Aarhus’ new mayor doesn’t need a lot of me time

Anders Winnerskjold remembers the 2017 municipal elections vividly.

Local voters went to the polls on Tuesday 21 November.

On Wednesday, personal votes were counted, and the 25-year old political science student stormed into the City Council as the Social Democrat candidate who received the second-most personal votes. Only surpassed by Mayor Jacob Bundsgaard.

Winnerskjold spent Thursday removing election posters from street lights.

And on Friday, he biked from his apartment in Frederiksbjerg to the traditional Christmas celebration at the Department of Political Science, when student associations transform the halls of the department into one big party.

When he walked into the joyous chaos of holiday decorations and music, his fellow students rushed to surround him with hugs and congratulations.

“It was overwhelming. People were really happy and proud. A lot of them had followed the election, and several people helped me campaign as well. I remember that day as one long victory celebration,” Winnerskjold says.

A hardworking night owl
Winnerskjold’s exceptional appetite for work set him apart from the very beginning of his university career. In his free time, he was active in the local division of Social Democratic Youth of Denmark and even started his own company. He often worked late into the night. For example, when he spend half the night writing an exam paper and the other half campaigning for local parliamentary candidate Jens Juel. Often he only got a few hours of sleep before it was time to bike up to campus again.

“I’m not good at sitting still – I bounce back quickly and don’t need a lot of me time, so I’ve gone full throttle on a lot of fronts,” he says.

Winnerskjold started thinking about the best way to organise his life when he was an undergraduate. This is where the scheduling gymnastics come into the picture, and they play an even greater role now:

“My calender is truly insane. Everything is designed and coordinated in these very specific ways to make sure it all fits together. Having a highly structured life is necessary in this job,” he says.

Sharing the spotlight with Trump
On the morning of 6 November 2024, all the Danish news media  ran the same breaking news: Donald Trump was the new American president. On the very same day, Jacob Bundsgaard handed his mayoral chain to Anders Winnerskjold at the Aarhus City Hall. But whereas Trump seeks to divide and conquer, Winnerskjold wants to bring everyone on board:

“I hope that I can be a more unifying figure than Trump is in the States,” he said to local newspaper JP Aarhus that day.

Becoming mayor was a dream come true for Winnerskjold. But there was nothing inevitable about it:

“The truth is that a lot of things in life are kind of coincidental. I was politically active when I was a student, but I was also really into the business I was starting up. So then all the sudden I do well in a municipal election and go on to become an alderman. And three years later I become mayor. I’ve worked hard for it, but there’s also some luck involved,” says Winnerskjold.

Dragon’s Den at the university
The company that absorbed so much of Winnerskjold’s energy when he was a student is called Elevaid (‘student aid’). The company offers struggling secondary students online counselling from psychology students, as a supplement to student guidance services offered by the school system. The company has changed hands several times, and today it employs over 20 people as part of a larger enterprise.

“Fundamentally, my partner Nikolaj Schlüter and I wanted to do something on our own. We like sitting at the head of the table and creating things, and that’s really what being an entrepreneur is all about. You handle everything from accounts to management to communication. We got a lot of help from the AU entrepreneurship hub The Kitchen,” Winnerskjold says, adding that he values the university’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Right now, the spirit of the times is on our side. Entrepreneurs are virtually superstars today, you know. Some faculties and departments have a stronger entrepreneurship culture than others, and I think there’s a lot of unrealised potential in the humanities and the social sciences. It’s a good idea to invite people in from the outside who can provide inspiration and guidance. But the university is already doing quite a lot,” he said.

Found love at AU
Some alums have to think back decades to remember their students days. Winnerskjold only has to think five years back, so his memories are vivid. Study group meetings at the library, where debates sometimes got heated. Friday bars that lasted until the early hours of the morning. Disappointment over a less-than-stellar mark. The beautiful view of the University Park from the top of Bartholins Allé. But his most precious memory from his time at AU is a woman.

“I met my wife at the political science department. Ane was in the class above mine, and meeting her has had a huge impact on my life. We now have a baby girl, and our life right now is pretty crazy and fantastic,” he said.

Ane Edslev Andersen is a political science PhD students at AU, and the couple have a lot of friends in common from their student days. And in fact, their lives are entwined with Aarhus University – this extends to City Hall in the mayor’s case:

“The City of Aarhus has a close collaboration with Aarhus University. The university’s significance for the city can’t be overestimated. Every year, thousands of young people come to Aarhus to learn, and that gives the city a fantastic atmosphere,” Winnerskjold said.

And Aarhus needs to constantly develop in order to remain attractive and relevant as a top choice for prospective students:

“The sum of a good university town is more than just education. Can you get a student job and an internship? Can you get help if you’re struggling? A good university town is also about a rich cultural scene, theatre tickets that students can afford, access to nature and community involvement,” he says.

One of the biggest events in Aarhus is the annual Regatta, and it was a tradition for the previous mayor Jacob Bundsgaard to open the festivities together with AU’s rector. When Anders Winnerskjold was elected major, in an interview with the university newspaper Omnibus, he was asked if he would continue that tradition.  He replied:

“I’m not going to invite myself, but if they invite me, I’ll say yes.”