2015 Danish general election

Danish general election, 2015

18 June 2015
All 179 seats to the Folketing 90 seats are needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt Kristian Thulesen Dahl Lars Løkke Rasmussen Party Social Democrats DPP Venstre Last election 44 seats, 24.9% 22 seats, 12.3% 47 seats, 26.7% Seats won 47 37 34 Seat change 3 15 13 Percentage 26.4% 21.2% 19.5%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Collective leadership Anders Samuelsen Uffe Elbæk Party Red–Green Liberal Alliance The Alternative Last election 12 seats, 6.7% 9 seats, 5.0% New party Seats won 14 13 9 Seat change 2 4 9 Percentage 7.7% 7.5% 4.7%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   File:Pia Olsen Dyhr, pressefoto.jpg Leader Morten Østergaard Pia Olsen Dyhr Søren Pape Poulsen Party Social Liberals SF Conservatives Last election 17 seats, 9.5% 16 seats, 9.2% 8 seats, 4.9% Seats won 8 7 6 Seat change 9 9 2 Percentage 4.5% 4.2% 3.4%
Prime Minister before election Helle Thorning-Schmidt Social Democrats Elected Prime Minister TBD

General elections were held in Denmark on 18 June 2015 to elect the 179 members of the Folketing. 175 members were elected in Denmark, two in the Faroe Islands and two in Greenland.

Background

Following the last general election, a minority government was formed by the Social Democrats, the Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party. The government was supported by the Red-Green Alliance. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the leader of the Social Democrats, became Prime Minister.

The government had rocky relations with the Red-Green Alliance, relying on their ad hoc support to pass bills instead of a formalized alliance. They have occasionally preferred to cooperate with Venstre to pass legislation. Symbolically, Red-Green deputy Frank Aaen told Finance Minister Bjarne Corydon "Happy New Year" on 28 February 2013, because the government had failed to meet with his party since the beginning of 2013.

On 3 February 2014, the Socialist People's Party left the government in protest over the sale of shares in the public energy company DONG Energy to the investment bank Goldman Sachs. This sparked a crisis within the Socialist People's Party, as three former cabinet ministers left the party, joining either the Social Democrats or the Social Liberal Party. However, the Socialist People's Party continued to support the government on confidence motions, preventing an early election.

The incumbent government prior to the elections consisted of a coalition between the Social Democrats and Social Liberal Party, with Helle Thorning-Schmidt continuing as Prime Minister. The cabinet was composed of 13 Social Democratic ministers and 7 Social Liberal ministers.

Electoral system

The 179 members of the Folketing are elected in Denmark (175), the Faroe Islands (2) and Greenland (2). The 175 seats in Denmark consist of 135 seats elected in ten multi-member constituencies by proportional representation, using a modified version of the Sainte-Laguë method and Hare quota, and 40 "top-up" seats, which are allocated to parties in order to address any imbalance in the distribution of the constituency seats.

According to the Danish Constitution, the election had to be held no later than 15 September 2015, since the last election was held on 15 September 2011. The Prime Minister was able to call the election at any date, provided it is no later than four years from the previous election. On 27 May Thorning-Schmidt announced that the elections would be held on 18 June 2015.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the Danish general election, 2015

Polls notably underestimated the eventual result by the Danish People's Party.

Polling Firm	Date	V	A	O	B	F	Ø	I	C	K	Å	Lead	Red (A+B+F+Ø+Å)	Blue (V+O+I+C+K)
Gallup	June 17	20.6	25.9	18.1	5.2	5.3	8.0	7.1	3.8	1.1	4.7	5.3	49.2	50.7
Greens	June 17	20.9	24.4	18.5	5.6	5.4	8.5	7.6	3.3	0.6	5.2	3.5	49.1	50.9
Voxmeter	June 17	19.6	25.9	17.2	4.6	6.3	9.8	7.7	3.5	0.9	4.5	6.3	51.1	48.9
Epinion	June 17	20.6	24.5	18.0	5.2	5.3	9.3	7.5	3.9	0.7	4.9	4.3	49.2	50.7
Megafon	June 17	20.6	25.5	17.9	5.0	5.2	8.6	7.7	3.9	0.9	4.6	5.1	48.9	51.0

Results

For Denmark proper, the “Red” bloc (A+B+F+Ø+Å) won 85 seats and the “Blue” bloc (V+O+I+C+K) 90 seats. Even with all of the extra four seats from Greenland and the Faroe Islands going to the “Red” bloc, it would still be one seat behind the “Blue” bloc.

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Denmark proper
Social Democrats (A)	925,288	26.3	47	+3
Danish People's Party (O)	741,173	21.1	37	+15
Venstre (V)	684,223	19.5	34	–13
Red–Green Alliance (Ø)	273,870	7.8	14	+2
Liberal Alliance (I)	264,449	7.5	13	+4
The Alternative (Å)	168,585	4.8	9	New
Danish Social Liberal Party (B)	160,672	4.6	8	–9
Socialist People's Party (F)	148,027	4.2	7	–9
Conservative People's Party (C)	118,015	3.4	6	–2
Christian Democrats (K)	29,148	0.8	0	0
Other parties	3,027	0.1	0	–
Invalid/blank votes	40,068	–	–	–
Total	3,556,545	100	175	0
Registered voters/turnout	4,145,321	85.8	–	–
Faroe Islands
Republic	5,730	24.5	1	+1
Social Democratic Party	5,666	24.3	1	0
Union Party	5,500	23.5	0	–1
People's Party	4,368	18.7	0	0
Progress	749	3.2	0	New
Centre Party	605	2.6	0	0
Self-Government Party	403	1.7	0	0
Independents	345	1.5	0	0
Total	23,366	100	2	0
Greenland
Inuit Ataqatigiit	7,904	38.5	1	0
Siumut	7,831	38.2	1	0
Atassut	1,526	7.4	0	0
Democrats	1,753	8.5	0	0
Partii Naleraq	962	4.7	0	New
Invalid/blank votes	538	–	–	–
Total	20,514	100	2	0
Registered voters/turnout	41,048	50.0	–	–
Source: DST, KVF, Valg

Popular vote A   26.31% O   21.08% V   19.46% Ø   7.79% I   7.52% Å   4.79% B   4.57% F   4.21% C   3.36% K   0.83% Others   0.09%

Aftermath

Although the Social Democrats increased their share of the vote and won more seats, the "Blue" opposition bloc led by Rasmussen (Venstre, Danish People's Party, Liberal Alliance, Conservative People's Party, and Christian Democrats) gained more votes than the "Red" Social Democrat-led bloc (Social Democrats, Red–Green Alliance, The Alternative, Social Liberals, and Socialist People's Party), and Thorning-Schmidt resigned as party leader the day after the elections. Rasmussen is expected to lead negotiations around forming a government, although the possibility of Dahl making a bid to be Prime Minister has also been raised.

External links

• Election polling and trends on politiken.dk
• Greenland Folketing Election Results at Qinersineq.gl