Conservative People's Party (Denmark)
Conservative People's Party (Denmark)
Conservative People's Party Det Konservative Folkeparti | |
---|---|
Leader | Søren Pape Poulsen |
Founded | 1916 |
Preceded by | Højre Free Conservatives Moderate faction of Venstre |
Headquarters | Nyhavn 4 1051 København K |
Youth wing | Young Conservatives |
Student wing | Conservative Students |
Ideology | Conservatism[4] Liberal conservatism[5] Green conservatism Economic liberalism |
Political position | Centre-right[6] |
European affiliation | European People's Party |
International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
European Parliament group | European People's Party |
Nordic affiliation | Conservative Group |
Colours | Green |
Folketing | 12 / 179 |
European Parliament | 1 / 14 |
Regions:[7] | 15 / 205 |
Municipalities:[8] | 225 / 2,432 |
Mayors: | 8 / 98 |
Election symbol | |
C | |
Website | |
www.konservative.dk [12] | |
|
The Conservative People's Party (Danish: Det Konservative Folkeparti, DKF), also known as the Conservatives (Konservative) is a conservative[4] centre-right[6] political party in Denmark. The party is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and International Democrat Union.
Conservative People's Party Det Konservative Folkeparti | |
---|---|
Leader | Søren Pape Poulsen |
Founded | 1916 |
Preceded by | Højre Free Conservatives Moderate faction of Venstre |
Headquarters | Nyhavn 4 1051 København K |
Youth wing | Young Conservatives |
Student wing | Conservative Students |
Ideology | Conservatism[4] Liberal conservatism[5] Green conservatism Economic liberalism |
Political position | Centre-right[6] |
European affiliation | European People's Party |
International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
European Parliament group | European People's Party |
Nordic affiliation | Conservative Group |
Colours | Green |
Folketing | 12 / 179 |
European Parliament | 1 / 14 |
Regions:[7] | 15 / 205 |
Municipalities:[8] | 225 / 2,432 |
Mayors: | 8 / 98 |
Election symbol | |
C | |
Website | |
www.konservative.dk [12] | |
|
History
Election poster, 1939. It reads: Comrades - let it now be over! Vote for more work. Vote Conservative.
The party was founded 1916[9] based mostly on its predecessor, Højre ("Right"), but also on the Free Conservatives and a moderate faction of the liberal party Venstre.
The party has participated in several coalition governments, but only one Prime Minister of Denmark, Poul Schlüter, has come from this party, serving from 1982 to 1993.
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, 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 Conservative People's Party got its first logo in 1950, and it consists of the serif-letter "C" which is coloured green, because the party had used this logo for over 50 years from 1950 to 2000.
On 24 August 2000, the Conservative People's Party became rebranded as the Conservatives, and were at the same time retiring its classic 50-year-old green-coloured serif-letter "C" logo, thus launching a new logo for the first time of 50 years since 1950. This time, the new logo would now become 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. The Conservative People's Party is currently led by Søren Pape Poulsen,
In the 2004 European parliament elections, the party won a seat, but 4 months later, on 23 October 2004, that same year, it had therefore adopted its current logo which consists of a green circle-squared box that contains a dark-green screen with the letter "C" that is coloured green although the "Konservative" wordmark is placed below the symbol though it is also coloured green too. The member is currently Bendt Bendtsen, who is a member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. In the 2014 European elections, the party garnered 9.1% of the national vote, retaining Bendsten'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 eighth place nationally.
On 27 September 2013, the Conservative People's Party got its current version of its now-existing logo, as the letter "C" changes its colour to white, as well as the circle-squared line gets removed from the circle-square that is still retaining its dark-green colour. At the same time, the party gave up of being known as the Conservatives, and so, it had its name being reverted to the Conservative People's Party.
The Conservatives remain 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 Conservatives did cooperate with the Social Liberal Party during its time in power in the 1980s and also cooperated with the centre-left government under Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the 1990s.
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– |
Party chairmen
Emil Piper | 1916–28 |
Charles Tvede | 1928–32 |
John Christmas Møller | 1932–39 |
Vilhelm Fibiger | 1939–48 |
Halfdan Hendriksen | 1948–57 |
Einar Foss | 1957–65 |
Knud Thestrup | 1965–72 |
Erik Haunstrup Clemmensen | 1972–74 |
Poul Schlüter | 1974–77 |
Ib Stetter | 1977–81 |
Poul Schlüter | 1981–93 |
Torben Rechendorff | 1993–95 |
Hans Engell | 1995–97 |
Per Stig Møller | 1997–98 |
Poul Andreassen | 1998–00 |
Bendt Bendtsen | 2000–08 |
Lene Espersen | 2008–11 |
Lars Barfoed | 2011–14 |
Søren Pape Poulsen | 2014– |
Youth and student wings
Young Conservatives (Konservativ Ungdom)
Conservative Students (Konservative Studerende)
Notable members
John Christmas Møller – Wartime resistance figure.
