Danish general election, 2011

The Danish parliamentary election of 2011 took place on 15 September 2011 in order to elect the 179 members of the Danish parliament. Of those 179, 175 members were elected in Denmark, two in the Faroe Islands and two in Greenland.

Although the ruling Liberal Party became the largest party and gained a seat and the Social Democrats lost a seat, the opposition parties combined obtained more seats than the liberal-conservative government coalition, and Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced his resignation. Social Democrat leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt is designated to become new Prime Minister. The Queen will appoint a new Prime Minister following a complicated procedure, during which the candidate must first secure parliamentary support. Barring a coalition rebellion, Thorning-Schmidt is expected to be appointed.

Background
The winner of the previous election, prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen resigned on 5 April 2009 to become Secretary General of NATO in August that year. Polls indicated a preference for early elections over simply having the minister of finance, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, take over as PM, and that Social Democrats Helle Thorning-Schmidt would be preferred as PM over Lars Løkke Rasmussen. However, as Pia Kjærsgaard, the leader of the Danish People's Party, had stated that the Danish People's Party (DPP) would continue to support the government, a new election was not necessary for Løkke Rasmussen to form a government from the existing parliament.

Date of the election
According to the Danish Constitution, the election must take place no later than 12 November 2011 since the last Danish election was held on 13 November 2007. The prime minister can call the election at any date, provided it is no later than four years from the previous election. Danish media and political commentators speculated about the timing of the election since Løkke Rasmussen took office as Prime Minister in April 2009. The election was called on 26 August 2011, after heavy media speculation.

MPs not seeking re-election
The following have as of March 2010 announced that they do not seek re-election.


 * Malou Aamund (Venstre)
 * Britta Schall Holberg (Venstre)
 * Preben Rudiengaard (Venstre)
 * Jens Vibjerg (Venstre)
 * Jens Kirk (Venstre)
 * Lone Møller (Social Democrats)
 * Vibeke Grave (Social Democrats)
 * Niels Sindal (Social Democrats)
 * Lise von Seelen (Social Democrats)
 * Jens Christian Lund (Social Democrats)
 * Jens Peter Vernersen (Social Democrats)
 * Søren Krarup (Danish People's Party)
 * Jesper Langballe (Danish People's Party)
 * Lone Dybkjær (Social Liberal Party)
 * Niels Helveg Petersen (Social Liberal Party)
 * Bente Dahl (Social Liberal Party)
 * Jørgen Poulsen (Social Liberal Party)
 * Line Barfod (Red-Green Alliance)

Already retired

 * Mogens Camre (DF)
 * Rikke Hvilshøj (V)
 * Gitte Seeberg (Independent)
 * Mia Falkenberg (DF)
 * Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V)
 * Morten Messerschmidt (DF)
 * Bendt Bendtsen (K)
 * Svend Auken (S)
 * Morten Helveg Petersen (R)
 * Thomas Adelskov (S)
 * Lene Hansen (S)
 * Knud Kristensen (K)
 * Connie Hedegaard (K)
 * Søren Gade (V)

Coalitions in Danish politics
The former Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, led a centre-right minority government consisting of the Liberal Party (Venstre) and the Conservative People's Party. This coalition government worked with regular parliamentary support from the national conservative Danish People's Party and often gained the necessary 90th seat for majority in the Folketing through negotiations with either the sole MP from the Christian Democrats, Ørum-Jørgensen or another MP outside parties, Christmas Møller, both elected in 2007 as conservative MPs and having defected since then.

Since the 2007 elections, the Liberal Alliance (previously Ny Alliance) have gained momentum in opinion polls, and since early 2010, the governing coalition have not been able to gather a majority in the polls without the support of the Alliance. The continuing rise in the polls is to an extent the result of the internal crisis in the Conservative People's Party over the leadership Lene Espersen and the continuing debate over a lack of "true" liberal/conservative ideology in government policy.

On 13 January 2011, the continuing turmoil within the Conservative group in the Folketing caused Lene Espersen to resign as political leader of the party and focus on her role as Minister of Foreign Affairs. A leadership election between Brian Mikkelsen, the Minister of Economic and Business Affairs and Lars Barfoed, the Justice Minister, was widely expected, but on 14 January the Conservative group in the Folketing unanimously elected Barfoed as their new political leader. He is expected to be formally elected as chairman of the party at a party convention within a few weeks.

The Social Democrats under the leadership of Helle Thorning-Schmidt have enjoyed continuing majorities in opinion polls since late 2009 and hopes to form a centre-left government coalition consisting of the Socialist People's Party and the Social Liberal Party with parliamentary support from the small Red-Green Alliance.

Both Margrethe Vestager (Social Liberal Party) and Villy Søvndal (Socialist People's Party) pledged their support to Thorning-Schmidt before the election. But there has been considerable debate about the future politics of this coalition, mainly because the Social Liberal Party demands a more liberal economic agenda. Also on immigration issues there are political differences between the three coalition parties. This has led some observers to believe that the Social Liberal Party will not join a government coalition but instead opt to be a part of the parliamentary support of a new, centre-left government.