Venstre (Denmark)

Venstre ([ˈvenstʁɐ], lit. 'Left', V), full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti (English: Left, Denmark's Liberal Party), is a conservative-liberal, agrarian political party in Denmark. Founded as part of a peasants' movement against the landed aristocracy, today it espouses an economically liberal, pro-free-market ideology.

Venstre is the major party of the centre-right in Denmark, and the second-largest party in the country. The party has produced many Prime Ministers. In the 2022 general elections, Venstre received 13.3% of the vote and 23 out of 179 seats. Following the resignation of Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the party is led by Troels Lund Poulsen who serves as the country's Deputy Prime Minister. Since December 2022, the party has been a junior partner in the second Frederiksen government.

The party is a member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and has four MEPs in the European Parliament.

Venstre was founded in 1870 under the name "Det Forenede Venstre" (lit. 'The United Left'). Originally, the party consisted of multiple conflicting groups, all united under the classical liberal (then the standard left-wing) ideology, the safeguarding of farmers' interests and opposition to the then right-wing classical conservative party Højre (literally "Right"). After the party in 1872 gained an absolute majority in the Folketing, it became the leading voice in the battle for parliamentarism, whereafter the party in 1895 split in two, Venstrereformpartiet ("Venstre Reform Party") and Det Moderate Venstre ("The Moderate Left"). In 1905, social liberal factions split from the party and formed Radikale Venstre (also known as the Danish Social Liberal Party), and in 1910 Venstrereformpartiet and Det Moderate Venstre reunited again under the name Venstre.

With the decreasing numbers of farms and the growing urbanisation, membership and voter support dropped in the 1950s. During the 1960s the party gradually evolved from being a traditional farmers' party to a more general liberal party. In 1984 Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was elected chairman, and by profiling the liberal ideology in sharp confrontation to the Social Democrats, for example by campaigning for a reduction of the public sector, increasing market management and privatisation, and by being pro-EU, the party returned to its historical position as the biggest liberal party in the 1990s.

After a disappointing 1998 general election, Ellemann-Jensen resigned as chairman and Anders Fogh Rasmussen was elected in his place. He immediately changed the party's usual confrontational strategy, instead appealing to the political centre. In the 2001 general elections the party campaigned for tighter immigration policies and a "tax stop", which proved successful and the party once again became the biggest in parliament, winning 31.2% of the vote and 56 seats. Venstre formed a coalition government with the Conservative People's Party and the Danish People's Party. For the first time since 1929 a liberal government was no longer dependent on the centre parties. Despite a small decline in both the 2005 general elections (29% and 52 seats) and the 2007 general elections (26.2% and 46 seats), the party remained the biggest and the coalition government continued.

On 5 April 2009, Fogh Rasmussen resigned as chairman, instead serving as Secretary General of NATO. In his place Lars Løkke Rasmussen was elected.

In the 2011 general elections, the party gained 26.7% of the vote and 47 seats, but was not able to form a government, instead leading the opposition against Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democratic coalition.^{[citation needed]}