VenstreThe party name is officially not translated into any other language, but is in English often referred to as the Liberal Party. Similar rules apply for the name of the party's youth wing

Venstres Ungdom Venstres Ungdom''The organisation's name is officially not translated into any other language. Similar rules apply for the name of the mother party Venstre. In Danish, Venstres Ungdom is usually referred to simply as "VU".'' (literally: ''Youth of ...

. (, ), full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti ( en, Left, Denmark's Liberal Party), is a conservative-liberal, agrarian

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. Founded as part of a peasants' movement against the

landed aristocracy Landed may refer to: * ''Landed'' (album), a 1975 album by Can * "Landed", a song by Ben Folds from ''Songs for Silverman'' * "Landed", a song by Drake from '' Dark Lane Demo Tapes'' * Landed gentry, a largely historical privileged British social ...

, today it espouses an

economically liberal Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalis ...

, pro-

free-market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

ideology. Venstre is the

major party A major party is a political party that holds substantial influence in a country's politics, standing in contrast to a minor party. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Major parties hold a significant percentage of the vote in elect ...

of the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

, and the second-largest party in the country. The party has produced many

Prime Ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is no ...

. In the 2019 general elections, Venstre received 23.4% of the vote and 43 out of 179 seats. Its current leader is

Jakob Ellemann-Jensen Jakob Ellemann-Jensen (born 25 September 1973) is a Danish politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Denmark and Minister of Defence since 2022. He has been the leader of Venstre since 2019. A member of the Folketing since the 2011 ...

following the resignation of

Lars Løkke Rasmussen Lars Løkke Rasmussen (; born 15 May 1964) is a Danish politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2022. He previously served as the 25th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2019. He was the le ...

as chairman on 31 August 2019. The party is a member of

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...

and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and has four MEPs in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

Ideology

Venstre is categorised as

on the

political spectrum A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...

. It is a

classical liberal Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, econom ...

and market liberal party within the Nordic agrarian tradition, and today is notably more pro–

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

than its sister parties. 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 the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

. This tax stop has been under heavy fire from the parties on the left wing of Danish politics, allegedly for being "asocial" and "only for the rich."

History

1870–1910

Venstre was founded in 1870 under the name Det Forenede Venstre ("The United Left") and originally consisted of multiple conflicting groups, all united under the

(then the standard

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

) ideology, the safeguarding of farmers' interests and opposition to the then right-wing classical conservative party

Højre Højre (, ''Right'') was the name of two Danish political parties of Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The c ...

(literally "Right"). After the party in 1872 gained an absolute majority in the

Folketing The Folketing ( da, Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands ...

, it became the leading voice in the battle for

parliamentarism A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

, 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 formed

Radikale Venstre The Danish Social Liberal Party ( da, Radikale Venstre, , Radical Left) is a social-liberal political party in Denmark. The party was founded as a split from the Venstre Reform Party in 1905. Historically, the centrist party has played a cent ...

(also known as the Danish Social Liberal Party), and in 1910 Venstrereformpartiet and Det Moderate Venstre reunited again under the name Venstre.

1910–2009

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 1984

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Uffe Ellemann-Jensen (, informal: ; 1 November 1941 – 18 June 2022) was a Danish politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark in the Conservative-led Poul Schlüter Administration from 1982 to 1993. He was leader of the Da ...

was elected chairman, and by profiling the liberal ideology in sharp confrontation to the

, 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. After a disappointing 1998 general election, Ellemann-Jensen resigned as chairman and

Anders Fogh Rasmussen Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of polit ...

was elected in his place. He immediately changed the party's usual confrontational strategy, instead appealing to the political centre. In the 2001 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 the Conservative People's Party and the

Danish People's Party The Danish People's Party ( da, Dansk Folkeparti, DPP/DF) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Denmark. It was formed in 1995 by former members of the Progress Party (FrP). The DPP lent its support to the Venstre– C ...

. For the first time since 1929 a liberal government was no longer dependent on the centre parties. Despite a small decline in both the 2005 general elections (29% and 52 seats) and the 2007 general elections (26.2% and 46 seats), the party remained the biggest and the coalition government continued. On 5 April 2009 Fogh Rasmussen resigned as chairman, instead serving as

Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff ...

. In his place

was elected.

2009–present

In the 2011 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 of Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democratic coalition. Even though the party lost voter support in the 2015 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 the Liberal Alliance to form a coalition government instead. During the campaign of the 2019 general elections Løkke Rasmussen published an autobiography, in which he opened up for the possibility of forming a government with the Social Democrats. This was seen as controversial in the liberal "blue bloc", and Social Democratic leader

Mette Frederiksen Mette Frederiksen (; born 19 November 1977) is a Danish politician who has been Prime Minister of Denmark since June 2019, and Leader of the Social Democrats since June 2015. The second woman to hold either office, she is also the youngest prime ...

immediately declined the proposition. Following internal fighting in the party, Løkke Rasmussen and vice chairman Kristian Jensen both resigned on 31 August 2019. On 21 September 2019 political spokesman and former Minister for Environment and Food

was elected the party's next chairman.

Prime Ministers

Johan Henrik Deuntzer Johan Henrik Deuntzer (20 May 1845 – 16 November 1918) was a Danish professor and politician who served as a member of the Liberal '' Venstre'' party until 1905 where he joined the Danish Social Liberal Party. He was Council President ...

