Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a Danish politician who was the prime minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the secretary general of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became founder of political consultancy Rasmussen Global and founded the Alliance of Democracies Foundation. He serves as a senior adviser to Citigroup. He also served as a senior advisor at the Boston Consulting Group.
Rasmussen was first elected to the Folketing in 1978 and served in various ministerial positions, including Minister of Tax and Minister of Economic Affairs. In his early career, Rasmussen was a strident critic of the welfare state, writing the classical liberal book From Social State to Minimal State in 1993. However, his views moved towards the political centre through the 1990s. He was elected the leader of the conservative-liberal party Venstre in 1998 and headed a centre-right coalition with the Conservative People's Party which took office in November 2001 and won its second and third terms in February 2005 and in November 2007. Rasmussen's government relied on the Danish People's Party for support, keeping with the Danish tradition of minority government.
His government introduced tougher limits on immigration and a freeze on tax rates. Certain taxes were lowered, but his coalition partners in the Conservative People's Party repeatedly argued for more tax cuts and a flat tax rate at no higher than 50%. Rasmussen's government implemented an administrative reform reducing the number of municipalities and replacing the thirteen counties with five regions which he referred to as "the biggest reform in thirty years". He authored several books about taxation and government structure.
He resigned as prime minister in April 2009 to become Secretary General of NATO, a military alliance that was expanding into Eastern Europe. His term ended on 30 September 2014. He was the first former prime minister since Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium in 1961 to become Secretary General of NATO.
He became a private consultant on the international stage. He is a Senior Network Member at the European Leadership Network.
Personal life
Rasmussen was born in 1953 in Ginnerup, Jutland, Denmark, to farmer Knud Rasmussen and Martha Rasmussen. His surname is Rasmussen; Fogh, his mother's maiden name, is his middle name and not considered part of his last name. He is correctly referred to as Rasmussen, unless his full name is used. In Danish media and society, he has often been popularly referred to as Fogh Rasmussen, or merely Anders Fogh, when not referred to by his full name, mainly to distinguish him from other prominent politicians in the country with the same family name.He matriculated in languages and social studies from Viborg Cathedral School, in 1969–1972 and studied economics at the University of Aarhus, graduating in 1978. He has been active in politics most of his life and has authored several books about taxation and government structure. He and his wife Anne-Mette married in 1978 and have three children and six grandchildren.
As an amateur cyclist, Rasmussen completed part of the notorious Alpe d'Huez stage of the 2008 Tour de France the day after the professional race took place. His attendance at Le Tour was at the invitation of Danish former cyclist Bjarne Riis.
He is of no relation to either his predecessor Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, nor his successor Lars Løkke Rasmussen as Prime Minister of Denmark.
Rasmussen received the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2017.
Early political career
He has held positions in government and opposition throughout his career, first winning a seat in the Folketing in 1978.Politics
In general, Rasmussen is in favour of centralisation, privatisation and limiting the size of government.Rasmussen wrote the book From Social State to Minimal State in 1993, in which he advocated an extensive reform of the Danish welfare system along classic liberal lines. In particular, he favours lower taxes and less government interference in corporate and individual matters. In 1993 he was awarded the Adam Smith award by the libertarian society Libertas, partly because of this book.
Resignation as Minister of Taxation
From 1987 to 1990 he was Minister for Taxation and from 1990 Minister for Economy and Taxation in the Conservative-led Poul Schlüter government.In 1992 Rasmussen resigned from his ministerial posts after a report from a commission of inquiry had decided that he had provided the Folketing with inaccurate and incomplete information regarding his decision to postpone payment of several bills from Regnecentralen and Kommunedata from one accounting year to the next. Rasmussen disagreed with the findings of the commission, but faced with the threat of a motion of no confidence, he left his posts voluntarily.
2001 election
His Liberal Party won power in the November 2001 election, defeating the Social Democratic government of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and enabling him to form his first cabinet. That election marked a dramatic change in Danish politics. It was the first time since 1920 that the Social Democratic Party lost its position as the largest party in the Folketing, mainly due to a loss of working class votes to Dansk Folkeparti.Prime Minister of Denmark
Following the 2001 election, Venstre formed a government in a parliamentary coalition with the Conservative People's Party to form a minority government with the parliamentary support of Dansk Folkeparti. Together these three parties survived both the 2005 election and the 2007 election.After becoming prime minister, Rasmussen distanced himself from his earlier writings and announced the death of neoliberalism during the national elections of 2005. Commonly regarded to have been inspired by the success of Tony Blair, Rasmussen now seemed more in favour of the theories of Anthony Giddens and his third way. There was talk in Libertas of revoking Fogh Rasmussen's award as a result of this, though this never happened.
His government enacted tough measures designed to limit the number of immigrants coming to Denmark, specifically as asylum seekers or through arranged marriages. However, his governments depended on the support of Dansk Folkeparti, and it is impossible to draw a clear dividing line between his personal ideology and the required compromises with Dansk Folkeparti.
Tax reform
After the 2001 elections, Venstre banned all tax increases. Venstre campaigned by claiming that taxes had been growing constantly during the previous eight years under the Social Democrats. While the overall tax burden was more or less unchanged from 1993 until 2001, there was a shift from the taxation of income, both corporate and personal, to a personal consumption, which gave the average citizen the impression of rising taxes.This "tax stop" was criticised by left wing parties, allegedly for being "antisocial" and "only for the rich." Since the tax stop also froze the tax on real property, it was beneficial to homeowners in densely populated regions that had experienced rising real estate values. The property tax was set at a nominal level – not at a relative level. While the rate was one percent when the tax stop was enacted, the rate is much less today when recent increases in property value are considered. The Danish Economic Council criticized this as unfairly benefiting current homeowners.
Even though the total tax burden was marginally higher in 2005 than in 2001, the tax stop was popular among voters. Thus, in January 2005, the Social Democrats announced that they accepted the principle of a tax stop until at least one right-wing party was willing to participate in tax reform.
The tax stop has, however, been ineffective, judging by Venstre's intentions. Its goal was to halt the growth of public expenditures, but even with cuts in public spending, overall spending continued to rise by approximately one percentage point above inflation each year.
From 2004 and onwards, minor tax cuts came into effect, on two accounts:
- People with jobs got a 3% tax reduction on the 5.5% "bottom tax".
- An "employment deduction" was introduced. This initiative was to encourage people to get off welfare and take jobs instead.
- The bottom limit of the "middle tax" of 6%, was raised by 12.000 DKK every year, over the next four years. This was supposed to limit the income stresses of middle incomes and families with children.