Venstre, Denmark's Liberal Party Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | V |
| Leader | Troels Lund Poulsen |
| Deputy Leader | Stephanie Lose |
| Founded | 30 June 1870 (1870-06-30)[1] (original form) 1910 (current form) |
| Headquarters | Søllerødvej 30, 2840Holte |
| Youth wing | Venstres Ungdom |
| Student wing | Liberal Students of Denmark |
| Membership(2021) |  28,007[2][needs update] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-right[10] |
| European affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| European Parliament group | Renew Europe |
| International affiliation | Liberal International |
| Nordic affiliation | Centre Group |
| Colours | Navy blue |
| Slogan | Frihed og fællesskab ('Freedom and Community') |
| Folketing | 23 / 179 (13%) [a] |
| European Parliament | 2 / 15 (13%) |
| Regions[11] | 50 / 205 |
| Municipalities[12] | 591 / 2,436 |
| Mayors | 34 / 98 |
| Election symbol | |
.svg) | |
| Party flag | |
 | |
| Website | |
| venstre.dk | |
Venstre[b] ([ˈvenstʁɐ],lit. 'Left',V), full nameVenstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti (English:Left, Denmark's Liberal Party), is aconservative-liberal,[3][4][5]agrarian[13]political party inDenmark. Founded as part of a peasants' movement against thelanded aristocracy, today it espouses aneconomically liberal, pro-free-marketideology.[14]
Venstre is themajor party of thecentre-right inDenmark, and the second-largest party in the country. The party has produced manyPrime Ministers. In the2022 general elections,Venstre received 13.3% of the vote and 23 out of 179 seats. Following the resignation ofJakob Ellemann-Jensen, the party is led byTroels Lund Poulsen who serves as the country'sDeputy Prime Minister.[15] Since December 2022, the party has been a junior partner in thesecond Frederiksen government.
The party is a member ofLiberal International and theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and has four MEPs in theEuropean Parliament.[16]
Venstre was founded in 1870 under the name "Det Forenede Venstre" (lit. 'The United Left'). Originally, the party consisted of multiple conflicting groups, all united under theclassical liberal (then the standardleft-wing) ideology, the safeguarding of farmers' interests and opposition to the thenright-wingclassical conservative partyHøjre (literally "Right"). After the party in 1872 gained an absolute majority in theFolketing, it became the leading voice in the battle forparliamentarism, whereafter the party in 1895 split in two, Venstrereformpartiet ("Venstre Reform Party") and Det Moderate Venstre ("The Moderate Left"). In 1905, social liberal factions split from the party and formedRadikale Venstre (also known as the Danish Social Liberal Party), and in 1910 Venstrereformpartiet and Det Moderate Venstre reunited again under the name Venstre.[17]
With the decreasing numbers of farms and the growing urbanisation, membership and voter support dropped in the 1950s. During the 1960s the party gradually evolved from being a traditional farmers' party to a more general liberal party. In 1984Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was elected chairman, and by profiling the liberal ideology in sharp confrontation to theSocial Democrats, for example by campaigning for a reduction of the public sector, increasing market management and privatisation, and by being pro-EU, the party returned to its historical position as the biggest liberal party in the 1990s.[17]
