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2019 Danish general election

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2019 Danish general election
Danish Realm
← 2015 5 June 2019
All 179 seats in the Folketing
175 from Dänemark, 2 from Grönland and 2 from the Färöer Inseln.
90 seats are needed for a majority[1]
Party Leader Current seats
Dänemark
Social Democrats[a] Mette Frederiksen
DPP Kristian Thulesen Dahl
Venstre Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Red–Green Collective leadership
Liberal Alliance Anders Samuelsen
The Alternative[a] Uffe Elbæk
Social Liberals Morten Østergaard
SF Pia Olsen Dyhr
Conservatives Søren Pape Poulsen
Färöer Inseln
Republic Høgni Hoydal
Social Democratic Aksel V. Johannesen
Grönland
Inuit Ataqatigiit Sara Olsvig
Nunatta Qitornai[b] Vittus Qujaukitsoq
Incumbent Prime Minister
Lars Løkke Rasmussen Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Venstre

General elections will be held in the Kingdom of Denmark on 5 June 2019.[4] All 179 members of the Folketing will be elected, 175 in Denmark proper, two in the Faroe Islands and two in Greenland.

Background

At the 2015 general election, a narrow majority was won by the Danish People's Party, Venstre, Liberal Alliance and the Conservative People's Party, colloquially known as the "blue bloc". They gained 90 seats in the Folketing versus 89 seats for the remaining parties, all belonging to the "Red bloc". Ten days later, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the leader of Venstre, became Prime Minister, when Venstre formed a single-party government supported by the remaining parties in the "blue bloc".[5] In November 2016, Rasmussen formed a new government, now a coalition with Liberal Alliance, and the Conservative People's Party.

In October 2016 The New Right, a new right-wing party, became eligible to run in the election,[6] and a year later, in October 2017, the Christian Democrats did likewise. The latter have participated in every election since 1971, but not been in the Folketing since 2011.[7] In February 2019, the party Klaus Riskær Pedersen, named after its founder became eligible too, after having made use of a loophole in the rules for the collection of the necessary voter declarations.[8] In April 2019, following unrest at Nørrebro cause by demonstrations by anti-islamist politician Rasmus Paludan, his party Hard Line managed to collected the required signatures.[9] He had also made use of the same loophole as Riskær Pedersen.[10]

Electoral system

Of the 179 members of the Folketing, 175 are elected in Denmark proper, two in Faroe Islands and two in Greenland. In Denmark there are ten multi-member constituencies containing a total of 135 seats directly elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated using a modified version of the Sainte-Laguë method and Hare quota. An additional 40 seats are used to address any imbalance in the distribution of the constituency seats, and are distributed among all parties that cross the 2 % election threshold, according to their national vote share.[11][12]

Voters can choose between casting a personal vote for a candidate, or voting for a political party. The votes given to political parties are distributed among the candidates for that party. This can either be done in proportion to their personal votes, or by giving them to candidates in a predetermined order. All parties except the Red-Green Alliance make use of the first option.[12]

According to the Danish Constitution, the 2019 election was required to be held no later than 17 June 2019, as the previous elections were held on 18 June 2015. The Prime Minister is able to call the election at any date, provided that date is no later than four years from the previous election, and this is often cited as a tactical advantage for the sitting government, which can call an early election when polls are favourable.

For a new party to become eligible to participate in the election, they must be supported by a number of voters corresponding to 1/175 of all valid votes cast in the previous election. A new party registering to contest the 2019 elections required 20,109 voter declarations to participate.[13]

Pre-election alliance statements

In October 2017, The New Right, a new right-wing political party who became eligible to run in October 2016,[14] listed three demands for a candidate for Prime Minister to receive their support. All three demands were tightenings of the immigration policy.[15]

On 4 June 2018, the Social Democrats, the largest opposition party, stated that if they were to win the election, they wished to form a single-party government led by their leader Mette Frederiksen, i.e. not as a coalition government with the Social Liberal Party. This was done in order to both pursue traditional centre-left issues, and to have a strict immigration policy.[16] Morten Østergaard, the leader of the Social Liberal Party responded by saying that if the Social Democrats wanted their support, they would also need to give them concessions.[17] The message was welcomed by the anti-immigration Danish People's Party, who support Venstre in the election. Their leader Kristian Thuelesen Dahl, said that this would ensure that they could get through with their immigration policy, no matter who won the election.[18]

