Christian Democrats (Denmark)
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The Christian Democrats (Template:Langx, KD) are a political party in Denmark. The party was founded in April 1970 as the Christian People's Party (Template:Langx, KrF)<ref name="Krouwel2012">Template:Cite book</ref> to oppose the liberalization of restrictions on pornography and the legalization of abortion.<ref name="EngeliGreen-Pedersen2012">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref name="BengtssonHansen2013">Template:Cite book</ref> The party renamed itself to its current name in 2003.<ref name="Krouwel2012"/> Originally, the party was not considered part of the European Christian-democratic tradition, and it was better known as a religious conservative party.<ref name="cookfrancis">Template:Cite book</ref>
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The Christian Democrats are a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the Centrist Democrat International.
History
The party was formed in 1970.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Since its inception, the party has enjoyed an intermittent presence in the Parliament of Denmark, rarely winning much more than the two percent minimum required to gain seats under Denmark's proportional representation system, and frequently falling below the threshold, as has happened in every election from the 2005 parliamentary election onwards. Despite its small size, the party has served in a number of coalition governments. From 1982 to 1988, it was in coalition with the Liberal Party, Conservative People's Party and Centre Democrats; from 1993 to 1994, it served in government with the Social Democrats, the Social Liberals and the Centre Democrats.<ref name="BengtssonHansen2013"/>
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From 2002 to 2005, the party was led by Marianne Karlsmose.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The name of the party was changed to the Christian Democrats in 2003. In October 2005, the party elected Bodil Kornbek as its new chairman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her attempt to introduce a more secular centre-left profile had some success in the beginning, but the party once again failed to win seats in the 2007 elections. In October 2008, Kornbek was replaced by Bjarne Hartung Kirkegaard from its more conservative and religious wing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2010, the Christian Democrats regained parliamentary representation when the Independent former Conservative MP Per Ørum Jørgensen joined the party.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since he was not formerly known for having expressed opinions based on Christianity, these events once more softened the religious character of the party.
On 30 June 2011, it was announced that the Christian Democrats had started cooperating with Fælleslisten, a single-issue party fighting for decentralization, especially in health care policy,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with some success in regional and local elections. This means that candidates from the two parties appeared on a joint list at the 2011 Danish parliamentary election. The Christian Democrats had themselves taken a somewhat regionalist stance at a moment when Fælleslisten had surged in opinion polls.
In September 2012, Per Ørum Jørgensen resigned and subsequently left the party altogether in order to form a new party called the Democratic Party.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Egon Jakobsen was appointed as interim chairman, and on 27 October 2012, the former deputy chairman Stig Grenov was elected as new chairman.
The 2015 general election marked the first election with Stig Grenov as chairman. Although Grenov managed to make his mark during the campaign, it only resulted in slightly over 1000 more votes than four years earlier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The municipal and regional elections of 2017 saw a slight increase for the party, with the number of elected municipal council members rising from six to nine. Former national chairman Marianne Karlsmose was elected as a member of the regional council in the Central Denmark Region. However, the party failed to secure a mayor's position in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Six days prior to the 2019 general election, Stig Grenov took temporary leave from his position as party chairman due to stress.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Vice-chair Isabella Arendt stepped in as acting party chairman, initially for a month, but Grenov's leave was subsequently extended until the party's congress in October 2019, where Isabella Arendt formally became the new chairman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Despite more than doubling the number of votes from 2015, the party was not represented in the Danish Parliament in the 2019 election. Less than 200 votes separated the party from securing a constituency mandate in West Jutland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2021, Jens Rohde joined the party, resulting in its representation in the Folketing once again.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
For the party, 2022 was characterized by several prominent figures retiring from national politics. In January, Kristian Andersen, the party's top vote-getter in the West Jutland constituency, announced that he would not run for the next parliament; the same was announced by Jens Rohde in May. Less than two weeks later, Isabella Arendt resigned from the chairmanship and left the party.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Marianne Karlsmose then assumed the role of acting national chairman, and in October, she was officially elected as chairman without any opposing candidates.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the general election on November 1, the Christian Democrats received 0,5% of the votes and thus did not enter the Folketing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On November 12, Karlsmose resigned from the chairman position.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Instead of electing a new chairman, the party's executive committee agreed to have Karlsmose replaced by organizational and political vice-chairmen, Jesper Housgaard and Henrik Hjortshøj, respectively, until the party's annual meeting in 2023. However, an extraordinary congress was held in March 2023, where Jeppe Hedaa was elected as the new national chairman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Christian Democratic politicians
Party chairmen
- Jacob Christensen: 1970–1973
- Jens Møller: 1973–1979
- Flemming Kofod-Svendsen: 1979–1990
- Jann Sjursen: 1990–2002
- Marianne Karlsmose: 2002–2005
- Bodil Kornbek: 2005–2008
- Bjarne Hartung Kirkegaard: 2008–2011
- Per Ørum Jørgensen: 2011–2012
- Egon Jakobsen: 2012 (a.i.)
- Stig Grenov: 2012–2019
- Isabella Arendt: 2019–2022
- Marianne Karlsmose: 2022
- Henrik Hjortshøj & Jesper Housgaard: 2022–2023 (a.i.)
- Jeppe Hedaa: 2023–present
Ministers
- Template:Ill: Minister for the Environment and Nordic Cooperation (1982–88).
- Flemming Kofod-Svendsen: Minister for Housing (1987–88). Minister for Housing, Nordic Cooperation and Baltic Sea Questions (1993–1994).
- Jann Sjursen: Minister of Energy (1993–1994).
Election results
Parliament
Local elections
European Parliament
| Date | Votes | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | ± pp | # | ± | |
| 1979 | 30,985 | 1.8% | +1.8 | Template:Composition bar | New |
| 1984 | 54,624 | 2.7% | +2.7 | Template:Composition bar | Template:Steady 0 |
| 1989 | 47,768 | 2.7% | 0.0 | Template:Composition bar | Template:Steady 0 |
| 1994 | 22,986 | 1.1% | −1.6 | Template:Composition bar | Template:Steady 0 |
| 1999 | 39,128 | 2.0% | +0.9 | Template:Composition bar | Template:Steady 0 |
| 2004 | 24,286 | 1.3% | −0.7 | Template:Composition bar | Template:Steady 0 |
| 2009–present | did not run. | ||||
Further reading
Notes
References
External links
- Template:Official website in Danish
Template:Danish political parties Template:European People's Party
- Pages with broken file links
- Christian democratic parties in Europe
- Protestant political parties
- Political parties in Denmark
- Political parties established in 1970
- Member parties of the European People's Party
- 1970 establishments in Denmark
- Centrist parties in Denmark
- Pro-European political parties in Denmark
- Regionalist parties