Mai Villadsen (born 26 December 1991) is a Danish politician who is a member of 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 the

2019 Danish general election General elections were held in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark on 5 June 2019 to elect all 179 members of the Folketing; 175 in Geography of Denmark, Denmark proper, two in the Faroe Islands and two in Greenland. The elections took place te ...

. Villadsen served as the political spokesperson of the

Red–Green Alliance In politics, a red–green alliance or red–green coalition is an alliance of "red" (often social-democratic or democratic socialist) parties with "green" (often green and/or occasionally agrarian) parties. The alliance is often based on commo ...

from 2021 until 2023. She was succeeded in this role by Pelle Dragsted.

Early life

Villadsen grew up in the town of Kibæk, which is one of the places in Denmark where the

has the lowest voter turnout. She is the daughter of primary school teachers Jørn Sloth Andersen and Lisbeth Ejby Villadsen. Villadsen has mentioned her grandmother, who was a seamstress and active in trade union life, as her inspiration to enter politics. Villadsen attended Kibæk School from 1997 until 2007 and became a student at Gefion Gymnasium in 2011, but without subsequently completing a higher education.

Career

From 2013 until 2015, Villadsen was employed as a youth consultant in the trade union HK Denmark, where she worked in organising young people in the professional community and advised members in connection with dismissals. From 2015 until 2019, she was a political adviser in the Red–Green Alliance. Around the same time, she worked as an external lecturer at

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

CEVEA, and in the period 2015 until 2017 as an external project manager and lecturer at DeltagerDanmark. The work consisted, among other things, of training young professional activists in debate and organisation. Villadsen was elected into parliament at the 2019 election, where she received 2,572 votes. On 10 February 2021, she became the new political spokesperson for the Red–Green Alliance, after

Pernille Skipper Pernille Skipper (born 10 July 1984) is a Danish former politician. She was a member of the Folketing from 2011 to 2022, and was political spokesperson for the Red–Green Alliance from 2016 to 2021, succeeding Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen. In 2021 s ...

. Despite the Red-Green Alliance losing four seats at the

2022 Danish general election General elections were held in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark on 1 November 2022, except in the Faroe Islands, where they were held on 31 October as 1 November was a national day of mourning for victims at sea. Of the 179 members of the Fo ...

, Villadsen was re-elected receiving 10,822 personal votes. On 22 August 2023, Villadsen left office as the political spokesperson of the Red-Green Alliance. Her replacement Pelle Dragsted was hailed as ‘capable, visionary and committed’ as he put forward a revitalised party manifesto.

References

External links

Biography on the website of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget)
Living people 1991 births People from Herning Municipality Red–Green Alliance (Denmark) politicians Women members of the Folketing 21st-century Danish women politicians Members of the Folketing 2019–2022 Members of the Folketing 2022–2026 Leaders of political parties in Denmark {{Denmark-politician-stub