Uffe Elbæk

In March 2020, Elbæk along with Sikandar Siddique, Susanne Zimmer and Niko Grünfeld, left The Alternative after allegations that leader Josephine Fock had verbally abused members of the party. Fock had been elected succeed Elbæk in February. On 7 March, a slim majority in the central board gave Fock their support, with ten voting for and seven against. Following the decision, the party's local branch in Elbæk's constituency demanded that he publicly express full support of Fock, or they would withdraw their support of Elbæk. On 9 March, Elbæk left the party, saying he "no longer recognized" the party he founded.

At the Parliamentary election on 18 June the Alternative obtained 4.8% of the votes (168,788), which gave them nine seats in the parliament. Uffe Elbæk received 18,796 personal votes, thereby attaining the 10th-most personal votes this election. He was nominated by the party to run for Prime Minister in the election, but lost to the leader of the Social Democrats, Mette Frederiksen.

In the spring of 2014, 20 political laboratories were conducted all over Denmark, where more than 700 citizens participated. Shortly after, on 24 May, the first crowdsourced political program became a reality. [Link to the first edition. Newest edition is here:] . The political program is updated regularly as the specific policies are developed through the political laboratories, and then verified and endorsed by the unit of political decision-makers in the Alternative, Politisk Forum (The Politic Forum).

On 27 November 2013, Uffe Elbæk hosted a press conference where he announced the formation of a new "green" political party named The Alternative. The Party did not have a traditional political program, but wanted to develop it together with the citizens through so called "political laboratories".

From 3 October 2011 to December 2012, he served as the Danish Minister of Culture. He was originally a member of the Danish Social Liberal Party, but left in September 2013 to launch The Alternative with Josephine Fock. Elbæk announced on 16 December 2019 that he would stand down as political leader of The Alternative on 1 February 2020. After leaving The Alternative's leadership, Elbæk subsequently left the party completely before joining with two other Alternative parliamentarians to form the new Independent Greens in September 2020. He was succeeded by Josephine Fock.

Elbæk won a seat in the Folketing for the Danish Social Liberal Party in the 2011 Danish parliamentary election. On 3 October 2011 he was appointed Culture Minister of Denmark in the government cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt. He resigned his minister position in December 2012 after criticism for holding five official gatherings at the organization AFUK - Akademiet For Utæmmet Kreativitet, where he previously held a chairman post, and where his husband was employed. He was later acquitted of all charges by the national audit agency of Denmark which concluded he hadn't had a conflict of interest. The Ministry was instead criticized for some other facets related to the case.

In July 2010, Elbæk founded the consulting company Change The Game with focus on leadership training skills, political campaigning and social innovation concepts.

From 2007 to 2009, Elbæk served as the CEO of the 2009 World Outgames.

Uffe Elbæk (born 15 June 1954) is a Danish politician, social worker, author, journalist, entrepreneur. In 2013 he founded the green political party The Alternative, which he led until February 2020. He is an independent member of the Folketing.