Danish order of precedence

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Orders of precedence

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The Danish order of precedence is a symbolic hierarchy of Danish officials used to direct protocol. It has no official status and entails no special privileges, but has been established in practical use, e.g. determining seating arrangements at formal occasions in the royal house. The order of precedence is very elaborate, and especially the lower classes include a lot of relatively obscure civil servant positions; the following is only an excerpt.

Contents 1 The royal family 2 1st Class 3 2nd Class 4 3rd Class 5 4th Class 6 5th Class

[edit] The royal family

Members of the royal family are not part of the official order of precedence, but are traditionally placed on top of the hierarchy. Their order is as follows:

• HM The Queen
• HRH The Prince Consort
• HRH The Crown Prince
• HRH The Crown Princess
• HRH Prince Christian
• HRH Princess Isabella
• HRH Prince Joachim
• HH Prince Nikolai
• HH Prince Felix
• HRH Princess Benedikte
• HH Princess Elisabeth
• HE Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg

The Prince Consort will never be on the throne. When the Queen dies it will go to the Crown Prince. When the Queen is out of the country it is her eldest son who is (formally) the government head. But if he is also out of the country it is his brother, and if he is also, it will be one of the Queen’s sisters. It can never be the Prince Consort, even if he is the only one in the country, then someone else from the family will have to come in instead.

The actual order of precedence is divided into five classes:

[edit] 1st Class

1. Counts of Rosenborg
2. Government ministers. Current internal ranking:
   1. Prime Minister (Anders Fogh Rasmussen)
   2. Minister of Economic and Business Affairs (and Deputy Prime Minister) (Bendt Bendtsen)
   3. Foreign Minister (Per Stig Møller)
   4. Minister of Finance (Thor Pedersen)
   5. Minister for Employment (Claus Hjort Frederiksen)
   6. Minister of Justice (Lene Espersen)
   7. Minister of Culture (Brian Mikkelsen)
   8. Minister for Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs (Bertel Haarder)
   9. Minister of Transport and Energy (Flemming Hansen)
   10. Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Helge Sander)
   11. Minister for Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries (Hans Christian Schmidt)
   12. Minister of the Interior and Health (Lars Løkke Rasmussen)
   13. Minister for Development Cooperation (Ulla Tørnæs)
   14. Defence Minister (Søren Gade)
   15. Minister for Social Affairs and Gender Equality (Karen Jespersen)
   16. Minister for the Environment and Nordic Cooperation (Connie Hedegaard)
   17. Minister of Taxation (Kristian Jensen)
   18. Minister of Refugee, Immigration, and Integration Affairs (Rikke Hvilshøj)
   19. Minister for Family and Consumer Affairs (Carina Christensen)
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Torben Melchior)
4. Knights of the Elephant
5. Grand Commanders of the Dannebrog
6. Generals and admirals (The Chief of Defence is the only military officer of this rank in Denmark at any given time)
7. Lieutenant generals and vice admirals
8. The Counts Danneskiold-Samsøe

[edit] 2nd Class

1. Grand Crosses of the Dannebrog
2. Counts. Ambassadors. The Lord Chamberlain
3. Supreme Court judges. Presidents of the High courts. Senior ministry secretaries. The Director-general of the Danish Railways. The Postmaster General. Major generals and rear admirals. The Attorney General. The Chief of Police. The Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. The Managing Director of the National Bank of Denmark. Bishops in the Church of Denmark. The Rector of the University of Copenhagen. The Royal Danish Ombudsman in Greenland
4. The Royal Master of Ceremonies
5. Junior ministry secretaries. Consul generals. University rectors. The Bishop of the Faroe Islands

[edit] 3rd Class

1. Barons
2. High Court judges. Colonels and naval captains. Directors at Rigshospitalet. Regents Profesor at the University of Copenhagen. Rectors of Business schools and Dental schools. Managing Directors of the National Museum of Denmark, the Danish National Archive and the Royal Danish Theatre. The Master of the Royal Mint
3. The High Court judge of Greenland
4. County Court judges. Lieutenant colonels and commanders. Chief Constables. Senior hospital physicians. Deans in the Church of Denmark. University Professors. Gymnasium rectors

[edit] 4th Class

1. Chief inspectors. Majors and Lieutenant Commanders. Senior vicars
2. Managing directors at the regional archives. Associate professors

[edit] 5th Class

1. Senior Gymnasium teachers. Assistant professors
2. Police inspectors. Junior vicars
3. Captains and naval lieutenants.
4. Lieutenants and naval lieutenants, junior grade