After a disappointing1998 general election, Ellemann-Jensen resigned as chairman andAnders Fogh Rasmussen was elected in his place. He immediately changed the party's usual confrontational strategy, instead appealing to the political centre. In the2001 general elections the party campaigned for tighter immigration policies and a "tax stop", which proved successful and the party once again became the biggest in parliament, winning 31.2% of the vote and 56 seats. Venstre formed a coalition government with theConservative People's Party and theDanish People's Party. For the first time since 1929 a liberal government was no longer dependent on the centre parties. Despite a small decline in both the2005 general elections (29% and 52 seats) and the2007 general elections (26.2% and 46 seats), the party remained the biggest and the coalition government continued.[17]
On 5 April 2009, Fogh Rasmussen resigned as chairman, instead serving asSecretary General of NATO. In his placeLars Løkke Rasmussen was elected.[18]
In the2011 general elections, the party gained 26.7% of the vote and 47 seats, but was not able to form a government, instead leading the opposition against Prime MinisterHelle Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democratic coalition.[citation needed]
Even though the party lost voter support in the2015 general elections, only gaining 19.5% of the vote, the party formed a minority government. This government was short-lived, and in 2016 Løkke Rasmussen invited the Conservative People's Party and theLiberal Alliance to form a coalition government instead.[19]
During the campaign of the2019 general elections, Løkke Rasmussen published an autobiography, in which he opened up for the possibility of forming a government with the Social Democrats.[20] This was seen as controversial in the liberal "blue bloc", and Social Democratic leaderMette Frederiksen immediately declined the proposition.[21]
Following internal fighting in the party, Løkke Rasmussen and vice chairmanKristian Jensen both resigned on 31 August 2019. On 21 September 2019, political spokesman and former Minister for Environment and FoodJakob Ellemann-Jensen was elected the party's next chairman.[22]
Following the2022 general election, in which Venstre suffered its worst result since 1988, Venstre joined agrand coalition government led by Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen, and also comprising theModerates, a Venstre splinter formed by former Prime MinisterLars Løkke Rasmussen.[23]
Venstre is categorised ascentre-right on thepolitical spectrum,[10] although it has been also described ascentrist[24][25] andright-wing.[26][27][28][29] Ideologically, it has been described asconservative-liberal,[30][3][4][5][29][31]liberal-conservative,[32][33][34][35]liberal,[36][37][38][39]conservative,[29][40]classical-liberal,[41] andagrarian.[29] Additionally, Venstre takes anativist stance regarding immigration and asylum-seeking; they had also said that "immigrants should learn Danish and understand and respect Danish culture and traditions".[42][43]
Venstre is aneconomically liberal party[36][44] within theNordic agrarian tradition,[45] and today is notably more pro–free market than its sister parties.[46][needs update] Since the elections in 2001, Venstre has enacted a so-called "tax stop" in order to halt the growth in taxes seen during the previous eight years under theSocial Democrats. This tax stop has been under heavy fire from the parties on the left bloc of Danish politics, allegedly for being "asocial" and "only for the rich."[47][48]