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.[10]
Electoral performance and parliamentary representation
Election year | of votes | % of Danish vote | of overall seats won | of Danish seats won | +/- | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1918 | 167,865 | 18.3 (#4) | 22 / 140 | 22 / 139 | 14[1] | part of the opposition |
Apr 1920 | 201,499 | 19.6 (#3) | 28 / 140 | 28 / 139 | 6 | parliamentarian crisis |
Jul 1920 | 180,293 | 18.9 (#3) | 26 / 140 | 26 / 139 | 2 | tolerating a Venstre-government |
Sep 1920 | 216,733 | 17.9 (#3) | 27 / 149 | 27 / 148 | N/A[2] | tolerating a Venstre-government |
1924 | 242,955 | 18.9 (#3) | 28 / 149 | 28 / 148 | 1 | part of the opposition |
1926 | 275,793 | 20.6 (#3) | 30 / 149 | 30 / 148 | 2 | tolerating a Venstre-government |
1929 | 233,935 | 16.5 (#3) | 24 / 149 | 24 / 148 | 6 | part of the opposition |
1932 | 358,509 | 17.3 (#3) | 27 / 149 | 27 / 148 | 3 | part of the opposition |
1935 | 293,393 | 17.8 (#2) | 26 / 149 | 26 / 148 | 1 | part of the opposition |
1939 | 301,625 | 17.8 (#3) | 26 / 149 | 26 / 148 | part of the opposition until 1940 / then part of a unity government | |
1943 | 421,523 | 21.0 (#2) | 31 / 149 | 31 / 148 | 5 | part of a unity government |
1945 | 373,688 | 18.2 (#3) | 26 / 149 | 26 / 148 | 5 | tolerating a Venstre-government |
1947 | 259,324 | 12.4 (#3) | 17 / 150 | 17 / 148 | 9 | part of the opposition |
1950 | 365,236 | 17.8 (#3) | 27 / 151 | 27 / 149 | 10 | part of the Venstre-led government |
Apr 1953 | 358,509 | 17.3 (#3) | 26 / 151 | 26 / 149 | 1 | part of the Venstre-led government |
Sep 1953 | 383,843 | 16.6 (#3) | 30 / 179 | 30 / 175 | N/A[3] | part of the opposition |
1957 | 383,843 | 16.6 (#3) | 30 / 179 | 30 / 175 | part of the opposition | |
1960 | 435,764 | 17.9 (#3) | 32 / 179 | 32 / 175 | 2 | part of the opposition |
1964 | 527,798 | 20.1 (#3) | 36 / 179 | 36 / 175 | 4 | part of the opposition |
1966 | 522,028 | 18.7 (#3) | 34 / 179 | 34 / 175 | 2 | part of the opposition |
1968 | 581,051 | 20.4 (#2) | 37 / 179 | 37 / 175 | 3 | part of the Social Liberal-led government |
1971 | 481,335 | 16.7 (#2) | 31 / 179 | 31 / 175 | 6 | leading the opposition |
1973 | 279,391 | 9.2 (#5) | 16 / 179 | 16 / 175 | 15 | tolerating a Venstre government |
1975 | 168,164 | 5.5 (#5) | 10 / 179 | 10 / 175 | 6 | part of the opposition |
1977 | 263,262 | 8.5 (#4) | 15 / 179 | 15 / 175 | 5 | part of the opposition |
1979 | 395,653 | 12.5 (#3) | 22 / 179 | 22 / 175 | 7 | part of the opposition |
1981 | 451,478 | 14.5 (#2) | 26 / 179 | 26 / 175 | 4 | leading the opposition until 1982 / then leading the government (P. Schlüter) |
1984 | 788,224 | 23.4 (#2) | 42 / 179 | 42 / 175 | 16 | leading the government (P. Schlüter) |
1987 | 700,886 | 20.8 (#2) | 38 / 179 | 38 / 175 | 4 | leading the government (P. Schlüter) |
1988 | 642,048 | 19.3 (#2) | 35 / 179 | 35 / 175 | 3 | leading the government (P. Schlüter) |
1990 | 517,293 | 16.0 (#2) | 30 / 179 | 30 / 175 | 5 | leading the government (P. Schlüter) until 1993 / then leading the opposition |
1994 | 499,845 | 15.0 (#3) | 27 / 179 | 27 / 175 | 3 | part of the opposition |
1998 | 303,965 | 8.9 (#3) | 16 / 179 | 16 / 175 | 11 | part of the opposition |
2001 | 312,770 | 9.1 (#4) | 16 / 179 | 16 / 175 | part of the Venstre-led government | |
2005 | 344,886 | 10.3 (#4) | 18 / 179 | 18 / 175 | 2 | part of the Venstre-led government |
2007 | 359,404 | 10.4 (#5) | 18 / 179 | 18 / 175 | part of the Venstre-led government | |
2011 | 175,047 | 4.9% (#8) | 8 / 179 | 8 / 175 | 10 | part of the opposition |
2015 | 118,015 | 3.4% (#9) | 6 / 179 | 6 / 175 | 2 | 2015–16: tolerating a Venstre-government 2016–2019 : part of the Venstre-led government |
2019 | 233,349 | 6.6% (#7) | 12 / 179 | 12 / 175 | 6 | part of the opposition |