Birgitte Nyborg Christensen | Borgen | Shows

Birgitte
Nyborg Christensen

Prime Minister, Moderate Party Leader

Birgitte struggles to find an appropriate balance between playing lapdog and bulldog in Denmark's dog-eat-dog political arena. She becomes so consumed with her job that she all too often neglects her responsibilities as wife and mother, ultimately leaving her family in shambles.

Portrayed by: Sidse Babett Knudsen

Phillip
Christensen

Birgitte's husband, professor at Copenhagen Business School. As Birgitte becomes a better prime minister, she becomes a worse wife in her husband's eyes. First, the couple resorts to scheduling sex, then drops the witty (and often playfully dirty) banter that kept their relationship fresh, and finally stops spending quality time with one another. And after she asks her husband to make one too many sacrifices for her job, he finds solace in another woman's arms.

Kasper
Juul

Birgitte's press advisor/speech writer, Katrine's ex-boyfriend. Although they initially fail to see eye to eye on many issues (in fact, Birgitte fires Kasper for his lack of morals), they eventually grow to be the most loyal pair in parliament.

Katrine
Fønsmark

TV1 anchor. Birgitte and Katrine have a symbiotic relationship. They use each other for political and journalistic gain, respectively. And even when Katrine bombards her with unapproved questions, Birgitte comes out of the interview unscathed and often with an improved image.

Laura
Christensen

Birgitte and Phillip's daughter. Birgitte is relatively absent from both her children's lives during her first year in office. They're usually asleep by the time she returns home from work. Naturally, Laura grows distant as a result.

Magnus
Christensen

Birgitte and Phillip's son. Her little boy admires her success, but resents her diminishing presence at home. Birgitte blames herself for his new bad habit of wetting himself.

Bent
Sejrø

Foreign Minister, Labor Party Leader. Her mentor, best friend, and most trusted minister tells her when she takes office to abandon all her friends in parliament. He later wishes he could take that advice back.

Lars
Hesselboe

Liberal Party Leader, former Prime Minister. Birgitte was tempted to join a liberal right-wing three party coalition with Hesselboe on the PM ticket before working up the courage to run for the office herself. Hesselboe has resented her ever since.

Michael
Laugesen

Express Editor-in-Chief, former Labor Party Leader. If Hesselboe hates Birgitte, then Laugesen abhors her. The two men were the favorites to win the election before Birgitte stole the show with her debate performance. It's unclear whether he even got wind of this, but Birgitte was also involved in leaking the racist emails that later led to his resignation as Labor Party Leader.

Amir
Dwian

Environment Minister, Green Party Leader. Birgitte can usually count on Amir's political support in parliament. Even though he's affiliated with another party, the Moderates and Greens often have overlapping culturally progressive agendas.

Anne Sophie
Lindenkrone

Solidarity Party Leader. Brigitte introduced Anne Sophie to politics. When her party headquarter is discovered to be bugged by the CIA, Brigitte seeks justice. But she's forced to let Anne Sophie fight her own battles when the compromising tape of her drunken kidnapping threats are released. She loses her friend as a result.

Bjørn
Marrot

Foreign Minister, Labor Party Leader. Brigitte could have easily made an enemy in Bjørn when she withdrew her support for Labor once he became party leader, on track to becoming PM. However, the mild-mannered Bjørn forgave and forgot.

Hans Christian
Thorsen

Defence Minister. Brigitte was on the brink of firing the minister when she discovered he took a bribe from the manufacturer of the fighter plane he chose for the military. His corruption draws media attention to her office, causing her to ask Phillip to quit his job for the company that's a subcontractor for the same manufacturer.

Niels Erik
Lund

Prime Minister's Permanent Secretary. The PM and the permanent secretary start off on the wrong foot, but eventually form a professional bond.

Sanne

Birgitte's personal assistant. Brigitte wants the assistant fired from day one. But she soon realizes that what Sanne lacks in competency she makes up for with kindness and thoughtfulness.

Svend Åge
Saltum

Freedom Party Leader. Svend once told the then future PM, "everything you stand for I'm against. I am evil incarnate in your little intellectual world." Birgitte steers clear of him (arguably the most right-wing member of parliament) at all costs.

Troels
Höxenhaven

Justice Minister, Labor Party Deputy Leader. Although she collaborates with him to bring Laugesen down, Birgitte later realizes she can't trust the minister. He doesn't resign when she tells him to, but instead leaks the recording of Anne Sophie's boozy threat, thereby dodging backlash for authorizing her party headquarter's bugging.

Yvonne
Kjær

New Right Leader. Birgitte doesn't join her coalition when running for office, but later strikes a deal with her to give more funding to Denmark's police and military in exchange for her vote on the budget bill.