The fact that the major centre-right political party in a country calls itself 'Left' is often confusing to foreign (and sometimes Danish) observers. The name has, however, its historical explanation. At the time of its foundation,Venstre affirmed then-progressive ideas in the Danish parliament. Their opponents,Højre (Right), the forerunner of the present-dayConservative People's Party, advocated for established interests, particularly theChurch of Denmark and the landed gentry. In current Danish politics there is a clear distinction between the concepts ofVenstre (Left, i.e., the party bearing that name) andvenstrefløj (left wing, i.e., socialist and other left-leaning parties). The use of the word for "left" in the name of the Danish political partyRadikale Venstre (literally: "Radical Left") and theNorwegian partyVenstre is meant to refer toliberalism and notsocialism.
Members of the party are referred to asvenstremænd andvenstrekvinder, respectively "Venstre men" and "Venstre women" (singular: -mand, -kvinde).
| No. | Portrait | Leader | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Madsen, ThomasThomas Madsen-Mygdal (1876–1943) | 1929 | 1941 | 11–12 years |
| 2 |  | Kristensen, KnudKnud Kristensen (1880–1962) | 1941 | 1949 | 7–8 years |
| 3 |  | Sørensen, EdvardEdvard Sørensen (1893–1954) | 1949 | 1950 | 0–1 years |
| 4 |  | Eriksen, ErikErik Eriksen (1902–1972) | 1950 | 24 May 1965 | 14–15 years |
| 5 |  | Hartling, PoulPoul Hartling (1914–2000) | 24 May 1965 | December 1977 | 12 years, 191 days |
| 6 |  | Christophersen, HenningHenning Christophersen (1939–2016) | September 1978 | 23 July 1984 | 5 years, 326 days |
| 7 |  | Ellemann, UffeUffe Ellemann-Jensen (1941–2022) | 23 July 1984 | 18 March 1998 | 13 years, 238 days |
| 8 |  | Rasmussen, AndersAnders Fogh Rasmussen (born 1953) | 18 March 1998 | 17 May 2009 | 11 years, 60 days |
| 9 | _(cropped).jpg) | Rasmussen, LarsLars Løkke Rasmussen (born 1964) | 17 May 2009 | 31 August 2019 | 10 years, 106 days |
| – |  | Jensen, KristianKristian Jensen (born 1971) Acting | 31 August 2019 | 21 September 2019 | 21 days |
| 10 | .jpg) | Jensen, KristianJakob Ellemann-Jensen (born 1973) | 21 September 2019 | 23 October 2023 | 4 years, 32 days |
| – |  | Lose, StephanieStephanie Lose (born 1982) Acting | 23 October 2023 | 18 November 2023 | 26 days |
| 11 | .jpg) | Poulsen, Troels LundTroels Lund Poulsen (born 1976) | 18 November 2023 | Incumbent | 1 year, 342 days |
In theEuropean Parliament, Venstre sits in theRenew Europe group with four MEPs.[49][50][51][52]
In theEuropean Committee of the Regions, Venstre sits in theRenew Europe CoR group, with three full and four alternate members for the 2025–2030 mandate.[53][54]
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/- | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1872 | 53 / 104 | New | Opposition | ||
| 1873 | 51 / 104 | 2 | Opposition | ||
| 1876 | 74 / 104 |  23 | Opposition | ||
| 1879 | 65 / 104 | 9 | Opposition | ||
| 1881 (May) | 69 / 102 | 4 | Opposition | ||
| 1881 (Jul) | 75 / 102 | 6 | Opposition | ||
| 1884 | 80,000 | 56.3 (#1) | 81 / 102 | 6 | Opposition |
| 1887 | 132,000 | 58.1 (#1) | 74 / 102 | 7 | Opposition |
| 1890 | 123,000 | 53.0 (#1) | 75 / 102 | 1 | Opposition |
| 1892 | 63,000 | 28.1 (#3) | 30 / 102 | 45 | Opposition |
| 1895 | 89,530 | 40.5 (#1) | 53 / 114 | 23 | Opposition |
| 1898 | 98,070 | 43.6 (#1) | 63 / 114 | 10 | Opposition |
| 1901 | 103,495 | 45.9 (#1) | 76 / 114 | 13 | Majority |
| 1903 | 121,357 | 49.4 (#1) | 73 / 114 | 3 | Majority |
| 1906 | 94,272 | 31.2 (#1) | 56 / 114 | 17 | Minority |
| 1909 | 77,949 | 24.0 (#1) | 37 / 114 | 19 | Minority(1909) |
| Opposition(1909–1910) | |||||
| 1910 | 118,902 | 34.1 (#1) | 57 / 114 | 20 | Majority |
| 1913 | 103,917 | 28.6 (#2) | 44 / 114 | 13 | Opposition |
| 1915 | 8,081 | 62.8 (#1) | 43 / 114 | 1 | Opposition |
| 1918 | 269,646 | 29.4 (#1) | 45 / 140 | 2 | Opposition |
| 1920 (Apr) | 350,563 | 34.2 (#1) | 48 / 140 | 3 | Caretaker government |
| 1920 (Jul) | 344,351 | 36.1 (#1) | 51 / 140 | 3 | Minority |
| 1920 (Sep) | 411,661 | 34.0 (#1) | 51 / 149 |  0 | Minority |
