Conservative People's Party (Denmark)

"DKF" redirects here. For other uses, see DKF (disambiguation).

The Conservative People's Party (Danish: Det Konservative Folkeparti, DKF), also known as The Conservatives (De Konservative) is a centre-right political party in Denmark. The party is a member of the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party.

Conservative People's Party Det Konservative Folkeparti
Abbreviation	K C[a]
Chairperson	Mona Juul
Founded	22 February 1916; 108 years ago (1916-02-22)
Preceded by	Højre[1] Free Conservatives Moderate faction of Venstre
Headquarters	Christiansborg 1240 København K
Youth wing	Young Conservatives
Student wing	Conservative Students
Membership (2022)	13,600[2]
Ideology	Conservatism[3][4] Liberal conservatism[5] Social conservatism[6]
Political position	Centre-right[7]
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament group	European People's Party Group
International affiliation	International Democracy Union
Nordic affiliation	Conservative Group
Colours	Dark green (official)   Green[8] (customary)
Folketing	10 / 179[b]
European Parliament	1 / 14
Regions[9]	31 / 205
Municipalities[10]	399 / 2,436
Mayors	14 / 98
Election symbol
Website
www.konservative.dk
Politics of Denmark Political parties Elections

History

Election poster, 1939. It reads: Comrades – let it now be over! Vote for more work! Vote Conservative.

The party was founded in 1916^[1] based mostly on its predecessor, Højre ("Right") after its downfall, but also on the Free Conservatives and a moderate faction of the liberal party Venstre ("Left"). The party was a part of the coalition government during World War II, where the leader John Christmas Møller provided the voice for BBC London's daily radio to Denmark. However, while a number of conservatives participated in the resistance movement, some conservatives were sympathetic to fascist ideology, and the youth wing of the party praised several fascist movements in Europe during the 1930s.^[11]

Since World War II, the party has participated in several coalition governments, but only one Prime Minister of Denmark, Poul Schlüter, has come from this party; he served as prime minister from 1982 to 1993. His government had to resign after the Tamil Case, when the Justice Minister, Erik Ninn-Hansen (himself a former Conservative leader), was impeached.^[12]

The party used its first logo in 1950, consisting of the serif-letter "C" coloured green. On 24 August 2000, the Conservative People's Party rebranded itself as the Conservatives, and at the same time retired its 50-year-old green serif-letter "C" logo, thus launching a new logo for the first time since 1950. The new logo was a circle which contains a chartreuse circle with the letter "C".

From the 2001 parliament elections until 2011, the Conservative People's Party was the junior partner in a coalition government led by Venstre. In the 2004 European parliament elections, the party won a seat. Four months later, on 23 October 2004, it adopted a logo consisting of a green circle-squared box that contains a dark-green screen with the letter "C" that is coloured green; the "Konservative" wordmark is placed below the symbol, though it too is also coloured green. The member is currently Bendt Bendtsen, who is a member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. In the 2014 European election, the party garnered 9.1% of the national vote, retaining Bendtsen's seat as MEP.

In the 2011 parliamentary election for the Folketing (Danish national parliament), the Conservative People's Party won eight seats, 10 fewer than it had won in the previous election in 2007, and it received 4.9% of the vote, placing the party in eighth place nationally. On 27 September 2013, the Conservative People's Party received the current version of its logo: the colour of the letter "C" was changed to white, the circle-square retained its dark-green colour, and the circle-squared line was removed from it. At the same time, the party gave up being known as the Conservatives, reverting to its former name as the Conservative People's Party.

At the 2015 election, the party did badly and was reduced to a mere six seats, which made it the smallest party in the Folketing. But Søren Pape Poulsen (who had taken over as leader the previous year) managed to double the party's seats to 12 in the 2019 election with 6.6% of the vote.^[13] After that election, several opinion polls indicated that the party enjoyed wider popular support than Venstre,^[14][15][16] but at the 2022 election gained just 5.5%, following an election campaign significantly influenced by affairs concerning Pape Poulsen's personal life.^[17] Poulsen died suddenly at the age of 52 on 2 March 2024, leaving the party leadership vacant.^[18]

Organization

The youth branch of the Conservative People's Party, albeit an independent organisation, is Young Conservatives, the earliest formed youth organisation in Denmark, founded in December 1904, and believed to be one of the oldest in the world,^[19] preceding the Conservative People's Party by 10 years. The student branch is Conservative Students, likewise an independent organisation, which has branches at all Danish Universities.

