in many policy areas, including several state finance bills. However close the socialists moved to the government, though, they never quite became acceptable as coalition partners, much to the chagrin of Holger K. Nielsen. A real popular breakthrough also never materialised, despite the leader's high media profile. The party lost seats in both the 1994 and 2001 elections, only managing to hold on in the 1998 election. The party was successful in shoring up the centre-left governments of the 1990s. The party remained in the sceptic camp during the 1998 referendum campaign for the Amsterdam Treaty, a move which prompted several prominent pro-Europeans, such as Steen Gade and Christine Antorini, to leave politics. Again in 2000, when the issue was Denmark entering the Economic and Monetary Union, the Socialists were in the forefront of the successful NO-campaign, with Holger K. Nielsen taking a prominent lead. However later that same year, riding high in the opinion polls, Holger K. Nielsen performed a spectacular U-turn and made his party endorse the Nice Treaty, thus making a referendum avoidable. This was the opening shot in a campaign to turn the formerly EU-sceptic party into pro-Europeans, a process that culminated in late 2004, with the party's rank-and-file following Holger K. Nielsen's advice, and endorsing a pro-ratification stance towards the EU's Draft Constitution. Following the election in 2001 of a liberal-conservative coalition, the Socialist People's Party found themselves in opposition. After the 2005 parliamentary election, Holger K. Nielsen resigned as party leader. When Annette Vilhelmsen became the new leader of the party in October 2012, Nielsen, who had been a strong supporter of Vilhelmsen's candidacy, was named new Minister of Taxation in the Cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt. He later became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the same cabinet until 30 January 2014, when the Socialist People's Party left the coalition and the Thorning-Schmidt II Cabinet was inaugurated. Nielsen is in his second marriage and has four children, two from each of the marriages. References External links 1950 births Living people University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Science alumni Foreign ministers of Denmark People from Ribe Danish Tax Ministers Members of the Folketing 1981–1984 Members of the Folketing 1987–1988 Members of the Folketing 1988–1990 Members of the Folketing 1990–1994 Members of the Folketing 1994–1998 Members of the Folketing 1998–2001 Members of the Folketing 2001–2005 Members of the Folketing 2005–2007 Members of the Folketing 2007–2011 Members