Poul Schlüter

(b. Tønder, 3 Apr. 1929) Danish; chairman of the Conservative People's Party 1974 – 7, 1981 – 93, Prime Minister 1982 – 93 The son of a wholesale merchant, Schlüter went to school in Copenhagen and then on to university there. He was active in student politics and chaired the youth wing of the Conservative People's Party 1952 – 5. In 1957 he obtained his degree in law and in 1960 set up in legal practice in Copenhagen. Schlüter was elected to parliament as one of the members for Copenhagen in 1964 and held his seat until retiring in 1994. From 1966 to 1971 he served on the municipal council and as deputy mayor for Gladsaxe. In 1971 he was elected to his party's national executive committee, in 1974 – 82 to the chair of its parliamentary group. In this latter capacity he rapidly established a reputation as a pragmatic and skilful politician.

In 1982 Schlüter became the first Danish Conservative Prime Minister this century when Anker Jørgensen and the Social Democratic government resigned as a result of the economic crisis. Schlüter's political acumen helped him to stay in office at the head of successive and various non-socialist coalition governments for an uninterrupted span of eleven years. In 1993 however his incumbency came to an end as a result of the so-called Tamil affair, a refugee problem which eventually led to the prosecution of the former Minister of Justice.

Schlüter's international experience has included acting as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1965, as a member of the Council of Europe 1971 – 4, and as leader of the Danish delegation to the Nordic Council 1978 – 9. As Prime Minister he also of course served on the European Council of Ministers. Since 1994 he has been a member of the European Parliament, where he has been elected Vice-President.

Poul Schlüter
Prime Minister of Denmark
In office 10 September 1982 – 25 January 1993
Preceded by	Anker Jørgensen
Succeeded by	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
Born	3 April 1929 (1929-04-03) (age 80) Tønder, Denmark
Political party	Conservative People's Party
Religion	Lutheran/Church of Denmark

Poul Holmskov Schlüter (pronounced [pʰʌʊ̯l hʌlmsɡ̊ʌʊ̥ slyd̥ɐ], April 3, 1929) is a Danish politician, who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1982 to 1993.

Born in Tønder, south Jutland, he graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1957 with a degree in law, and joined the bar in 1960. Schlüter was a member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) for the Conservative People's Party from 1964 to 1994. He was also Chairman of the Conservative People's Party from 1974 to 1977 and from 1981 to 1993.

He became the first-ever candidate of his party to be appointed Prime Minister of Denmark in 1982, a position he held until 1993. During his time as Prime Minister, he was named "Nordic Politician of the Year" (in 1984). He has since been granted a large number of Danish and international awards and medals.

Previously, he had served as a member of the Council of Europe from 1971 to 1974, and had headed the Danish Delegation to the Nordic Council, where he served as a member of the Council Presidium, in 1978 and 1979. He retired as Prime Minister in 1993 after an inquiry found that he had misinformed the Danish Parliament. The case was known as the Tamil Case, (in Danish: "Tamilsagen"), as it involved asylum requests from Tamil refugees.

Following his retirement as Prime Minister, Schlüter served as a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1999, the first three years as Vice-President of the body.

In 2003, Schlüter was appointed by the Swedish Minister of Co-operation as her special envoy to promote freedom of movement in the Nordic countries. Poul Schlüter was to work on ways of increasing individual freedom of movement and present specific proposals to the Nordic Council Session in October 2003.

In 2004, Poul Schlüter co-founded the first Danish free-market think tank CEPOS, and gave the opening speech at CEPOS' opening reception at the Hotel D'Angleterre in Copenhagen.

Schlüter's autobiography, Sikken et liv (What a Life), was published in 1999 and has been reprinted several times.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Poul Schlüter

Political offices
Preceded by Anker Jørgensen	Prime Minister of Denmark September 10, 1982 – January 25, 1993	Succeeded by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
Preceded by Hans Peter Clausen	Justice Minister of Denmark October 3, 1989 – October 5, 1989	Succeeded by Hans Engell
Party political offices
Preceded by Erik Ninn-Hansen	Leader of the Conservative People's Party 1974–1993	Succeeded by Henning Dyremose

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Persondata
NAME	Schlüter, Poul Holmskov
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Prime Minister of Denmark
DATE OF BIRTH	1929-04-03
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tønder
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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