The party remains committed to a centre-right alliance, working most closely with the liberal Venstre and somewhat less closely with the right-wing populist Danish People's Party. The Conservative People's Party cooperated with the Social Liberal Party during its time in power in the 1980s, and also with the centre-left government under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the 1990s.

Ideology and policies

The party's current purpose clause states: "The Conservative People's Party aims to gather everyone who joins the party's program and to work for the spread of conservative views."^[20] The party has named Edmund Burke as one of its intellectual sources.^[21]

The Conservative People's Party presently advocates individual freedom and responsibility, a free market economy, respecting private property, the importance of community for the individual, modernization of the public sector, decentralization, ensuring up-to-date military defense, and an emphasis on protecting Denmark's national history and traditions.^{[citation needed]} In foreign policy, the party supports economic cooperation with the European Union to aid Denmark's economic growth and keep peace in Europe, but maintains the EU must also respect the right to national identity and calls for a less centralized EU in which member states can maintain sovereignty over their national, regional and local decision making powers.^[22] The party also highlights environmentalism as one of its core philosophies in accordance to green conservatism.^[23]

List of leaders

Political leaders

John Christmas Møller	1928–1947
Ole Bjørn Kraft	1947–1955
Aksel Møller	1955–1958
Poul Sørensen	1958–1969
Poul Møller	1969–1971
Erik Ninn-Hansen	1971–1974
Poul Schlüter	1974–1993
Henning Dyremose	1993
Hans Engell	1993–1997
Per Stig Møller	1997–1998
Pia Christmas-Møller	1998–1999
Bendt Bendtsen	1999–2008
Lene Espersen	2008–2011
Lars Barfoed	2011–2014
Søren Pape Poulsen	2014–2024
Mona Juul	2024–present

Party chairmen

Emil Piper	1916–1928
Charles Tvede	1928–1932
John Christmas Møller	1932–1939
Vilhelm Fibiger	1939–1948
Halfdan Hendriksen	1948–1957
Einar Foss	1957–1965
Knud Thestrup	1965–1972
Erik Haunstrup Clemmensen	1972–1974
Poul Schlüter	1974–1977
Ib Stetter	1977–1981
Poul Schlüter	1981–1993
Torben Rechendorff	1993–1995
Hans Engell	1995–1997
Per Stig Møller	1997–1998
Poul Andreassen	1998–2000
Bendt Bendtsen	2000–2008
Lene Espersen	2008–2011
Lars Barfoed	2011–2014
Søren Pape Poulsen	2014–2024
Mona Juul	2024–present

Notable members

• John Christmas Møller – World War II resistance figure in exile in England.
• Poul Schlüter – The longest-serving Danish prime minister since Thorvald Stauning. Schlüter is the Conservative People's Party's only prime minister to date. He led the Conservative People's Party to its best-ever result at a national election, reaching 23.4% of the national vote. After his term as prime minister ended he was elected to the European Parliament in 1994, reaching a record breaking number of 247,956 personal votes.
• Connie Hedegaard – Appointed as the European Union's first ever European Commissioner for Climate Action in February 2010, Hedegaard was elected to the Danish Parliament as a member for the Conservative People's Party in 1984 at the age of 23, becoming the youngest Danish MP ever at that time. In 1989, Hedegaard became first spokesperson for the Conservative People's Party, but left politics for journalism in 1990.^[24]
• Stefan G. Rasmussen (born 23 July 1947), a former Danish pilot who captained the crash-landing SAS flight 751 on 27 December 1991, in which there were no fatalities. He then entered politics, serving in the Danish Folketing from 1994 to 1996.

