Venstre
43/179 members of the Parliament; 12,7% (0,8% increase since September)
Leader: Jakob Ellemann-Jensen
The oldest party in Denmark, founded in 1860 by farmers, it transitioned in the 1960s towards representing small and medium business owners. They are the traditional leader of the blue camp. You can identify them by their navy-blue color and the letter V.
Status: The party is weakened. They stand to lose almost half of their members of the Parliament. For the first time, there is a challenger to the prime minister candidate usually nominated by Venstre for the blue camp. In the last two years, two parties broke out from Venstre (Moderaterne and Danmarksdemokraterne), founded by former top Venstre leaders. However, during the campaign, voters tend to listen to the political proposals and there Venstre stands a chance to recover.
Typical voter: The core voter base is among the farmers and the business sector. 25% of the voters are over 70 years old. 40% have a vocational background; 10% are entrepreneurs.
Political platform: The party is positioned on the center-right with a conservative liberal ideology. According to their platform, their focus is on better healthcare (reduce waiting times, hire more family doctors, more staff); economic responsibility (tax reductions for hard working people) and the development of green solutions for the benefit of the Danish economy. The main areas of interest are the economy, healthcare, and the environment/climate.
…and for the internationals
- Deportation of criminal immigrants.
- Compulsory to learn Danish, adopt Danish values and be economically independent.
- Lower government benefits for immigrants (SU; unemployment benefits; social help).
Preferred type of government? A blue government with Jakob Ellemann-Jensen as prime minister.
Konservative – The Conservatives
12/179 members of the Parliament; 11,2% (decrease of 2,2% since September)
Leader: Søren Pape Poulsen
At the beginning of Danish democracy, two parties competed for political power – Venstre (the farmers) and Højre (the landowners and the nobility). The Conservatives are the modern expression of Højre (renamed in 1916) and as expected, it has strong roots among the old rich families of Denmark. They can be identified by their dark green color and the letter C.
Status: The Conservatives are entering the elections on a downward trend in the opinion polls, after weeks of scandals related to their leader, Soren Pape Poulsen. Since Soren announced that he wants to be a prime ministerial candidate, the media has looked into every nook and cranny.
Typical voter: Their core voter base is the upper class of Denmark. Their voters have the highest income in Denmark. 25% of the voters are over 70 years old. 25% are leaders.
Political platform: The party is positioned on center-right with a conservative ideology. According to their program, they want more privatization in elderly care, lower taxes (remove the top tax and inheritance tax; lower corporation tax; higher tax deduction; reduce state tax income by 40 billion until 2030), and better security (more police; harsher punishments). The main areas of interest are the economy, healthcare, and immigration.
…and for the internationals
- Deportation of criminal immigrants.
- Compulsory to learn Danish and for immigrants to be independent economically.
- Secret Service background check on citizenship applications.
Preferred type of government? A blue government with Søren Pape Poulsen as prime minister.
Liberal Alliance
4/179 members of the Parliament; 4,1% (1,2% decrease since September)
Leader: Alex Vanopslagh
Another relatively new party, founded in 2007 as a split from Radikale Venstre and Konservative, by Nasser Khader. They represent the libertarian current in Denmark and the recently successful entrepreneurs who want lower taxes. You can identify them by their use of navy blue and gold colors and the letter I.
Status: Liberal Alliance enters the elections with strong support among the 18 to 29 years old segment. Their young leader knows how to build an audience on TikTok and that rescued a party that was almost history.
Typical voter: Their core voter base is among successful entrepreneurs and young people. 50% of the voters are between 18 and 29 years old; 60% are men.
Political platform: The party is positioned on the right with a libertarian ideology. According to their program, they want to focus on lowering the taxes (remove top tax; reduce income tax to max.40%; raise the tax deductions to 7000 DKK); better and cheaper welfare (through privatization of healthcare and education) and protecting the rule of law (start an investigation against Mette Frederiksen about the mink case). The main areas of interest are public administration, taxes and economy.
…and for internationals
- Better treatment of the internationals already in Denmark.
- Better conditions for international workforce – attract more to Denmark.
- Asylum seekers should live outside of Denmark.
Preferred type of government? A blue government without mentioning under which blue prime minister. They would also consider joining a red-blue government with them as part of it.
Kristendemokraterne – The Christian Democrats
0/179 members of the Parliament; 0,4% (0,1% increase since September)
Leader: Marianne Karlsmose
Another party born during the Cold War, they were founded in 1970 by the anti-abortion and anti-pornography movement. Today they stand for the traditional family and a greener Denmark. You can identify them by their orange color and the letter K.
Status: In April 2022, The Christian Democrats went over 2% in the opinion polls. It looked like they would break the 21 years old curse that kept them away from the Parliament. Fast forward to today, they lost their young and charismatic leader Isabella Arendt (she went to Konservative) and their only member of the Parliament (which they got via transfer from Radikale Venstre) Jens Rohde decided to not run again, and leave the party. Chances are they will also miss this train.
