Rasmus Stoklund, known for his hardline views on asylum and refugees, has been appointed Minister of Immigration and Integration in a Danish government reshuffle.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced three changes to her cabinet on Tuesday in a reshuffle which saw Rasmus Stoklund appointed as Minister of Immigration and Integration.
Stoklund moves from the Tax Ministry to take his new portfolio. He was previously a spokesperson for immigration for the Social Democratic party, but has not been minister for the area before.
Outgoing immigration minister Kaare Dybvad Bek has been moved to the employment ministry, where he replaces Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, who is the new tax minister taking over from Stoklund.
The changes were announced in a statement from the Prime Minister’s office. Original plans for presentation of the reshuffle have been changed due to ongoing investigation of drone flights over Copenhagen Airport on Monday night, it said.
“The changes to the government were planned before the events of last night. In the light of the ongoing situation, the Prime Minister will not be participating in an audience at [royal residence] Amalienborg, and there will be no doorstep press briefing,” it said.
Stoklund took over as tax minister in August 2024 as part of the coalition government, having had a number of more junior spokesperson positions including Immigration. He was first elected to parliament in 2019.
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He was spokesperson for Immigration in the Social Democratic minority government which was in office from 2019-2022, with Mattias Tesfaye and later Bek appointed as the Immigration and Integration Minister.
During his time as spokesperson, Stoklund, like Tesfaye, cultivated an image for himself as a hardliner against immigration and supporter of strict policies on asylum and refugees.
He published a book last year in which he became the first member of parliament outside of the far right to suggest Denmark should ignore the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
In the book, he called for Denmark to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, which interprets the convention, so that it can deport criminals at risk of torture if they are returned to their home countries. Doing so would be in breach of the ECHR.
He also criticised the European Court of Human Rights for becoming “more activist” over time and for getting in the way of Denmark’s ability to pursue strict immigration policies.
While immigration spokesperson in 2021, he controversially said that the risk “a bomb might fall on [their] house” was not enough to justify Denmark giving asylum to Syrian refugees.
In 2022, he said Denmark should ease its controversial ‘jewellery law’ for refugees from Ukraine but not for people from the Middle East, saying Ukraine is in Denmark’s “nearby region.”
The formalities of the reshuffle will take place later this week.
It comes with little more than a year until Denmark next holds parliamentary elections, which must take place no later than the end of October 2026.