Electoral performance

Parliament

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Government
1918	167,865	18.3 (#4)	22 / 140	14[c]	Opposition
1920 (Apr)	201,499	19.6 (#3)	28 / 140	6	Caretaker government
1920 (Jul)	180,293	18.9 (#3)	26 / 140	2	External support
Sep 1920	216,733	17.9 (#3)	27 / 149	1	External support
1924	242,955	18.9 (#3)	28 / 149	1	Opposition
1926	275,793	20.6 (#3)	30 / 149	2	External support
1929	233,935	16.5 (#3)	24 / 149	6	Opposition
1932	358,509	17.3 (#3)	27 / 149	3	Opposition
1935	293,393	17.8 (#2)	26 / 149	1	Opposition
1939	301,625	17.8 (#3)	26 / 149		Opposition (1939–1940)
					Coalition (1940–1943)
1943	421,523	21.0 (#2)	31 / 149	5	Coalition
1945	373,688	18.2 (#3)	26 / 149	5	External support
1947	259,324	12.4 (#3)	17 / 150	9	Opposition
1950	365,236	17.8 (#3)	27 / 151	10	Coalition
1953 (Apr)	358,509	17.3 (#3)	26 / 151	1	Coalition
1953 (Sep)	383,843	16.6 (#3)	30 / 179	4	Opposition
1957	383,843	16.6 (#3)	30 / 179		Opposition
1960	435,764	17.9 (#3)	32 / 179	2	Opposition
1964	527,798	20.1 (#3)	36 / 179	4	Opposition
1966	522,028	18.7 (#3)	34 / 179	2	Opposition
1968	581,051	20.4 (#2)	37 / 179	3	Coalition
1971	481,335	16.7 (#2)	31 / 179	6	Opposition
1973	279,391	9.2 (#5)	16 / 179	15	External support
1975	168,164	5.5 (#5)	10 / 179	6	Opposition
1977	263,262	8.5 (#4)	15 / 179	5	Opposition
1979	395,653	12.5 (#3)	22 / 179	7	Opposition
1981	451,478	14.5 (#2)	26 / 179	4	Opposition (1981–1982)
					Coalition (1982–1984)
1984	788,224	23.4 (#2)	42 / 179	16	Coalition
1987	700,886	20.8 (#2)	38 / 179	4	Coalition
1988	642,048	19.3 (#2)	35 / 179	3	Coalition
1990	517,293	16.0 (#2)	30 / 179	5	Coalition (1990–1993)
					Opposition (1993–1994)
1994	499,845	15.0 (#3)	27 / 179	3	Opposition
1998	303,965	8.9 (#3)	16 / 179	11	Opposition
2001	312,770	9.1 (#4)	16 / 179		Coalition
2005	344,886	10.3 (#4)	18 / 179	2	Coalition
2007	359,404	10.4 (#5)	18 / 179		Coalition
2011	175,047	4.9 (#8)	8 / 179	10	Opposition
2015	118,015	3.4 (#9)	6 / 179	2	External support (2015–2016)
					Coalition (2016–2019)
2019	233,349	6.6 (#7)	12 / 179	6	Opposition
2022	194,820	5.5 (#7)	10 / 179	2	Opposition

Local elections

Municipal elections Year Seats No. ± 1925 332 / 11,289 1929 626 / 11,329 294 1933 543 / 11,424 83 1937 602 / 11,425 59 1943 724 / 10,569 122 1946 592 / 11,488 132 1950 647 / 11,499 55 1954 609 / 11,505 38 1958 603 / 11,529 6 1962 707 / 11,414 104 1966 842 / 10,005 135 Municipal reform 1970 650 / 4,677 192 1974 439 / 4,735 211 1978 508 / 4,759 69 1981 640 / 4,769 132 1985 824 / 4,773 184 1989 602 / 4,737 222 1993 493 / 4,703 109 1997 481 / 4,685 12 2001 444 / 4,647 37 Municipal reform 2005 257 / 2,522 187 2009 262 / 2,468 5 2013 205 / 2,444 57 2017 225 / 2,432 20 2021 403 / 2,436 178

Regional elections Year Seats No. ± 1935 40 / 299 1943 36 / 299 4 1946 31 / 299 5 1950 37 / 299 6 1954 36 / 299 1 1958 39 / 303 3 1962 47 / 301 8 1966 59 / 303 12 Municipal reform 1970 72 / 366 13 1974 45 / 370 27 1978 52 / 370 7 1981 60 / 370 8 1985 77 / 374 17 1989 53 / 374 24 1993 44 / 374 9 1997 40 / 374 4 2001 35 / 374 5 Municipal reform 2005 20 / 205 15 2009 20 / 205 0 2013 15 / 205 5 2017 15 / 205 0 2021 31 / 205 16

Mayors Year Seats No. ± 2005 11 / 98 2009 12 / 98 1 2013 13 / 98 1 2017 8 / 98 5 2021 14 / 98 6

