His party won just 14 seats in Denmark’s elections, but that gives Lars Lokke Rasmussen all the power: he is kingmaker in the scramble to form a government, his latest winning gamble after 40 years in politics.

No party won the majority in Tuesday’s vote, meaning that under Denmark’s parliamentary system the different blocs are now in talks to form the next governing coalition — which neither left nor the right are able to do without the support of his Moderates.

“That man just has nine lives in politics,” Aarhus University political scientist Rune Stubager told AFP.

Lokke, as the 61-year-old is commonly known in Denmark, is at home in the spotlight. He is often seen smoking a pipe and is popular with Danes for his straight-talking, jovial style and passion for cycling in the home of Tour de France winners Bjarne Riis and Jonas Vingagaard.

After serving as Liberal leader for 10 years — during which time he served twice as prime minister — he quit the party in 2021 after internal conflicts.

He went on to found the Moderates Party, positioning it at the centre of the political spectrum.

“He is a very skilled politician who also has a clear personal following,” said Stubager. “That’s why he was able to leave the Liberal Party … create his new party the Moderates and lead it to success.”

– International experience –

After the 2022 election, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen formed an unprecedented left-right government including the Moderates. The seasoned Lokke Rasmussen clinched the prestigious job of foreign minister.

He was broadly praised in the role, despite scandals that tarnished the party’s image and saw it occasionally hover dangerously close to the two percent level of voter support required to be represented in parliament.

In one of his most high-profile missions, Lokke Rasmussen led Denmark’s delicate negotiations with the United States over US President Donald Trump’s desire to annex Greenland. Trump said the US needed the Danish autonomous territory for reasons of national security.

Lokke Rasmussen’s ardent defence of Danish interests helped boost his party’s popularity, from 3.3 percent in mid-January to 7.7 percent in Tuesday’s election.

Today, he finds himself right where he wants to be.

“He has found a position that many voters find attractive, this centrist position of cooperating between the two traditional blocs,” said Stubager.

– Twice premier –

Born in central Denmark in 1964 to an accountant father and a stay-at-home mother, Lokke Rasmussen is a lawyer by training who entered parliament in 1994.

Head of the county council of the Frederiksborg region north of Copenhagen in 1998, he became the deputy head of the Liberal party that year.

Abandoning his ultra-liberal ideas, he served as health and interior minister from 2001 to 2007, before taking over the finance portfolio in 2007.

That year, the then Liberal leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen — to whom he is not related — designated him the party’s heir apparent.

In 2009, at the age of 44, he became the Scandinavian country’s youngest ever prime minister — a record Frederiksen went on to beat in 2019 — when Fogh Rasmussen was appointed NATO secretary general.

But in 2011, voters tired of a decade of right-wing rule and ousted his government. He nevertheless stayed as Liberal leader and went on to serve as prime minister again from 2015 to 2019, before quitting the party in 2021.

A shrewd politician, Rasmussen has weathered many a political storm, including a scandal over his use of party funds to buy expensive suits.

Never one to shun the spotlight, he recently posted a photo of himself on Instagram with a goat, which commentators interpreted as his desire to proclaim himself the “GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time).

cbw/ef/po/st/jj