Conservative People's Party (Denmark)

"DKF" redirects here. For the Dalaw Kalinga Foundation, see List of charities in the Philippines.

Conservative People's Party Det Konservative Folkeparti
Leader	Lars Barfoed
Founded	1915
Headquarters	Nyhavn 4 1051 København K
Youth wing	Young Conservatives
Student wing	Conservative Students
Ideology	Conservatism Liberal conservatism
Political position	Centre-right
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	European People's Party
Official colours	Green
Parliament	8 / 179
European Parliament	1 / 13
Regions:	20 / 205
Municipalities:	262 / 2,468
Election symbol
C
Website
www.konservative.dk
Politics of Denmark Political parties Elections

The Conservative People's Party (Danish: Det Konservative Folkeparti), also known as Conservatives (Konservative) is a Danish political party.

History

Election poster, 1939

The party was founded 1915 based mostly on its predecessor, Højre (Right), but also on the Free Conservatives and a moderate faction of Venstre (Left), the liberals.

The party has participated in several coalition governments, but only one Prime Minister (statsminister in Danish), Poul Schlüter, has come from this party, serving from 1982 to 1993. The youth branch of the Conservative People's Party, albeit an independent organisation, is Young Conservatives, the earliest formed youth organisation in Denmark, founded in December 1904, and believed to be one of the oldest in the world^{[citation needed]}, preceding the Conservative People's Party by 10 years. The student branch is Conservative Students, likewise an independent organisation, which has branches at all Danish Universities.

In 2001–2011, the Conservative People's Party was the junior partner in a coalition government led by Venstre (literally "left", but in Denmark meaning "Liberals"). The Conservative People's Party is currently led by Lars Barfoed, who served as Justice Minister from 2010 to 2011.

The party is a member of the European People's Party (EPP). In the 2004 election for the European Parliament, the party won a seat. The member is currently Bendt Bendtsen, who is a member of the EPP group.

In the 2011 election for the Folketing (Danish national parliament), the Conservative People's Party won 8 seats, ten fewer than it had won in the previous election, and it received 4.9% of the vote. In the 2011 election, it was placed eighth behind Venstre, the Social Democrats, the Danish People's Party, the Socialist People's Party, the Red-Green Alliance and the Liberal Alliance.

Relationship to other parties

Although the Social Democrats are currently speaking of the possibility of a broad centrist coalition including the Conservatives, the Conservatives appear to remain committed to a right-of-centre alliance,^{[citation needed]} working most closely with the liberal Venstre and somewhat less closely with the Danish People's Party. The Conservatives did cooperate with the Social Liberals during its time in power in the 1980s and also cooperated with the centre-left government under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the 1990s.

International comparison

The Conservative People's Party is a party that extolls the virtues of capitalism in a land of social democracy, but it is not considered an especially radical party, being quite moderated by the popularity of the welfare state in Denmark. Thus, the Conservative People's Party is somewhat close to the mainstream of European conservatives, with an extra liberal streak. Comparisons could be drawn with the reformists within the Sarkozy government in France, the moderate wing of the US Republican Party or David Cameron's Conservatives in the United Kingdom.

List of leaders

Political leaders

John Christmas Møller	1928–1947
Ole Bjørn Kraft	1947–1955
Aksel Møller	1955–1958
Poul Sørensen	1958–1969
Poul Møller	1969–1971
Erik Ninn-Hansen	1971–1974
Poul Schlüter	1974–1993
Henning Dyremose	1993
Hans Engell	1993–1997
Per Stig Møller	1997–1998
Pia Christmas-Møller	1998–1999
Bendt Bendtsen	1999–2008
Lene Espersen	2008–2011
Lars Barfoed	2011-

Party chairmen

Emil Piper	1916-28
Charles Tvede	1928-32
John Christmas Møller	1932-39
Vilhelm Fibiger	1939-48
Halfdan Hendriksen	1948-57
Einar Foss	1957-65
Knud Thestrup	1965-72
Erik Haunstrup Clemmensen	1972-74
Poul Schlüter	1974-77
Ib Stetter	1977-81
Poul Schlüter	1981-93
Torben Rechendorff	1993-95
Hans Engell	1995-97
Per Stig Møller	1997-98
Poul Andreassen	1998-00
Bendt Bendtsen	2000-08
Lene Espersen	2008-11

Youth and student wings

• Young Conservatives (Konservativ Ungdom)
• Conservative Students (Konservative Studerende)

Notable members

• John Christmas Møller - Wartime resistance figure.
• Connie Hedegaard - Appointed as the European Union's first ever European Commissioner for Climate Action in February 2010, Hedegaard was elected to the Danish Parliament as a member for the Conservative People's Party in 1984 at the age of 23, becoming the youngest Danish MP ever at that time. In 1989, Hedegaard became first spokesperson for the Conservative People's Party, but left politics for journalism in 1990. (Retrieved 15:53, 18 March 2011 (UTC))

External links

(Danish) Official website