Birte Weiss

{{Short description|Danish journalist and politician (born 1941)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| image =

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| office = Minister of Interior

| primeminister =

| predecessor =

| successor = Thorkild Simonsen

| term_start = 1993

| term_end = 20 October 1997

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1941|5|1|df=y}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

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| party = Social Democrats

| alma_mater = University of Copenhagen

| spouse =

| nationality = Danish

| occupation = Journalist }}

Birte Weiss (born 1 May 1941) is a Danish journalist and social democrat politician, who served in various capacities in the government of Denmark. She works as a journalist for the newspaper Weekendavisen.

Early life and education

Weiss was born on 1 May 1941.{{cite web|title=Danish government of 2001|publisher=VIPS|access-date=22 April 2013

|url=http://vipsgov.chez.com/denmark.htm}}{{cite thesis|author=Anna Michalski|title=A reluctant partner: The pattern of Denmark's involvement in the European Community|degree=PhD |url=http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1377/|location=London School of Economics and Political Science|year=1995|page=173}} She was trained as a journalist with the social democrat press from 1960 to 1963. Later she attended the University of Copenhagen and studied there comparative literature.

Career

Weiss began her career as a journalist, working for Demokraten and then for Information. Next she involved in politics and became a member of the Danish Parliament for the Social Democrats for two terms; from 1971 to 1973 and from 1975 to 2001. She was the chairperson of the council of Denmark’s Radio/TV from 1981 to 1986.{{cite web|title=List of Danish female ministers|work=Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership|access-date=22 April 2013|url=http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/Danmark_List.htm}} She served as the deputy chairperson of the social democrats from 1994 to 1996 and first vice-chairperson of the Parliament from 1998 to 1999.

She assumed various cabinet positions. Her first ministerial post was the minister of interior, and she served in the office from 1993 to 1997. She resigned from the post on 20 October, and Thorkild Simonsen succeeded her in the post.{{cite journal|author=Jens Rydgren|title=Radical Right-wing Populism in Denmark and Sweden|journal=The SAIS Review of International Affairs|date=Winter–Spring 2010

|volume=30|issue=1|page=64|jstor=27000210|author-link=Jens Rydgren}} She was also the minister of church affairs which she held from 1994 to 1996. She was appointed minister of health in 1996, and her tenure lasted until 1998.{{cite book|editor=Arthur S. Banks

|editor2=Alan J. Day|editor3=Thomas C. Muller|title=Political Handbook of the World 1998|year=2016|publisher=CSA Publications|isbn=978-1-349-14951-3|pages=257–258|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6mFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA257|location=Binghamton, NY}} Lastly she served as the minister of research and information technology from 1999 to 2001.

=Activities=

When she was the interior minister Weiss delivered a bill in 1996, stating that a foreigner, who is guilty of drug-related crime, should be deported from Denmark.{{cite news|title=Report to the UN on Discrimination and Racism in Denmark|access-date=22 April 2013|work=The Torch

|url=http://www.faklen.dk/english/racism_and_xenophobia/somalia.php}} A documentary, En minister krydser sit spor (Danish: A Minister Backtracks), filmed by Danish director Ulrik Holmstrup in 2000 is about her activities as interior minister.{{cite web|title=En minister krydser sit spor|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0352588/|work=IMDb|access-date=9 September 2013}} It narrates the dilemma she faced in dealing with Bosnian refugees in the country.