Danish general election, 2015

Danish general election, 2015
Denmark
On or before
14 September 2015
All 179 seats to the Folketing
90 seats are needed for a majority
 
Leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen Helle Thorning-Schmidt Kristian Thulesen Dahl
Party Venstre Social Democrats Danish People's
Last election 47 seats, 26.7% 44 seats, 24.9% 22 seats, 12.3%
 
Leader Morten Østergaard Pia Olsen Dyhr Collective leadership
Party Social Liberals Socialist People's Red-Green
Last election 17 seats, 9.5% 16 seats, 9.2% 12 seats, 6.7%
 
Leader Anders Samuelsen Søren Pape Poulsen Uffe Elbæk
Party Liberal Alliance Conservative People's The Alternative
Last election 9 seats, 5.0% 8 seats, 4.9% New party
Incumbent Prime Minister

Helle Thorning-Schmidt
Social Democrats

The next Danish general elections will be held on or before 14 September 2015. They will elect 179 members to the Danish Parliament. Of those 179, 175 members will be 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, Social Liberal Party and Socialist People's Party. The government was supported from the outside 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.[1] 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.[1]

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 SF, 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 now consists of a coalition between the Social Democrats and Social Liberal Party, with Helle Thorning-Schmidt continuing as Prime Minister. The cabinet is composed of 13 Social Democratic ministers and 7 Social Liberal ministers.

Date

According to the Danish Constitution, the election must take place no later than 15 September 2015, since the last election was held on 15 September 2011. The prime minister can call the election at any date, provided it is no later than four years from the previous election.

Opinion polls

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Red Marriage is broken (in Danish), Dagbladet Information, April 4, 2013

External links