Uffe Elbæk (born 15 June 1954) is a Danish politician,

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

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journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, and

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. In 2013, he founded the

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

political party The Alternative, which he led until February 2020. He is an independent 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 ...

. From 3 October 2011 to December 2012, he served as the Danish

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

. He was originally a member of the

Danish Social Liberal Party The Danish Social Liberal Party (, RV, ) is a Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Denmark, political party in Denmark. The party was founded as a split from the Venstre (Denmark), Venstre Reform Party in 1905. Histori ...

, but left in September 2013 to launch The Alternative with Josephine Fock. Elbæk announced on 16 December 2019 that he would stand down as political leader of The Alternative on 1 February 2020. After leaving The Alternative's leadership, Elbæk subsequently left the party completely before joining with two other Alternative parliamentarians to form the new Independent Greens in September 2020. He was succeeded by Josephine Fock.

Early career

Born in Ry, Denmark, Elbæk is the founder and former Principal of the KaosPilots International School of New Business Design and Social Innovation, located in Aarhus. The KaosPilots school inspired the creation of several international schools located in Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. He was also one of the initiators for the cultural entrepreneur-milieu called Frontløberne. From 2007 to 2009, Elbæk served as the CEO of the 2009 World Outgames. In July 2010, Elbæk founded the consulting company Change The Game with focus on leadership training skills, political campaigning, and social innovation concepts.

Political career

Elbæk won a seat in the Folketing for the

in the 2011 Danish parliamentary election. On 3 October 2011, he was appointed Culture Minister of Denmark in the government cabinet of

Helle Thorning-Schmidt Helle Thorning-Schmidt (; born 14 December 1966) is a Danish retired politician who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to have held each p ...

. He resigned from his minister position in December 2012 after criticism for holding five official gatherings at the organization AFUK - Akademiet For Utæmmet Kreativitet, where he previously held a chairman post, and where his husband was employed. He was later acquitted of all charges by the national audit agency of Denmark which concluded he hadn't had a conflict of interest. The Ministry was instead criticized for some other facets related to the case.

The Alternative (2013–2020)

On 27 November 2013, Uffe Elbæk hosted a press conference where he announced the formation of a new "green" political party named The Alternative. The Party did not have a traditional political program, but wanted to develop it together with the citizens through so called "political laboratories". In the spring of 2014, 20 political laboratories were conducted all over Denmark, where more than 700 citizens participated. Shortly after, on 24 May, the first

crowdsourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

political program became a reality. '' ink to the first edition. Newest edition is here:' . The political program is updated regularly as the specific policies are developed through the political laboratories, and then verified and endorsed by the unit of political decision-makers in the Alternative, Politisk Forum (The Politic Forum). On 23 February, Uffe Elbæk made use of

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

to break the news that The Alternative had gathered enough signatures to become eligible to take part in the forthcoming parliamentary election. This was officially confirmed and accepted by the Interior Ministry on 23 March, when the party was granted the acceptance on the electoral lists. At the Parliamentary election on 18 June, the Alternative obtained 4.8% of the votes (168,788), which gave them nine seats in the parliament. Uffe Elbæk received 18,796 personal votes, thereby attaining the 10th-most personal votes this election. He was nominated by the party to run for

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

in the election, but lost to the leader of the Social Democrats,

Mette Frederiksen Mette Frederiksen (; born 19 November 1977) is a Danish politician who has been the Prime Minister of Denmark, prime minister of Denmark since June 2019, and Social Democrats (Denmark)#Leaders of the Social Democrats, leader of the Social Democr ...

. In addition to Uffe Elbæk, the members of the parliamentary group of The Alternative include Carolina Maier, Josephine Fock, Christian Poll, Torsten Gejl, Rasmus Nordqvist, Ulla Sandbæk, Roger Matthisen, and René Gade.

Independent Greens (2020–2022)

In March 2020, Elbæk along with Sikandar Siddique, Susanne Zimmer, and

Niko Grünfeld Niko Grünfeld (born 13 March 1975 in Sønderborg) is a Danish politician. He served as Mayor of Culture and Leisure to the Copenhagen Municipality from January to October 2018 for The Alternative (Denmark), The Alternative political party, which ...

, left The Alternative after allegations that leader Josephine Fock had verbally abused members of the party. Fock had been elected to succeed Elbæk in February. On 7 March, a slim majority in the central board gave Fock their support, with ten voting for and seven against. Following the decision, the party's local branch in Elbæk's constituency demanded that he publicly express full support of Fock, or they would withdraw their support of Elbæk. On 9 March, Elbæk left the party, saying he "no longer recognized" the party he founded. The four formed the Independent Greens as a "responsible, climate-conscious and anti-racist party," and Siddique was elected leader. In late November 2021, Elbæk, together with Katarina Ammitzbøll, aided former Hong Kong lawmaker Ted Hui, who was under criminal investigation, to obtain a visa to leave Hong Kong. Hui used this opportunity to self-exile, as he announced shortly after arriving. Danish reports said that Hong Kong authorities would seek to have Ammitzbøll and Elbæk extradited.

Return to The Alternative (2022)

Ahead of the Next Danish general election, new Alternative leader Franciska Rosenkilde called for a united green list including The Alternative, the Independent Greens, and the Vegan Party, as all three green parties were polling below the electoral threshold and there was a chance of no green representation in the

. Siddique, however, dismissed the plan. Elbæk later called for the Independent Greens and Alternative to merge, and eventually rejoined the old party, reducing the number of sitting FG MPs to two.

Personal life

Elbæk is openly

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

, and lives in a

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with

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

Jens Pedersen, with whom he lives in

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...

. Elbæk also has a son and a stepson from previous relationships. He is a member of LGBT Danmark and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

Views

Elbæk supports a

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

(UBI).

References

External links

*
Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elbaek, Uffe 1954 births Living people People from Skanderborg Municipality Danish Social Liberal Party politicians The Alternative (Denmark) politicians Independent Greens (Denmark) politicians Ministers for culture of Denmark Danish LGBTQ politicians Danish gay men Gay politicians LGBTQ legislators Members of the Folketing 2011–2015 Members of the Folketing 2015–2019 Members of the Folketing 2019–2022 Leaders of political parties in Denmark Political party founders