Danish Social Liberal Party

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Danish Social Liberal Party
Radikale Venstre
Leader Margrethe Vestager
Chairman Klaus Frandsen
Founded 21 May 1905
Headquarters Christiansborg
1240 København K
Newspaper Radikal Politik
Youth wing Radikal Ungdom
Ideology Social liberalism[1][2]
Political position Centre[3] to Centre-left[4][5]
International affiliation Liberal International
European affiliation Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
European Parliament group no MEPs
Colours Magenta, blue
Folketing:[6]
17 / 179
European Parliament
0 / 13
Regions:[7]
7 / 205
Municipalities:[8]
50 / 2,468
Election symbol
B
Website
radikale.dk

Politics of Denmark
Political parties
Elections
Percentage of the popular vote received by the Danish Social Liberal Party in general[clarification needed] elections, 1920-2011.

The Danish Social Liberal Party (Danish: Det Radikale Venstre, literally: "The Radical Left", occasionally translated to English as "Radical Liberal Party") is a social liberal[1][2][9][10][11] political party in Denmark. The party is a member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party.

Contents

Origin[edit]

The party was founded in 1905 as a split from the liberal Venstre Reform Party, the primary cause of the split was disagreements about defence policy - the social liberals were antimilitarist. The literal translation radical left is nowadays somewhat misleading, as the party is traditionally described as being in the centre of the left-right political scale. The use of the word for "left" in the name of the former mother party Venstre and the Norwegian party Venstre is meant to refer to liberalism and not left-wing politics. Venstre originally was to the left of the conservative and aristocratic right.

Electoral record[edit]

The party president is Klaus Frandsen and it has seventeen members of parliament . By far the most prominent member, however, is political leader and spokesperson Margrethe Vestager.

The party performed well at the 2005 elections. It came out with 9.2% of the popular vote and 17 seats in Parliament, a gain of eight seats. In the 2007 elections, the party share of the popular vote fell to 5.1% and it lost 8 seats, leaving it a total of 9. In the subsequent 2011 elections, the party support rose to 9.5%, and it regained 8 seats to resume a total of 17.

Around 2005 the party was inspired by Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class. The party also released their own book/political program called "Det kreative Danmark" (The Creative Denmark).

Current issues high on the agenda for the party are:

  • Strong opposition to the tight immigration policies of the former Liberal-Conservative government, particularly the 24 year rule (a measure that prevents foreign spouses of Danish citizens from gaining residence permits if either is under the age of 24, to avoid forced marriages).
  • Opposition to the educational policies of the former Liberal-Conservative government, which according to the party stresses centralisation, nationalised testing and old-fashioned educational ideas over creativeness, freedom in teaching methods and personal development of pupils.
  • A major tax reform, which should simplify the tax system in such a way that income taxes will be reduced in favour of more environmental taxes, less tax deductions and higher taxes on real estate. The point of this is to make working more attractive and the hiring of service workers more attractive. This implies that the party is also opposed to the Liberal-Conservative government's "tax freeze" (skattestop) which prohibits any tax increases, but also changes of the taxation pattern.

Internal conflicts[edit]

In 2007 some prominent members of the party criticised the strategy as being too left-leaning and depending too much on the Social Democrats.[citation needed]

On 7 May 2007, MP Naser Khader and MEP Anders Samuelsen announced that they had left the party to found the economic liberal New Alliance, later renamed the Liberal Alliance,[12] party along with Conservative MEP Gitte Seeberg.

During the following debate the party first distanced itself from the Social Democrats, but after being criticised internally for that too, returned to an oppositional role.

On 6 January 2009 MP Simon Emil Ammitzbøll also left the party and founded a new party called Borgerligt Centrum (Civic Centre), again as a centre-right alternative. In June 2009 he left the Borgerligt Centrum and joined Liberal Alliance.[13]

2007 elections[edit]

At a press release on 15 June 2007, it was announced that MP Margrethe Vestager would take over the leadership of the party after Marianne Jelved, and that the party would rethink its strategy and will now consider forming a coalition government with either the left or right side of parliament.[14]

Vestager clarified during the run-up to the 2007 election that her party would only be supporting a government led by the Social Democrats. In the 2007 parliamentary elections, it received 5.1% of the vote, and 9 out of 179 seats.

2011 elections[edit]

In the 2011 parliamentary election, in which it ran as part of the "Red Bloc" with the Social Democrats, Socialist People's Party, and Red-Green Alliance, it received 9.5% of the votes and went from 9 to 17 seats, almost doubling its share of votes and of seats in the Folketing.

The party joined the new centre-left government lead by incoming Prime Minister and Social Democrat leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt following the 2011 elections.

Relationships to other parties[edit]

The Danish Social Liberal Party has traditionally kept itself in the centre of the political scale. Since the early nineties, though, it has primarily cooperated with the Social Democrats. During the 2007 election, the possibility of cooperating with Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal-Conservative government, though, became a source of debate within the party, but was rejected by the parliamentary group leader Margrethe Vestager.[source?]

