Poul Schlüter Explained

Poul Holmskov Schlüter (, 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.