03/04/2024
Tributes have been paid to Soren Pape Poulsen, a gay Danish politician and member of the centre-right Danish Conservative Party who has passed on at the age of fifty two. Mr Poulsen had for the last ten years been the leader of the Danish Conservatives. He also served as the Mayor of Viborg Municipality and represented the West Jutland seat in the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, from 2015 until his passing. On 10 August 2014, Pape Poulsen came out as gay, simultaneously announcing his relationship with Josué Medina Vásquez, originally from the Dominican Republic. They married in 2021, but divorced the following year. Conservative general secretary Søren Vandsø, who was present at the meeting, paid tribute to Poulsen in a message on the party's website. "He collapsed in the midst of what he dedicated his life to. A political life that sought to make life better for the rest of us. He was giving us an orientation on elderly policies and foreign policy observations and the last thing he saw was a round of applause from his party colleagues," Vandsø said. Such was respect for Poulsen's life in politics that the leader of the rival Socialist People's Party, Pia Olsen Dyhr, had her speech to the SPP conference rescheduled so that she could attend Poulsen's funeral, according to Danmarks Radio. The network also reported that many Danes were being encouraged to check their blood pressure, since Mr Poulsen passed on from a brain haemorrhage, which may have been caused by undiagnosed high blood pressure.
