Anders Fogh Rasmussen resigned as Denmarks prime minister on Sunday, handing over the reins to his namesake finance minister a day after he was named Natos next secretary general. Rasmussen, leader of a centre-right coalition since 2001, was on Saturday named the next head of the transatlantic alliance, succeeding Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands who steps down at the end of July.
Rasmussen tendered his resignation to Queen Margrethe at the royal palace in Copenhagen during a brief half-hour meeting, making no comment to the crowds or journalists gathered outside.
Just afterwards, Finance Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen - no relation - held an even shorter meeting with the queen to confirm his appointment. "Its a big responsibility that Im taking on, and I know some think its too big for me. To those people I want to say that Im going to work hard ... to lead Denmark through the current financial crisis," he told reporters. The new prime minister, 44, is Denmarks youngest-ever head of government.
Under Denmarks electoral system, in which parties rather than individual politicians are elected to parliament, the constitution does not require new elections to be called if the prime minister resigns. Only a vote of no confidence or the resignation of the entire government automatically prompts snap polls, Henning Koch, a constitutional law professor at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP. Rasmussens appointment as Natos secretary general came after Turkey dropped its opposition to his nomination at a 60th anniversary Nato summit in Strasbourg on Saturday following last-minute wrangling.
Turkey had opposed his nomination because he invoked freedom of expression in defending a Danish newspapers right to print cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005, and refused a Turkish request that he close a Denmark-based Kurdish television channel. While Rasmussen long refused to confirm his Nato candidacy, he appears to have been laying the groundwork for the next Danish administration for some time, preparing for his namesake to take over his job.
The pair - both members of the Liberal Party - earlier Sunday met with the governments junior coalition partner, the Conservatives, and parliamentary ally the Danish Peoples Party to ensure Loekke Rasmussen had their support. Anders Fogh Rasmussens departure is nonetheless expected to leave a political void in the Scandinavian EU member state, observers say.
"There has rarely been a Danish leader who has so completely dominated the political scene as Anders Fogh, by pushing through his strategy and holding an iron grip on his centre-right coalition," Thomas Larsen, a political commentator at the Berlingske Tidende daily newspaper, told AFP. Lars Loekke Rasmussen will likely "pursue the same domestic and foreign policy" as his predecessor, but Anders Fogh Rasmussens departure would nonetheless mark "the end of an era," Larsen said.
Recent polls have suggested that if an election were held today, the left-wing opposition led by the Social Democrats would win. The government must call a general election before November 12, 2011.
Loekke Rasmussen said in the minutes after his appointment Sunday that he planned to build on his predecessors policies. "Ill continue on the same path as Anders Fogh Rasmussen to work for a richer and fairer Denmark. There will be no political difference," he said.
His top priority would be a cabinet reshuffle to replace himself as finance minister and a social affairs minister who resigned Friday. Another top item on his agenda was to "keep the welfare state alive, but build a bridge between the modern persons need to stand on their own two feet and to take care of those who need it."
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