On 26 June 2018, The Alternative, who traditionally is regarded as belonging to the "red bloc", stated that they would no longer would support Mette Frederiksen as candidate to become Prime Minister, but instead that their own leader, Uffe Elbæk, would be running for Prime Minister.[19] This was done because they did not regarded the other parties ambitions concerning climate change to be sufficient.[20] The move was met with criticism, as Elbæk's chances are very slim, and that the move could risk keeping Lars Løkke Rasmussen as Prime Minister.[21]

The Venstre, Liberal Alliance and Conservative parties rejects an electoral alliance with the Hard Line party after the election in case the latter manages to cross the 2 % election threshold.[22]

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2019 Danish general election

30 day average trendline of the Danish opinion polls towards the general election in 2019, each line corresponds to a political party

Notes

  1. ^ a b Pernille Schnoor was elected as a Social Democrat, but changed party to The Alternative in April 2016.[2]
  2. ^ Was originally won by Aleqa Hammond from Siumut, but she was expelled and later joined Nunatta Qitornai[3]

References

  1. ^ "Mandatfordelingen / Folketinger". Folketinget. Retrieved 3 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  2. ^ "Socialdemokrat skifter til Alternativet". DR. Ritzau. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  3. ^ "Grønlandsk løsrivelsesparti er Løkkes sikkerhedsnet". BT. Ritzau. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  4. ^ Denmark's prime minister calls election to be held on June 5 Reuters, 7 May 2019
  5. ^ "Her er hele Lars Løkkes ministerhold" (in Danish). Jyllands-Posten. 28 June 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
  6. ^ "Nye Borgerlige kan stille op til næste valg". DR Nyheder. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  7. ^ Batchelor, Oliver (14 October 2017). "Kristendemokraterne melder sig klar til næste folketingsvalg". DR Nyheder. Retrieved 2 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  8. ^ Jørgensen, Anna Sol (18 February 2019). "20.109 stiller sig bag Klaus Riskær: Har underskrifter i hus på lyntid". DR Nyheder. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Stram Kurs er nu officielt klar til folketingsvalg". DR (in Danish). 6 May 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  10. ^ Bagge, Christoffer Løvstrup; Biener, Mads (27 April 2019). "Stram Kurs har fået underskrifter nok til at stille op til Folketinget". TV2. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  11. ^ "Folketinget (The Danish Parliament)". Inter-Parliamentary Union. 10 April 1991. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  12. ^ a b Madsen, Katrine (18 June 2015). "Sådan tælles stemmerne op - forstå det danske valgsystem på fem minutter". DR (in Danish). Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Hvordan danner jeg et nyt parti?". Økonomi- og indenrigsministeriet. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  14. ^ "Nye Borgerlige kan stille op til næste valg". DR (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  15. ^ Ritzau (2017-10-14). "Nye Borgerlige har tre ultimative krav til ny statsminister". borsen.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  16. ^ "Mette Frederiksen går til valg på socialdemokratisk et-parti-regering". DR (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  17. ^ "Østergaard efter S-melding: Man kan ikke både vælge vores politik fra og tælle vores mandater med". DR (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  18. ^ "Thulesen takker for Mette Frederiksens melding, men vil hellere i regering med Løkke". DR (in Danish). Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  19. ^ "Vil ikke støtte Mette Frederiksen: Uffe Elbæk vil selv være statsminister". Politiken (in Danish). 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  20. ^ "Alternativet opretter egen grøn blok men går med i energiaftale". Berlingske.dk (in Danish). 2018-06-29. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  21. ^ "»Det er helt deprimerende at opleve et parti være så desperat, som jeg oplever, Alternativet er her«". Berlingske.dk (in Danish). 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
  22. ^ "Regeringspartier afviser blåt valgforbund med Stram Kurs". Ritzau (in Danish). Berlingske Tidende. 10 May 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2019. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
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