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All 179 seats in theFolketing 90 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 87.21% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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General elections were held inDenmark on 15 September 2011 to elect the 179 members of theFolketing. Of those 179, 175 members were elected in Denmark, two in theFaroe Islands and two inGreenland.
The incumbent centre-right coalition led byVenstre lost power to a centre-left coalition led by theSocial Democrats makingHelle Thorning-Schmidt the country's first femalePrime Minister. TheSocial Liberal Party and theSocialist People's Party became part of the three-party government. The new parliament convened on 4 October, the first Tuesday of the month.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who had been re-elected Prime Minister following the2007 parliamentary election, resigned on 5 April 2009 to become theSecretary General of NATO in August. Polls indicated a preference for early elections over simply having Finance MinisterLars Løkke Rasmussen take over as PM; theSocial Democrats'Helle Thorning-Schmidt was also suggested as the preferred candidate for PM.[1] However,Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of theDanish People's Party, had reiterated the DPP's continued support for the government, previously avoiding a new election and making Rasmussen the PM within the existing parliament.[2] However, when Rasmussen resigned that support became moot.
According to the Danish Constitution, the election had to take place no later than 12 November 2011 since the last Danish election was held on 13 November 2007. The prime minister can call the election at any date, provided it is no later than four years from the previous election. Danish media and political commentators speculated about the timing of the election since Rasmussen took office as Prime Minister in April 2009. The election was called on 26 August 2011, after heavy media speculation.[citation needed]
The following had as of March 2010 announced that they would not seek re-election.[3]
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| Party | Letter | Leader | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denmark proper | |||
| Venstre | V | Lars Løkke Rasmussen | |
| Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) | A | Helle Thorning-Schmidt | |
| Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti) | O | Pia Kjærsgaard | |
| Danish Social Liberal Party (Det Radikale Venstre) | B | Margrethe Vestager | |
| Socialist People's Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti) | F | Villy Søvndal | |
| Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) | Ø | Collective leadership | |
| Liberal Alliance | I | Anders Samuelsen | |
| Conservative People's Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti) | C | Lars Barfoed | |
| Christian Democrats (Kristendemokraterne) | K | Per Ørum Jørgensen | |
| Faroe Islands | |||
| Union Party (Sambandsflokkurin) | B | Kaj Leo Johannesen | |
| Social Democratic Party (Javnaðarflokkurin) | C | Aksel Johannesen | |
| Republic (Tjóðveldi) | E | Høgni Hoydal | |
| People's Party (Fólkaflokkurin) | A | Jørgen Niclasen | |
| Centre Party (Miðflokkurin) | H | Jenis av Rana | |
| Self-Government Party (Sjálvstýrisflokkurin) | D | Kári á Rógvu | |
| Greenland | |||
| Inuit Ataqatigiit | Kuupik Kleist | ||
| Siumut | Aleqa Hammond | ||
| Democrats (Demokraatit) | Jens B. Frederiksen | ||
| Atassut | Finn Karlsen | ||
The former Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, led acentre-right minority government consisting of theLiberal Party and theConservative People's Party. This coalition government worked with regular parliamentary support from thenational conservative Danish People's Party and often gained the necessary 90th seat for a majority in theFolketing through negotiations with the sole MP from theChristian Democrats Ørum-Jørgensen[4] andindependent MP Christmas Møller, both elected in 2007 as conservative MPs and since having defected.
Since the 2007 election, theLiberal Alliance (previously Ny Alliance) had gained momentum in opinion polls, and since early 2010, the governing coalition had not been able to gather a majority in the polls without the support of the Alliance. The continuing rise in the polls was to an extent the result of the internal crisis in the Conservative People's Party over the leadershipLene Espersen[5] and the continuing debate over a lack of true liberal/conservative ideology in government policy.[6]
On 13 January, the continuing turmoil within the Conservative group in the Folketing caused Lene Espersen to resign as political leader of the party and focus on her role asMinister of Foreign Affairs.[7] A leadership election betweenBrian Mikkelsen, theMinister of Economic and Business Affairs andLars Barfoed, theJustice Minister, was widely expected,[8] but on 14 January the Conservative group in theFolketing unanimously elected Barfoed as their new political leader. He was formally elected as chairman of the party at a party convention within a few weeks.[9]
The Social Democrats, under the leadership of Helle Thorning-Schmidt, had enjoyed continuing majorities in opinion polls since late 2009 and hoped to form acentre-left government coalition consisting of theSocialist People's Party and theSocial Liberal Party with parliamentary support from the smallRed-Green Alliance.[10][11]
BothMargrethe Vestager (Social Liberal Party) andVilly Søvndal (Socialist People's Party) pledged their support to Thorning-Schmidt before the election.[12] But there has been considerable debate about the future politics of this coalition, mainly because the Social Liberal Party demands a moreliberal economic agenda. Also on immigration issues there are political differences between the three coalition parties. This led some observers to believe that the Social Liberal Party would not join a government coalition but instead opt to be a part of the parliamentary support of a new, centre-left government.[13] In the event the Social Liberals did join the new three-party coalition government formed on 3 October.
