Born to a fisherman father and a book-keeper mother, she grew up with her younger sister in Hirtshals in the north of Jutland, on Denmark’s mainland. She attended Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada. She later became the first in her family to graduate from university.
Political career
Espersen was the first person in her family to join a political party. A member of parliament from 1994, she served as Minister of Justice from 27 November 2001 to 10 September 2008 and as Minister of Economic and Business Affairs from 10 September 2008 to 23 February 2010. Espersen served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 23 February 2010 to 3 October 2011, making her Denmark’s first female foreign minister and the only woman in such a post in the EU at the time. Espersen was the leader of the Conservative People's Party and Deputy Prime Minister from 9 September 2008 to 13 January 2011. On 13 January 2011, she announced at a press conference at 19.00 pm, briefly after her arrival in Denmark, that she would not continue as leader of The Conservatives. The announcement came after months of increasing pressure, where various issues regarding her work ethics, had gained national attention, and decreasing support in opinion polls for The Conservative party. During her tenure as political leader, support for the Conservative People's Party was reduced from around 10% to below 5%. On 14 January, Lars Barfoed succeeded Lene Espersen as political leader of the Conservative People's Party.
When Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005, Espersen defended its right to publish and labelled Muslim extremism more dangerous than climate change. In 2012, in her capacity as foreign minister, she met with 17 ambassadors from Muslim countries as part of efforts to prevent any new cartoon crisis and to foster understanding.
Controversy
In 2006, Espersen caused controversy when she was stripped of her parliamentary immunity after crashing into a woman on a scooter. She was subsequently banned from driving and fined €150.
