Mogens Lykketoft (; born 9 January 1946) is a Danish politician who served as Leader of the Social Democrats (''Socialdemokraterne'') from 2002 to 2005. He succeeded Poul Nyrup Rasmussen as party leader. After losing the 2005 parliamentary election, he resigned his office. In the Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen I, II,

III III or iii may refer to: Companies * Information International, Inc., a computer technology company * Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company * 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company Other uses * Ins ...

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 Frederiksberg Gymnasium is an upper secondary school ( Danish gymnasium) in the Frederiksberg district of Copenhagen, Denmark. Its current building, located just off Falkoner Allé, was inaugurated in 2004 to a design by Henning Larsen Architects. ...

, 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 An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sc ...

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 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 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 Svend Gunnarsen Auken (; 24 May 1943 – 4 August 2009) was a Danish politician. He represented the Social Democrats as a member of the Danish parliament (Folketinget) from 1971 until his death. He was married to journalist and editor Bettina H ...

. Five years later he was more successful when his new candidate, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, 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,

, 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 politi ...

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 Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

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 list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

(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 ...

(2014),

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

(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 wit ...

(2013), The

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

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 Washi ...

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 Guate ...

(2014), Palestine (2014),

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

(2013),

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, (2013),

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...

(2012),

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...

(2012),

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

(2012) and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

(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 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 The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

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. 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 and was next-door neighbors to his good friend Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and his family. in January 1979 Aase Lykketoft died from an intracranial hemorrhage. 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 Jytte Hilden (born 12 September 1942) is a Danish chemical engineer and politician ( Social Democrats). She was elected member of the Folketing from 1979 to 1998, and was appointed Minister for Culture in Poul Nyrup Rasmussen's first Cabinet F ...

. From 1993 to 1997 they were both ministers in the Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen ( I, II,

). 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