(July 24, 1901January 14, 1905) * Jens Christian Christensen (January 14, 1905October 12, 1908) *

Niels Neergaard Niels Thomasius Neergaard (27 June 1854 – 2 September 1936) was a Danish historian and political figure, a member of the Liberal Moderate Venstre and since 1910 of Venstre. He served as Council President of Denmark between 1908 and 1909 as ...

(October 12, 1908August 16, 1909) *

Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg Johan Ludvig Carl Christian Tido Holstein (10 June 1839 – 1 March 1912), was a Danish politician who was Minister of State of Denmark. He was Council President of Denmark for two months, from 16 August to 28 October 1909. He also served a ...

(August 16, 1909October 28, 1909) * Klaus Berntsen (July 5, 1910June 21, 1913) *

(May 5, 1920April 23, 1924) * Thomas Madsen-Mygdal (December 14, 1926April 30, 1929) *

Knud Kristensen Knud Kristensen (26 October 1880 – 28 September 1962) was Prime Minister of Denmark from 7 November 1945 to 13 November 1947 in the first elected government after the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. After the October 1945 ...

(November 7, 1945November 13, 1947) * Erik Eriksen (October 30, 1950September 30, 1953) *

Poul Hartling Poul Hartling (14 August 1914 – 30 April 2000) was a Danish politician and diplomat. He was leader of Venstre from 1965 to 1977, and served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1973 to 1975. Prior to that, he served as foreign minister from 1968 ...

(December 19, 1973February 13, 1975) *

(November 27, 2001April 5, 2009) *

(April 5, 2009October 3, 2011; June 28, 2015June 27, 2019)

Leaders since 1929

Origin of the name

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-day Conservative People's Party, advocated for established interests, particularly the

Church of Denmark The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church, sometimes called the Church of Denmark ( da, Folkekirken, literally: "The People's Church" or unofficially da, Den danske folkekirke, literally: "The Danish People's Church"; kl, ...

and the landed gentry. In current Danish politics there is a clear distinction between the concepts of ''Venstre'' (Left, i.e., the party bearing that name) and ''venstrefløj'' (left wing, i.e., socialist and other left-leaning parties). The use of the word for "left" in the name of the Danish political party ''

'' (literally: " Radical Left") and the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

party '' Venstre'' is meant to refer to

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

and not

socialism Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...

. Members of the party are referred to as ''venstremænd'' and ''venstrekvinder'', respectively "Venstre men" and "Venstre women" (singular: -mand, -kvinde).

Election results

ImageSize = width:1100 height:240 PlotArea = width:1000 height:160 left:75 bottom:60 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:40 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:0 PlotData= bar:% color:blue width:15 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1910 from:start till:34.1 text:34.1 bar:1913 from:start till:29.0 text:29.0 bar:1918 from:start till:29.7 text:29.7 bar:1920 from:start till:34.4 text:34.4 bar:1920-2 from:start till:36.2 text:36.2 bar:1920-3 from:start till:34.0 text:34.0 bar:1924 from:start till:28.3 text:28.3 bar:1926 from:start till:28.3 text:28.3 bar:1929 from:start till:28.3 text:28.3 bar:1932 from:start till:24.7 text:24.7 bar:1935 from:start till:17.9 text:17.9 bar:1939 from:start till:18.2 text:18.2 bar:1943 from:start till:18.7 text:18.7 bar:1945 from:start till:23.4 text:23.4 bar:1947 from:start till:26.1 text:26.1 bar:1950 from:start till:21.3 text:21.3 bar:1953 from:start till:22.1 text:22.1 bar:1953-2 from:start till:23.1 text:23.1 bar:1957 from:start till:25.1 text:25.1 bar:1960 from:start till:21.1 text:21.1 bar:1964 from:start till:20.8 text:20.8 bar:1966 from:start till:19.3 text:19.3 bar:1968 from:start till:18.6 text:18.6 bar:1971 from:start till:15.6 text:15.6 bar:1973 from:start till:12.3 text:12.3 bar:1975 from:start till:23.3 text:23.3 bar:1977 from:start till:12.0 text:12.0 bar:1979 from:start till:12.5 text:12.5 bar:1981 from:start till:11.3 text:11.3 bar:1984 from:start till:12.1 text:12.1 bar:1987 from:start till:10.5 text:10.5 bar:1988 from:start till:11.8 text:11.8 bar:1990 from:start till:15.8 text:15.8 bar:1994 from:start till:23.3 text:23.3 bar:1998 from:start till:24.0 text:24.0 bar:2001 from:start till:31.2 text:31.2 bar:2005 from:start till:29.0 text:29.0 bar:2007 from:start till:26.3 text:26.3 bar:2011 from:start till:26.7 text:26.7 bar:2015 from:start till:19.5 text:19.5 bar:2019 from:start till:23.4 text:23.4 bar:2022 from:start till:13.3 text:13.3

Parliament

Local elections

European Parliament

European representation

In the

, Venstre sits in the Renew Europe group with four MEPs. In the

European Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

, Venstre sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with three full and two alternate members for the 2020–2025 mandate.

Youth and student wings

Liberal Students of Denmark The Liberal Students of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Liberale Studerende, often: ''DLS'') is a political student organization, with chapters in the major Danish university cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg. It was founded 14 November 191 ...

''(Danmarks Liberale Studerende)''

Notes

References

External links

*
Venstre
official site
Denmark's Liberal Party
presentation in English *
Party Profile from the newspaper Politiken
{{Danish political parties Liberal parties in Denmark Political parties established in 1870 Classical liberal parties Conservative liberal parties Liberal International Nordic agrarian parties Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties 1870 establishments in Denmark