Position: Prime Minister of Denmark
Incumbent: Lars Lokke Rasmussen
Date of Birth: May 15, 1964
Term: Rasmussen succeeded Anders Fogh Rasmussen (no relation) in 2009 as leader of the centre-right Liberal Party and prime minister in the middle of a four-year term when Fogh Rasmussen became secretary-general of NATO. Rasmussen must hold a general election by mid-November 2011 at the latest, and opinion polls show he will face a tough challenge from the Social Democrat-led opposition.
Key Facts:
-- Rasmussen, who was finance minister in 2007-2009, has struggled to emerge from the shadow of former premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen who chose him to be his successor.
-- Inheriting the premiership rather than winning it in an election has meant that Rasmussen has had to overcome a credibility gap in the eyes of many Danish voters. A recent opinion poll showed 73 percent of Liberal Party supporters considered Fogh Rasmussen the party's best leader, while only 3 percent rated Lokke Rasmussen best.
-- He became prime minister in spring 2009 shortly after Denmark slid into its deepest economic crisis since World War Two, which drove the government into deficit and heavy borrowing from healthy surpluses.
-- Rasmussen worked to mitigate the effects of the crisis but unemployment climbed, public finances weakened, and banks turned to the state for aid in the form of a deposit guarantee and injections of capital.
-- In December 2009, eight months after taking office, Rasmussen's government hosted the U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen, which was roundly criticised as a failure after the talks abandoned hope of a binding agreement.
-- Rasmussen's coalition government with the Conservatives -- like its predecessors since 2001 -- has relied on the parliamentary support of the right-wing populist Danish People's Party in exchange for a strict policy on immigration. His plan to rehabilitate neighbourhoods with large numbers of immigrants has been dubbed a "ghetto plan," and a points system that would raise the bar for some immigrants has been among his most controversial proposals during his tenure.
-- Born in 1964, Rasmussen entered politics as head of the Young Liberals and as a municipal councillor in the mid-1980s. He took a law degree in 1992, won a seat in parliament in 1994 and joined the cabinet as minister for the interior and health in 2001. (Reporting by John Acher, editing by Mike Peacock)