Helle Thorning-Schmidt was elected Denmark’s First Woman Premier

Danish opposition leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt emerged victorious in the elections held on 15 September 2011 and will take over as the country's first female Prime Minister. She belongs to the Social Democrats party. The result ended the center-right government's 10 years in office.

Thorning-Schmidt succeeded Lars Lokke Rasmussen who submitted his resignation to Queen Margrethe on 16 September 2011.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt became a social democrat during her studies in Belgium and joined the Danish Social Democrats in 1993. From 1994 to 1997 she led the secretariat of the Danish delegation of social democrats in the European Parliament. After her time in Brussels she worked as an international consultant with the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions until being elected MEP in 1999.

 She was a Member of the European Parliament in the 1999–2004 period. During the five year term, she was a member of the Employment and Social Committee and the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament. She also co-founded the Campaign for Parliament Reform (CPR).

In the 2005 Danish parliamentary election Thorning-Schmidt was elected to the Folketing (national parliament of Denmark). Since 2005 she has represented a constituency in a part of the Danish capital Copenhagen called Osterbrokredsen.

She led the Social Democrats through the 2007 Danish parliamentary election where her party suffered modest losses and was forced into a third term in opposition. The party was also unable to regain its position as the largest party in the Folketing.

In the 2011 parliamentary election, she was relected to parliament. Although the ruling Liberal Party became the largest party and gained a seat and the Social Democrats lost a seat, the opposition parties combined obtained more seats than the government coalition.