Up to the 2011 elections, the party participated in a number of reforms of fiscal policy and pensions with Lars Løkke Rasmussen's right-wing cabinet. These reforms included cuts and austerity measures and went against the general policy proposed by the rest of the opposition which consisted of social-democratic and socialist parties, but Vestager's party nevertheless maintained support for the Social Democratic candidate for Prime Minister, while making clear that they would seek to cooperate across the middle also after the election.[citation needed]

Prominent members[edit]

Prime Ministers[edit]

  • Carl Theodor Zahle, Prime Minister 1909–1910 and 1913–1920, (Minister of Justice 1929–1935)
  • Erik Scavenius, Prime Minister 1942–1945 (In reality only until 29 August 1943), (Foreign Minister 1909–1910, 1913–1920 and 1940–1945 (1943) )
  • Hilmar Baunsgaard, Prime Minister 1968–1971, Trade Minister 1961–1964

Other Ministers[edit]

Unofficial political leaders[edit]

Identical with parliamentary group leaders in the Folketing except when the party was in government, and in certain periods there were forms of co-leadership[citation needed]. The time periods are disputable[citation needed] but they may be argued to be as presented here:

"Co-leaders"

References:[15][16][17][18]

Parliamentary group leaders[edit]

Parliamentary group leaders in the Folketing:

References:[14][19]

Party chairmen[edit]

References:[19]

Election results[edit]

Parliament (Folketing)[edit]

Election year # of
overall votes		  % of
overall vote		  % of
Danish vote		 # of
overall seats won		 # of
Danish seats won		 +/– Government
1984 184,642 5.5 (#6)
10 / 179
10 / 175
 Increase 1 in opposition
1987 209,086 6.2 (#5)
11 / 179
11 / 175
 Increase 1 in opposition
1988 185,707 5.6 (#6)
10 / 179
10 / 175
 Decrease 1 in coalition
1990 114,888 3.5 (#7)
7 / 179
7 / 175
 Decrease 3 in opposition
1994 152,701 4.6 (#6)
8 / 179
8 / 175
 Increase 1 in coalition
1998 131,254 3.9 (#7)
7 / 179
7 / 175
 Decrease 1 in coalition
2001 179,023 5.2 (#6)
9 / 179
9 / 175
 Increase 2 in opposition
2005 308,212 9.2 (#5)
17 / 179
17 / 175
 Increase 8 in opposition
2007 177,161 5.1 (#6)
9 / 179
9 / 175
 Decrease 8 in opposition
2011 336,698 9.5 (#4)
17 / 179
17 / 175
 Increase 8 in coalition

European Parliament[edit]

Election year # of
overall votes		  % of
overall vote		  % of
Danish vote		 # of
overall seats won		 # of
Danish seats won		 +/–
1989 50,196 2.8 (#8)
0 / 16
1994 176,480 8.5 (#6)
1 / 16
 Increase 1
1999 180,089 9.1 (#4)
1 / 16
 Steady 0
2004 120,473 6.4 (#6)
1 / 14
 Steady 0
2009 100,094 4.3 (#7)
0 / 14
 Decrease 1

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck
  2. ^ a b Almeida, Dimitri. "Liberal Parties and European Integration". 
  3. ^ Danish parties agree on tougher border controls, Reuters, 11 May 2011, retrieved 30 June 2011 
  4. ^ Emmenegger, Patrick (2009), Regulatory Social Policy: The Politics of Job Security Regulations, Haupt, p. 192 
  5. ^ Möller-Holtkamp, Vera (9 May 2007), Denmark's New Party Aims to Shake Up the Far Right, DW World, retrieved 30 June 2011 
  6. ^ "Danmarks Radio Resultatet". Retrieved 16 September 2011. 
  7. ^ "AKVA3: Valg til regions råd efter område, parti og stemmer/kandidater/køn". Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 13 June 2010. 
  8. ^ "VALGK3: Valg til kommunale råd efter område, parti og stemmer/kandidater/køn". Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 13 June 2010. 
  9. ^ Marks, Gary and Wilson, Carole (July 2000). "The Past in the Present: A Cleavage Theory of Party Response to European Integration" (PDF). British Journal of Political Science 30 (3): 433–459. doi:10.1017/S0007123400000181. 
  10. ^ Hans Slomp (30 September 2011). Europe, A Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. pp. 415, 419. ISBN 978-0-313-39182-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012. 
  11. ^ Henning Jørgensen (2002). Consensus, Cooperation and Conflict: The Policy Making Process in Denmark. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 32–. ISBN 978-1-84064-091-5. Retrieved 24 August 2012. 
  12. ^ Changing name
  13. ^ Ammitzbøll to Liberal Alliance Borgerligt Centrum is not closed!
  14. ^ a b Haahr, Ulla (15 June 2007). Vestager ny radikal dronning (Danish). Danmarks Radio. Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
  15. ^ Bille, Lars (1997), Partier i forandring, Odense Universitetsforlag, ISBN 87-7838-314-5.
  16. ^ Larsen, Helge (1980), Det Radikale Venstre i medvind og modvind, Tidens Tankers Forlag.
  17. ^ Lund, Joakim (2003), Partier under pres, Gyldendal, ISBN 87-02-02174-9.
  18. ^ Rasmussen, Erik & Roar Skovmand (1955), Det Radikale Venstre 1905–1955, Det danske Forlag.
  19. ^ a b Pedersen, Sune; Lidegaard, Bo (eds.) (2005). B radikalt 1905–2005 (Danish). Copenhagen: Gyldendal, p. 392-93. ISBN 87-02-03315-1.

External links[edit]
Bracketed numbers indicate numbers of seats in the respective parliaments.
Folketing
European Parliament
Parties running in Denmark proper
Parties running in the Faroe Islands
Parties running in Greenland
Candidates for Prime Minister
Other notable candidates
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