| Polling Firm | Date | Source | Venstre (V) | Social Democrats (A) | Danish People's Party (O) | Socialist People's Party (F) | Conservative People's Party (C) | Social Liberal Party (B) | Liberal Alliance (I) | Red-Green Alliance (Ø) | Christian Democrats (K) | Government | Opposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 Election | 13 Nov 2007 | 26.2% | 25.5% | 13.9% | 13.0% | 10.4% | 5.1% | 2.8% | 2.2% | 0.9% | 53.3% | 46.7% | |
| Capacent | 26 Feb 2010 | [14] | 22.1% | 26.3% | 14.5% | 18.1% | 11.6% | 4.4% | 0.7% | 2.0% | 0.3% | 48.9% | 50.8% |
| Capacent | 31 Mar 2010 | [14] | 23.7% | 26.7% | 13.8% | 17.2% | 10.9% | 4.6% | 0.5% | 2.2% | 0.3% | 48.9% | 50.7% |
| Greens | 7 Jan 2011 | [15] | 21.6% | 29.2% | 14.6% | 13.0% | 4.5% | 7.5% | 5.8% | 3.2% | 0.4% | 46.5% | 52.9% |
| Gallup | 7 Jan 2011 | [16] | 24.3% | 31.3% | 12.2% | 12.7% | 6.0% | 5.5% | 4.3% | 2.9% | 0.8% | 46.8% | 52.4% |
| YouGov | 12 Jan 2011 | [17] | 21.8% | 26.4% | 13.5% | 15.2% | 4.4% | 6.2% | 8.3% | 4.0% | 0.3% | 48.0% | 51.8% |
| Capacent | 12 Jan 2011 | [18] | 23.1% | 29.9% | 13.0% | 13.0% | 5.9% | 5.5% | 4.3% | 4.8% | 0.3% | 46.3% | 53.2% |
| Gallup | 14 Jan 2011 | [19] | 24.6% | 28.6% | 13.0% | 14.9% | 5.7% | 5.8% | 4.0% | 2.9% | 0.5% | 47.3% | 52.2% |
| Voxmeter | 16 Jan 2011 | [19] | 22.9% | 31.1% | 11.8% | 12.3% | 5.7% | 5.6% | 6.3% | 3.7% | 0.0% | 46.6% | 52.7% |
| Greens | 21 Jan 2011 | [20] | 22.6% | 29.5% | 11.6% | 14.2% | 6.5% | 6.5% | 5.4% | 2.7% | 0.4% | 46.1% | 52.9% |
| Gallup | 24 Jan 2011 | [19] | 23.9% | 27.6% | 14.0% | 13.8% | 4.9% | 7.3% | 4.7% | 2.7% | 0.8% | 47.5% | 51.4% |
| Greens | 4 Feb 2011 | [21] | 21.3% | 31.2% | 12.3% | 15.6% | 5.4% | 5.6% | 4.4% | 3.3% | 0.6% | 43.4% | 55.7% |
| Berlingske | 10 Sep 2011 | [22] | 23.6% | 25.5% | 12.4% | 11.1% | 5.9% | 9.3% | 5.1% | 6.4% | 0.8% | 47.8% | 52.3% |
| Berlingske | 10 Sep 2011 | [23] | 23.0% | 25.0% | 13.6% | 9.8% | 5.0% | 10.0% | 5.4% | 7.2% | 0.9% | 47.9% | 52.0% |
| Berlingske | 12 Sep 2011 | [22] | 23.8% | 25.3% | 12.3% | 10.7% | 5.8% | 9.5% | 5.2% | 6.5% | 0.8% | 47.9% | 52.0% |
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Denmark proper | |||||
| Venstre | 947,725 | 26.73 | 47 | +1 | |
| Social Democrats | 879,615 | 24.81 | 44 | −1 | |
| Danish People's Party | 436,726 | 12.32 | 22 | −3 | |
| Danish Social Liberal Party | 336,698 | 9.50 | 17 | +8 | |
| Socialist People's Party | 326,192 | 9.20 | 16 | −7 | |
| Red–Green Alliance | 236,860 | 6.68 | 12 | +8 | |
| Liberal Alliance | 176,585 | 4.98 | 9 | +4 | |
| Conservative People's Party | 175,047 | 4.94 | 8 | −10 | |
| Christian Democrats | 28,070 | 0.79 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 1,850 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 3,545,368 | 100.00 | 175 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 3,545,368 | 99.04 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 34,307 | 0.96 | |||
| Total votes | 3,579,675 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 4,079,910 | 87.74 | |||
| Faroe Islands | |||||
| Union Party | 6,362 | 30.77 | 1 | 0 | |
| Social Democratic Party | 4,332 | 20.95 | 1 | +1 | |
| Republic | 3,995 | 19.32 | 0 | −1 | |
| People's Party | 3,935 | 19.03 | 0 | 0 | |
| Centre Party | 875 | 4.23 | 0 | 0 | |
| Self-Government | 483 | 2.34 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 692 | 3.35 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 20,674 | 100.00 | 2 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 20,674 | 98.62 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 290 | 1.38 | |||