| 1924 | 362,682 | 28.3 (#2) | 44 / 149 | 7 | Opposition |
| 1926 | 378,137 | 28.3 (#2) | 46 / 149 | 2 | Minority |
| 1929 | 402,121 | 28.3 (#2) | 43 / 149 | 3 | Opposition |
| 1932 | 381,862 | 24.7 (#2) | 38 / 149 | 5 | Opposition |
| 1935 | 292,247 | 17.8 (#2) | 28 / 149 | 10 | Opposition |
| 1939 | 309,355 | 18.2 (#2) | 30 / 149 | 2 | Opposition(1939–1940) |
| Coalition(1940–1943) | |||||
| 1943 | 376,850 | 18.7 (#3) | 28 / 149 | 2 | Coalition |
| 1945 | 479,158 | 23.4 (#2) | 38 / 149 | 10 | Minority |
| 1947[c] | 529,066 | 27.6 (#2) | 49 / 150 | 8 | Opposition |
| 1950 | 438,188 | 21.3 (#2) | 32 / 151 | 14 | Coalition |
| 1953 (Apr) | 456,896 | 22.1 (#2) | 33 / 151 | 1 | Coalition |
| 1953 (Sep) | 499,656 | 23.1 (#2) | 42 / 179 | 9 | Opposition |
| 1957 | 578,932 | 25.1 (#2) | 45 / 179 | 3 | Opposition |
| 1960 | 512,041 | 21.1 (#2) | 38 / 179 | 7 | Opposition |
| 1964 | 547,770 | 20.8 (#2) | 38 / 179 | 0 | Opposition |
| 1966 | 539,027 | 19.3 (#2) | 35 / 179 | 3 | Opposition |
| 1968 | 530,167 | 18.6 (#3) | 34 / 179 | 1 | Coalition |
| 1971 | 450,904 | 15.6 (#3) | 30 / 179 | 4 | Opposition |
| 1973 | 374,283 | 12.3 (#3) | 22 / 179 | 8 | Minority |
| 1975 | 711,298 | 23.3 (#2) | 42 / 179 | 20 | Opposition |
| 1977 | 371,728 | 12.0 (#3) | 21 / 179 | 21 | Opposition(1977–1978) |
| Coalition(1978–1979) | |||||
| 1979 | 396,484 | 12.5 (#2) | 22 / 179 | 1 | Opposition |
| 1981 | 353,280 | 11.3 (#4) | 20 / 179 | 2 | Opposition(1981–1982) |
| Coalition(1982–1984) | |||||
| 1984 | 405,737 | 12.1 (#3) | 22 / 179 | 2 | Coalition |
| 1987 | 354,291 | 10.5 (#4) | 19 / 179 | 3 | Coalition |
| 1988 | 394,190 | 11.8 (#4) | 22 / 179 | 3 | Coalition |
| 1990 | 511,643 | 15.8 (#3) | 29 / 179 | 7 | Coalition(1990–1993) |
| Opposition(1993–1994) | |||||
| 1994 | 775,176 | 23.3 (#2) | 42 / 179 | 13 | Opposition |
| 1998 | 817,894 | 24.0 (#2) | 42 / 179 | 0 | Opposition |
| 2001 | 1,077,858 | 31.2 (#1) | 56 / 179 | 14 | Coalition |
| 2005 | 974,636 | 29.0 (#1) | 52 / 179 | 4 | Coalition |
| 2007 | 908,472 | 26.2 (#1) | 46 / 179 | 6 | Coalition |
| 2011 | 947,725 | 26.7 (#1) | 47 / 179 | 1 | Opposition |
| 2015 | 685,188 | 19.5 (#3) | 34 / 179 | 13 | Minority(2015–2016) |
| Coalition(2016–2019) | |||||
| 2019 | 825,486 | 23.4 (#2) | 43 / 179 | 9 | Opposition |
| 2022 | 460,546 | 13.3 (#2) | 23 / 179 | 20 | Coalition |
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| Year | List leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Tove Nielsen | 252,767 | 14.48 (#3) | 3 / 16 | New | LD |
| 1984 | 248,397 | 12.48 (#4) | 2 / 16 | 1 | LDR | |
| 1989 | Niels Anker Kofoed | 297,565 | 16.63 (#3) | 3 / 16 | 1 | |
| 1994 | Eva Kjer Hansen | 394,362 | 18.96 (#1) | 4 / 16 | 1 | ELDR |
| 1999 | Bertel Haarder | 460,834 | 23.39 (#1) | 5 / 16 | 1 | |
| 2004 | Karin Riis-Jørgensen | 366,734 | 19.36 (#2) | 3 / 14 | 2 | ALDE |
| 2009 | Jens Rohde | 474,041 | 20.24 (#2) | 3 / 13 | 0 | |
| 2014 | Ulla Tørnæs | 379,840 | 16.68 (#3) | 2 / 13 | 1 | |
| 2019 | Morten Løkkegaard | 648,203 | 23.50 (#1) | 4 / 14 | 2 | RE |
| 2024 | 360,212 | 14.72 (#3) | 2 / 14 | 2 |
Page 17: In Dänemark ordnen wir beispielsweise die rechtsliberale Venstre in die politische Rechte ein, [...]; Page 74: Der eigentliche Gewinner seit 1974 war die (konservative) Agrarpartei (Venstre), [...]
On August 30 , the 'SV-government', a coalition between the Social Democratic party and the liberal Venstre, was formed.
However, Nordic particularism was also used to justify a 'yes' vote, as in this speech given to a local meeting by a Liberal (Venstre) member of parliament, and reported in Skive Folkeblad on 6 March: ...
Die auf dem linken Flügel dominierenden Kraft war die Venstre - heute eine konservative Partei.
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