Erik Eriksen (November 20, 1902 – October 7, 1972) is a former Prime Minister of Denmark. Eriksen was leader of the Danish Liberal party Venstre from 1950 to 1965. He served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 30 October 1950 to 30 September 1953 as leader of the Cabinet of Erik Eriksen forming a minority government of Venstre and the Conservative People's Party. Erik Eriksen was a farmer by profession.
The main accomplishment by his government was a revision of the Danish constitution, voted into law in a referendum held in 1953 simultaneously with the parliamentary elections. In addition, a family allowance law was passed in 1952. The former Venstre leader and former Prime Minister Knud Kristensen had broken away from Venstre to form his own party, De Uafhængige. This was one of reasons why the social democrat Hans Hedtoft was able to secure the parliamentary support to replace Erik Eriksen as Prime Minister and form the Cabinet of Hans Hedtoft.
After 1953 Eriksen continued as the leader of the opposition but in the long run his consequent alliance with the Conservatives proved an obstacle to a co-operation with Det Radikale Venstre. He therefore resigned as the leader of his party 1965 and was replaced by Poul Hartling.
Famous quotes containing the word erik:
“In any case, raw aggression is thought to be the peculiar province of men, as nurturing is the peculiar province of women.... The psychologist Erik Erikson discovered that, while little girls playing with blocks generally create pleasant interior spaces and attractive entrances, little boys are inclined to pile up the blocks as high as they can and then watch them fall down: “the contemplation of ruins,” Erikson observes, “is a masculine specialty.””
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)