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Poul Nyrup Rasmussen , informal: (born June 15, 1943 in Esbjerg) was the Prime Minister of Denmark from January 25, 1993 to November 27, 2001, and is currently a Member of the European Parliament and President of the Party of European Socialists (PES). He was the leader of the governing Social Democratic Party from 1992 to 2002 where he was succeeded by Mogens Lykketoft. The loss of power in the 2001 election to Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Venstre party was the first time since 1920 that his party had lost its position as the largest party in the Folketing (parliament). Rasmussen currently sits as an MEP after winning a record number of 407,966 votes for an individual (from Denmark) in the European Parliamentary elections in 2004. Rasmussen recently announced his intention to seek a further 2.5 year term as President of the PES. No challenger has yet come forward. The election will take place at the PES Congress in Porto on December 8th, 2006. His government presided over the referendum on Danish participation in the Euro on September 28, of 2000. Participation in the Euro was rejected by 53.2% of the electorate. The defeat of this major government initiative was seen as a serious blow to his credibility. The social democratically led government of Rasmussen made use of limited classical Keynesianism in connection with the so-called kick-start of 1993-94 as its economic policy. Denmark experienced under Rasmussen the most comprehensive radical privatization of publicly owned assets in the 20th century. He was born to a working class family in Esbjerg in 1943. He was educated at the University of Copenhagen, earning a degree in 1971. He enjoys: (according to his official website) Ella Fitzgerald, Maria Callas, Elvis Presley, The Olsen Brothers, Mozart, Bach, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Jesper Thilo and spending time with his wife and grandchild.
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