Isabella Arendt
Isabella Arendt Laursen is a Danish politician, who is chairman of the Christian Democrats, and the party's spokesperson for child and family policy. Arendt lives in Copenhagen and is currently studying political science at Copenhagen University. She ran unsuccessfully for the Danish parliament, Folketinget, in the 2011 and 2015 elections. In both elections, the Christians won less than the 2% electoral threshold, and did not get any seats in the Folketing. After the 2011 election, she was briefly a member of the Danish Social Liberal Party.
On 7 May 2019, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced that the 2019 election would be held on 5 June. A debate with all the party chairmen, including Stig Grenov of the Christian Democrats, was set to take place the following evening. However, Grenov became malaised shortly before the debate and Arendt, then deputy chairman, had to take his place. Arendt was hailed for her performance, and dubbed the "substitute from heaven". On May 13, one week into the election campaign, Grenov took a leave of absence due to stress, and Arendt was appointed acting chairman during the rest of the election campaign. Arendt was at the top of the party's list in the East Jutland constituency, but was not elected. Despite doubling its share of the vote compared to the previous election, the Christian Democrats still fell below the 2% threshold.
In 13 October 2019, she was elected chairman of the Christian Democrats. She has been acting leader since the election, as Grenov shortly thereafter announced, that he would extend his leave of absence until the party's congress in October.
