Klaus Bondam

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Klaus Bondam (b. November 19, 1963 in Aakirkeby) is a Danish actor and politician.^[1]

Klaus Bondam was born in 1963 on the island Bornholm to a Danish mother and a Dutch father. He has 4 older sisters and lives with his husband Jacob Kamp in Nørrebro in Copenhagen. He has lived in Copenhagen since 1981.^[2]

Klaus Bondam has been a member of The Social Liberal Party (Det Radikale Venstre) since 1997, and he is member of the Party’s National Executive Committee. Bondam was elected to the City Council of Copenhagen in 2001, where he was the Party Group Chairman until 2005. In November 2005, Bondam ran for Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. At this election the party's city council representation grew from 5 to 7 (of a total of 55 councilors). The Social Liberal Party formed a cooperation with the Social Democrats and Bondam was named Mayor of the Technical and Environmental area.

Besides being Mayor of the Technical and Environmental area, Bondam is also chairman of Eurocities Mobility Forum, which is a network with members from 131 of the larges cities in Europe. The goal of the network is to promote better planning of city traffic by using more efficient and sustainable transport methods. Furthermore Bondam is deputy chairman of Copenhagen Capacity and Chairman of the Green Council.^[3]

As Mayor of Technics and Environment Bondam has several leading issues. Among these is the goal, that Copenhagen by 2015 has become the Eco-Metropole of the world, i.e. that it will be justifiably famous as the capital in the world with the best urban environment. This includes goals of becoming the world's best city for cycles, being the center for world climate policy, becoming a green and blue city and finally a clean and healthy city.^[4] Besides trying to achieve the goals in the Eco-Metropole Bondam fights passionately for reducing car traffic in Copenhagen. Bondam and a majority of the city council wants to establish congestion charging in Copenhagen.^[5]

Before becoming a politician, Klaus Bondam was an actor and latest he was the manager at the theater Folketeatret (2003 - 2005) Before that he was the manager of Grønnegårds Teatret (1996 - 2003) and administrative manager of Mungo Park theater (1995 - 1996). As an actor he got his breakthrough in the movie Festen and has starred in the TV comedy series Langt fra Las Vegas. He stopped his acting career in 2003. In 2006 the biography Toastmasteren (The Toastmaster) was published, based on interviews with Bondam. The title was a hint at his role in the movie Festen.