who has been an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

member of the Danish Parliament, the

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 ...

, since March 2023. Previously a member of the Nye Borgerlige (New Right) political party before his expulsion in 2023, he was first elected to the Folketing at the 2019 general election for the Nye Borgerlige and again at the

2022 general election The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2022. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2022 United Nations Security Council election * 2022 national electoral calendar * 2022 loca ...

. In February 2023, he succeeded

Pernille Vermund Ann Pernille Vermund Bretton-Meyer (born 3 December 1975) is a Danish architect ( MAA) and politician, being a member of the Folketing since 2019. She is known for co-founding and being the leader of the national-conservative political party Ny ...

as leader of the Nye Borgerlige, but was dismissed and expelled from the party in March after disputes over remuneration and campaign finances.

Background

Boje was born on 21 May 1975 in Skive and is the son of musician Peter Boje Mathiesen and Inge Burmølle Mathiesen. He grew up on a disused farm near Ribe, according to his own statement in a

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

family. He is a trained primary schoolteacher, having studied at Ribe Seminarium and Nørre Nissum Seminarium in 2000 to 2005. He worked as a primary schoolteacher at various schools from 2005 to 2019. As a teacher, he has taught

social studies In many countries' curricula, social studies is the combined study of humanities, the arts, and social sciences, mainly including history, economics, and civics. The term was coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as ...

, English,

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and

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. He studied

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and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

in the

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. Previously, he had his own hotel and café in Ribe.

Political career

Liberal Alliance (2013–2016)

Boje's career in politics started in 2013, where he was elected into

Aarhus Municipality Aarhus Municipality (), known as Århus Municipality () until 2011, is a ''Municipalities of Denmark, kommune'' in the Central Denmark Region, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and ...

's municipal council, as a member of Liberal Alliance. He left the party in 2016 and, after a short unaffiliated period, joined Nye Borgerlige. He chose not to stand again in the next local election, but instead to seek a seat in the

Nye Borgerlige (2016–2023)

Lars Boje Mathiesen was elected a member of the Folketing at the 2019 general election on 5 June for East Jutland. In May 2021, he caused a social media backlash when he compared the right to free menstrual products to having "underpants in public toilets" in case someone soils themselves, a comparison that was described as "pure nonsense" by Charlotte Wilkens, chief physician at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at

Hvidovre Hospital Hvidovre Hospital is a hospital in Hvidovre near Copenhagen in Denmark. It is administered by the Capital Region of Denmark. The hospital was built from 1968 to 1979 and was officially opened on March 26, 1976. The hospital stands out for not ...

Leadership (February–March 2023)

On 10 January 2023,

announced her intention to step down as leader of Nye Borgerlige, explaining her resignation with a desire to get her "life and family back". At an extraordinary national executive (''hovedbestyrelse'') meeting on 17 January, Boje announced his candidature for the leadership post, receiving support from most of the parliamentary group. On 25 January 2023, it was announced that no other candidate than Boje had entered the race. Consequently, he unanimously assumed office at the party's convention in

Fredericia Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region Denmark, Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vej ...

on 7 February 2023. Some commentators predicted that the election of Boje would move the party towards a less pragmatic, less national conservative and more liberal and

protest party A protest vote (also called a blank, null, spoiled, or "none of the above" vote) is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or the current political system. Protest voting takes a variety of forms a ...

-like position, though Boje himself stated that he would continue the political line of Vermund. However, he remained only party leader for a month, as on 10 March it was announced that the national executive of Nye Borgerlige had, the day prior, unanimously chosen to dismiss Boje as party leader and expel him from the party because of disputes over remuneration and campaign finances. At the same time, Vermund conveyed her willingness to once again take over as party leader and to run in the next general election. In October 2023, she was unanimously elected as party chairman once more. As a side effect of Boje's expulsion, the party is set to lose a substantial part of its public funds, effective after 12 months.

Citizens' Party (2023 onwards)

Boje continued in the Folketing as an independent. On 12 April 2023, Boje hinted at the possibility of founding his own party. On 28 August 2024, he announced a new party, The Citizens' Party. On 17 December 2024, it had obtained the 20,195 signatures required to obtain ballot access for the next Danish election. The party formally obtained ballot access on 15 January 2025, and was assigned the party letter H by the

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathiesen, Lars Boje Living people 1975 births Danish municipal councillors People from Skive Municipality The New Right (Denmark) politicians Members of the Folketing 2019–2022 Members of the Folketing 2022–2026