European Parliament

Year	List leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1979	Poul Møller	245,309	14.06 (#4)	2 / 15	2	ED
1984		414,177	20.81 (#1)	4 / 15	2
1989	Marie Jepsen	238,760	13.34 (#4)	2 / 16	2
1994	Poul Schlüter	368,890	17.74 (#2)	3 / 16	1	EPP
1999	Christian Rovsing	166,884	8.47 (#5)	1 / 16	2	EPP-ED
2004	Gitte Seeberg	214,972	11.35 (#3)	1 / 14	0
2009	Bendt Bendtsen	297,199	12.69 (#5)	1 / 13	0	EPP
2014		208,262	9.15 (#5)	1 / 13	0
2019	Pernille Weiss	170,544	6.18 (#6)	1 / 14	0
2024	Niels Flemming Hansen	216,357	8.84 (#4)	1 / 15	0

Notes

1. Official party letter on voting ballot
2. Only 175 of the 179 seats in the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, are obtainable by Danish political parties as Greenland and the Faroe Islands are assigned two seats each due to their status as territories in the Kingdom of Denmark.
3. Compared to Højre in the 1915 election

References

1. Western Europe 2003. Psychology Press. 30 November 2002. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-85743-152-0. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
2. Hoffmann-Hansen, Henrik; Nilsson, Simone; Jespersen, Johan Storgaard; Krasnik, Benjamin; Fabricius, Kitte; Schmidt, Mara Malene Raun; Gosmann, Mie Borggreen Winther og Sara Mathilde (2022-10-03). "Overblik: Partierne i Danmark". Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish). Retrieved 2023-01-04.
3. Christina Bergqvist (1 January 1999). Equal Democracies?: Gender and Politics in the Nordic Countries. Nordic Council of Ministers. p. 318. ISBN 978-82-00-12799-4.
4. Bale, Tim (2021). Riding the populist wave: Europe's mainstream right in crisis. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-009-00686-6. OCLC 1256593260.
5. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Denmark". Parties and Elections in Europe.
6. "Det Konservative Folkeparti". Lex.dk. 4 November 2022.
7. Josep M. Colomer (25 July 2008). Political Institutions in Europe. Routledge. p. 260. ISBN 978-1-134-07354-2.
8. "Oversigt over Folketingssalen". Folketinget (in Danish). Retrieved 2023-12-24.
9. "AKVA3: Valg til regions råd efter område, parti og stemmer/kandidater/køn". Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
10. "VALGK3: Valg til kommunale råd efter område, parti og stemmer/kandidater/køn". Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
11. Knud Holt Nielsen (Information), 29 January 2004: "Danske konservative var fascineret af fascismen"
12. Thi kendes for ret. Dokument. Rigsrettens dom over forhenværende justitsminister Erik Ninn- Hansen afsagt 22. juni 1995. Weekendavisen, 23 June 1995, 1._sektion, Side 3
13. Konservativ folketingsgruppe nikker ja til Pape, Politiken, 7 August 2014
14. Anne Sofie Møller Petersen (21 January 2021). "Nu er Det Konservative Folkeparti størst i blå blok – vælgerne flygter fra Venstre". TV 2 / Nyheder. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
15. Thue Ahrenkilde Holm (30 January 2021). "Gallup: Venstre ligger lavere end i tre årtier". Berlingske. p. 10.
16. Politiken (20 January 2022). "Grafik: Se den nyeste samt årtiers Megafon-målinger i grafik"
17. "Pape er blot et kapitel i historien om et parti plaget af selvbedrag og selvskadekultur". Altinget.dk. 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2023-09-24.
18. Ørbæk, Kristian Skovby. "Søren Pape Poulsen er død". nyheder.tv2.dk (in Danish). Ritzau. Retrieved 2 March 2024.
19. Kosiara-Pedersen, Karina (3 June 2020). "Det Konservative Folkeparti". Den Store Danske (in Danish). Retrieved 27 June 2020.
20. "Vedtægter" Archived 2016-08-21 at the Wayback Machine. Det Konservative Folkeparti.
21. "Om konservatisme". Det Konservative Folkeparti (in Danish). Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
22. "EU-program 2019–2024".
23. "Det Konservative Folkeparti | lex.dk". 4 November 2022.
24. "Dead link". Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2011.

External links

• Official website (in Danish)

• Conservatism portal
• Denmark portal