Just after Mette Frederiksen had presented her new government to the King, the new Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Samira Nawa (RV), was asked on Amalienborg Palace Square about a topic that, as she has said before, has followed her throughout both her political career and her life:
»What does your background mean? Your family came here from abroad, and you end up standing here as a minister?«.
The question referred to the fact that Samira Nawa’s family fled the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan to Denmark. She herself was born in Aalborg and raised in Roskilde.
She replied that it was not what occupied her thoughts the most, but she did add a ‘but’:
»But if you ask some of those in Denmark with an ethnic minority background, a door has been kicked open now, too«.
It is something of a paradox that some of the first questions Nawa is asked are about the very subject she would rather avoid. But that is likely because, despite having focused mainly on economic and green policy — serving, for instance, as the party’s spokesperson on taxation, finance, and climate, energy and utilities — she has repeatedly been pulled into debates about her background.
Most recently, she was unwittingly placed at the center of the debate on ‘Danishness’ after an old post on X from newly elected member of parliament Nadja Natalie Isaksen resurfaced:
»A cat doesn’t become a horse just because it’s born in a stable«, went Isaksen’s analogy, meant to explain why Samira Nawa — according to the then-member of Borgernes Parti (BP), now an independent — was not Danish.
Those were comments that left the politician from Radikale Venstre both speechless and affected, and the comment prompted several politicians from both sides of the Folketing to voice their support for Samira Nawa.
Nevertheless, the remarks about cats and horse stables went on for a long time afterwards to serve as the focal point of the debate about Danishness.
Heavy ministry
Now the rising star is, definitively and formally, taking an even larger step away from the Danish-identity debates and culture-war questions — and closer to the areas the economist by training has mainly worked on.
Early Wednesday afternoon, she exchanged gifts and polite words with the outgoing minister for climate, energy and utilities, Lars Aagaard (M), who passed the baton to the 38-year-old Social Liberal politician.
Nawa arrives with a government platform so packed with plans in climate, energy and utilities that the ministry’s permanent secretary took a deep breath when he read it. He said so with a laugh in front of ministry employees who had gathered to bid farewell to Aagaard and welcome their new minister.
She is expected to deliver in an area crucial to the government. Several of the governing parties have already assured voters that this will be »the greenest government ever«, which includes, among other things, meeting the goal of 100 percent green gas by 2030, electrifying the rail network, and an ambitious expansion of offshore wind, according to the government platform.
»I will fight every single day to make sure this government lives up to this platform«, Samira Nawa said when it was her turn to speak.
That platform is one she knows exceptionally well — probably better than most of the newly appointed ministers. For the past 10 weeks, she and Martin Lidegaard have made up Radikale Venstre’s negotiating delegation.
Her position as the party’s number two was further cemented when the Prime Minister’s Office sent out the list of cabinet committees on Wednesday. It shows that Samira Nawa has been given seats on the government’s two most powerful committees: the Coordination Committee and the Economic Committee.
An enormous talent
Someone who can readily understand why Samira Nawa has been handed such a weighty portfolio is Margrethe Vestager, who was party leader the last time Radikale Venstre was in government.
She has nothing but praise for the new climate minister, whom she first met ahead of the 2019 parliamentary election, when Vestager was an EU commissioner and Nawa was a parliamentary candidate.
»From the very first time I met her, I thought: this is an enormous talent«, she recalls. And Samira Nawa’s star has only risen since:
»She cares deeply about the green agenda. She’s Social Liberal to the core, her values are exactly where they should be, and the numbers have to add up«, Vestager says, continuing the praise:
»She’s the kind of no-nonsense person who makes things happen, but never in a hard-edged way — always in a collaborative way that leaves plenty of room for others. Those are some of the things I think are really important in a politician«, she says, with a trace of pride in her voice.
Even Samira Nawa’s hair earns kind words:
»I’ve always been jealous of that long red hair«, Vestager laughs.
She has already sent the newly appointed minister her congratulations and assured Nawa that she is the right person for the job as minister for climate, energy and utilities.
Is she the future of Radikale Venstre?
»That’s not for me to decide. But I think she’s going to matter a great deal for our shared future«, Margrethe Vestager concludes.
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