Typical voter: Their core voter base is among the religious communities. 60% are women; 50% are public employees; 20% are over 70 years old.
Political platform: The party is positioned on the center-right with a Christian democratic ideology. According to their program, they want to focus on children and family first (more international workforce, better psychiatry, and conditions for the disabled), protect the people with other ethnic backgrounds and support nuclear energy. Main areas of interest are psychiatry, children/youth and environment/climate.
…and for internationals
- Denmark should take the quota of 1000 refugees every year.
- 500 million DKK investment in the Danish language schools.
- Refugees should be allowed to obtain permanent residence if they developed a connection to Denmark (language, education, work, society participation, rule of law).
Preferred type of government? A blue government with (most likely) Søren Pape Poulsen as prime minister.
Dansk Folkeparti – The Danish People’s Party
16/179 members of the Parliament; 1,8% (0,1% decrease since September)
Leader: Morten Messerschmidt
A post soviet party, founded in 1995 as a split from the Progress Party (Anti-Taxation). They dominated the anti-immigration agenda for more than two decades by influencing negatively the historical parties of Denmark and making them less welcoming towards internationals. You can identify them by their blue and red colors and the letter O.
Status: The Danish People’s Party is fighting for survival after the opinion polls placed them under the 2% minimum percentage to enter the Parliament. This could be their last presence in a parliamentary election. Quite an unceremonious end for a party that for more than two decades has influenced Danish politics in relation to refugees and immigrants.
Typical voter: Their core voter base is among older and lower-educated people. 25% of the voters are over 70 years old; 33% are outside the job market, like unemployed, pensionist; 40% of the voters were low educated;
Political platform: The party is positioned on the far-right with a social nationalist ideology. According to their program, they want to focus on lowering VAT on food, gasoline, heat, and electricity; making a new elderly law, and getting out of international conventions. The main areas of interest are immigration, elderly care and healthcare.
…and for the internationals
- Deportation of criminal immigrants.
- Total stop of welcoming asylum seekers.
- Permanent border control of all borders.
- Ban Muslim symbols in public institutions.
Preferred type of government: A blue government with (most likely) Søren Pape Poulsen as prime minister.
Nye Borgerlige – The New Right
4/179 members of the Parliament; 6,3% (1,7% increase since September)
Leader: Pernille Vermund
A relatively new party, founded in 2015 as a split from Konservative. They joined DF in competing for the anti-immigration voters with a twist, an ultra-liberal economic policy. You can identify them by their teal color and the letter D.
Status: The New Right was standing to win voters from the meltdown of DF, and they did so for a while, when they reached almost 10%. However, the Danish Democrats entered the stage recently and that pushed them back to under 5%. They need to fight hard against the Danish Democrats, in order to not become the next right-wing party that disappears.
Typical voter: Their core voter base is among men working in low paid jobs. 66% of the voters are men; 40% are between 30 and 49 years old; 40% have a vocational education
Political platform: The party is positioned on the far-right with a nationalist libertarian ideology. According to their program, they want to focus on making tougher laws against immigrants, reduce spending in the public sector (reduce with 6 billion DKK yearly spending) and close job centers.
…and for internationals
- Deportation of criminal immigrants.
- Limit the number of people coming from Muslim countries.
- Stop spending public money on integration.
- Immigrants need to be economically independent.
Preferred type of government: A blue government with Søren Pape Poulsen as prime minister.
Danmarksdemokraterne – The Danish Democrats
0/179 members of the Parliament; 10,3% (0,5% decrease since September)
Leader: Inger Støjberg
The newest party in Denmark, it was founded this summer (June) by the former Venstre minister and convict Inger Støjberg. This is the first party created in Denmark by a person that has been condemned to jail. They are so new that it is difficult to pinpoint their politics (besides being aggressive against internationals and people from Copenhagen) so they rely heavily on the popularity of Inger. You can identify them by their blue color and the letter Æ.
Status: The Danish Democrats are ready for the elections, after massive transfers of politicians from DF and Venstre. Already dubbed as DF 2.0, the Danish Democrats will most likely lead to the end of DF.
Typical voter: The party has less than 6 months. It is difficult to assess their core voter groups.
Political platform: The party is positioned on the far-right with a national populism ideology. According to their program, they want to focus on immigrants (assimilation into Danish culture), on Jylland (move public jobs away from Copenhagen) and on protecting companies from overregulation and bureaucracy. The main areas of interest are immigration, healthcare and economy.
…and for internationals
- Deportation of criminal immigrants.
- Harsher laws against immigrants.
- Lower unemployment benefits for immigrants.
- Immigrants should either integrate or leave.
Preferred type of government? A blue government with (most likely) Jakob Ellemann-Jensen as prime minister. They want to be part of it.
