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Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen

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Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen
Member of the European Parliament
for North West England
In office
2 July 2019 – 31 January 2020
Preceded byLouise Bours
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1959-08-02) 2 August 1959 (age 65)
Frederiksberg, Denmark
NationalityDanish, British
Political partyBrexit (UK)
People's Movement against the EU and June Movement (Denmark)
SpouseSharon Bierer
Children2
Alma materUniversity of Copenhagen
OccupationDentist

Henrik Eyser Overgaard-Nielsen (born 2 August 1959) is a British-Danish dentist and politician who served as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West of England between 2019 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020.

Early life

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Henrik Eyser Overgaard-Nielsen[1] was born in Denmark. His father was a leading campaigner against Denmark joining the European Economic Community, which it did in 1973.[2][3] He was active in the June Movement and one of the leaders of the successful no-campaign at the Danish referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.[4] He qualified as a dentist in Copenhagen in 1983.[5]

Dental career

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Overgaard-Nielsen is GDP who started NHS Dentist, an NHS dental practice in Fulham, London in 1999.[6] The practice was started with Sharon Bierer, his British-born wife.[7][8]

In 2013, following a 2012 holiday in the country, Overgaard-Nielsen and Bierer founded a charity, Burmadent, to provide dental services in the Inle Lake area of Myanmar (Burma).[9][10]

In 2015, Overgaard-Nielsen was elected as the chair of the General Dental Practice Committee (GDPC) of the British Dental Association (BDA), having previously been the vice chair.[6] He was re-elected in January 2019.[11]

Political career

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Overgaard-Nielsen has been an active opponent of the EU since the late 1970s, first in the People's Movement against the EU and later in the June Movement.[12] In 1992, Overgaard-Nielsen was co-chairman of the "No" campaign in the Danish referendum on the Maastricht Treaty.[13]

In April 2019, Overgaard-Nielsen was announced as a Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) candidate for the North West of England.[11] He subsequently won his seat in the 2019 European Parliament election.

Overgaard-Nielsen considers himself to be a socialist, in 2020 booklet Reclaiming Democracy: The Left Case for Sovereignty that he co-authored with fellow Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox, he said that when he campaigned against the Maastricht Treaty in his native Denmark in 1992, "the 'No' side was dominated by socialists and supported by intellectual and artistic elites", but when he moved to the UK in 1996, he found the Euroscepticism there anchored on the right and far-right, while the intelligentsia was mostly pro-EU. He explained his left-wing eurosceptic views by saying that "The EU is rooted in four holy ‘pillars’: unregulated movement of capital, goods, labour and services. The most ardent cheerleaders for these freedoms are large multinational corporations, lobbyists and the middle-class establishment."[14]

Personal life

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Overgaard-Nielsen is married to Sharon Bierer, who is British.[7][8] They have two children, and he divides his time between a home in London[15][3] and one near Ostuni, Apulia, Italy.[16][17] Their daughter, Laura Bierer-Nielsen, is director of policy and research at Labour Leave, a pro-Brexit campaigning group largely funded by Conservative Party donors.[18][19]

In October 2020, Overgaard-Nielsen became a British citizen.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "European Elections 2019: who are the North West's new MEPs?". ITV News. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  2. ^ "Britisk Brexit-parti står til kanonvalg - og en af kandidaterne hedder Henrik - TV 2". nyheder.tv2.dk. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. ^ a b Mandag Den 27. Maj 2019. "Dansk tandlæge er valgt til Europa-Parlamentet for Brexit Party". www.altinget.dk. Retrieved 27 May 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Alsen, Michael (25 January 2020). "Nu kan Brexit-danskeren endelig rejse hjem fra EU: »Jeg har faktisk ikke noget positivt at sige«". Berlingske (in Danish). Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  5. ^ "NHS Dentist – Our Dentists". NHS Dentist. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Henrik Overgaard Nielsen elected chair of GDPC". www.bda.org. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  7. ^ a b Carvel, John (21 February 2007). "Nice dentists, shame about the quotas". Retrieved 27 May 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
  8. ^ a b BBC. "Teething trouble". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Belief and Relief in Burma: Burmadent". www.dentalnursenetwork.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  10. ^ "History - Burma Dental Volunteers". www.burmadent.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  11. ^ a b "GDPUK.com - Danish dental politician to stand for the Brexit Party in coming Euro elections". www.gdpuk.com. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  12. ^ Bruhn, Malte (30 June 2020). "Dansker skal sidde i EU-Parlamentet med Farage: "Vi har jo ikke fået så mange stemmer, fordi vi er virkelig dygtige"". Altinget (in Danish). Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  13. ^ "Danish Brexiteer wins election, vowing to learn the lessons of his country's 1992 Maastricht 'No' vote – The Post". cphpost.dk. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  14. ^ Fox, Claire; Overgaard-Nielsen, Henrik. "Reclaiming Democracy: The Left Case for Sovereignty" (PDF). pp. 5–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
  15. ^ Crack, Cumbria (10 May 2019). "Brexit Party unveils EU election candidates standing in North West region". cumbriacrack.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  16. ^ "Fantese". babyfriendlyboltholes.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  17. ^ "Trulli, child friendly, special offers, modern, WIFI, private pool - Ostuni". HomeAway.co.uk. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  18. ^ Barnett, Adam (1 June 2016). "Labour Leave is funded by Tory donors and Vote Leave, not 'Labour and trade unions'".
  19. ^ "Laura Bierer-Nielsen, Author at BrexitCentral". brexitcentral.com. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  20. ^ "Citizenship". Twitter. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
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