| Total votes | 20,964 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 35,047 | 59.82 | |||
| Greenland | |||||
| Inuit Ataqatigiit | 9,587 | 42.61 | 1 | 0 | |
| Siumut | 8,374 | 37.22 | 1 | 0 | |
| Democrats | 2,831 | 12.58 | 0 | 0 | |
| Atassut | 1,706 | 7.58 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 22,498 | 100.00 | 2 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 22,498 | 95.55 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 1,048 | 4.45 | |||
| Total votes | 23,546 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 40,937 | 57.52 | |||
| Source:Danmarks Statistik | |||||
Helle Thorning-Schmidt told a group of supporters: "We did it. Make no mistake: We have written history. Today there’s a change of guards in Denmark." Incumbent Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen congratulated Thorning-Schmidt after conceding defeat: "So tonight I hand over the keys to the prime minister’s office to Helle Thorning-Schmidt. And dear Helle, take good care of them. You’re only borrowing them."[24]
TheCopenhagen Stock Exchange did not react adversely despite a fear of increased public spending and higher taxes because the election result was largely expected.[25]
The result was seen as leading to a possible roll back of some austerity programmes initiated by the previous government amidst theEuropean sovereign debt crisis.[citation needed] The new majority for the leftist bloc deprived the Danish People's Party of thekingmaker role it held under the previous government and used to tighten Danish immigrations policy. However, fundamental changes were not expected, asthe Danish political consensus would maintain thewelfare system in Denmark that is financed by high taxes.[24] The state of theeconomy was also seen as a key factor for theanti-incumbent vote.
Danish newspapers such asBerlingske also asked if a Red Bloc coalition could survive its tenure with the "sharp differences between [the] parties." It wrote that "with a parliamentary basis consisting of parties in deep mutual dispute over the most important questions in society, the election victory last night could turn out to be a short-lived triumph for Thorning-Schmidt."[25]
Though the Liberal Party remained the single largest party with the addition of one seat and the Social Democrats lost a seat, a three-party coalition of opposition parties together with the supportingRed-Green Alliance had a larger share of seats than the incumbent liberal-conservative coalition with support of theDanish People's Party.[26] Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen then tendered the cabinet's resignation toQueen Margrethe II on 16 September,[27] following which she met with the various parties and tasked Social Democrat leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt with the formation of a new government.[25] Rasmussen's cabinet would remain in office as acaretaker government until 3 October, whenThorning-Schmidt's cabinet, announced on 2 October, would be sworn in making her the country's first ever femalePrime Minister.[24] TheSocial Liberal Party and theSocialist People's Party also became a part of the governing coalition.[28] The new parliament, by law, convened on the first Tuesday in October.[citation needed]
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