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Parliament of Denmark

The Folketing (Folketinget, ; ), also known as the Parliament of Denmark or the Danish Parliament in English, is the unicameral national legislature (parliament) of the Kingdom of Denmark—Denmark proper together with the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Established in 1849, until 1953 the Folketing was the lower house of a bicameral parliament, called the Rigsdag; the upper house was the Landsting. It meets in Christiansborg Palace, on the islet of Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen. The Folketing passes all laws, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. It is also responsible for adopting the state's budgets and approving the state's accounts. As set out in the Constitution of Denmark, the Folketing shares power with the reigning monarch. But in practice the monarch's role is limited to signing laws passed by the legislature; this must be done within 30 days of adoption. The Folketing consists of 179 MPs; including two from Greenland and two from the Faroe Islands. General elections must be held every four years, but it is within the powers of the prime minister to ask the monarch to call for an election before the term has elapsed. On a vote of no confidence, the Folketing may force a single minister or the entire government to resign. Members are democratically elected by proportional representation: 135 directly in constituencies using the D'Hondt method and with 40 leveling seats. The Danish political system has traditionally generated coalitions. Most post war governments have been minority coalitions ruling with the support of non government parties. The first sitting of the house is usually attended by The King.

From 1849 to 1953 the Folketing was one of the two houses in the bicameral parliament known as the Rigsdag; the other house was known as Landstinget. The difference between the houses was its size, voter representation, and electoral system. The Folketing was elected by common vote among men and consisted mainly of independent farmers, traders, and merchants as well as the educated classes. From 1866 to 1915 the right to vote for the Landsting was restricted to the wealthiest, and some of its members were appointed by the king; so it predominantly represented the landed gentry and other conservatives. From 1915 both men and women had the right of vote for both houses, and the Landsting was elected by common vote, although indirectly and with a higher age limit than for the Folketing. During the next decades, law making mainly took place in the Folketing, and the Landsting came to be regarded as a superfluous rubber stamp. In 1953 a revised constitution was adopted by a referendum. Among the changes was the elimination of the Landsting and the introduction of a unicameral parliament, known only as the Folketing. Christiansborg Palace (also known by its nickname Borgen, Danish for the castle) has been the domicile of parliament since 1849. The palace is in the heart of Copenhagen. Gaining representation in parliament normally requires only 2% of the national vote. With such a low election threshold a large number of parties are represented in the chamber, making it all but impossible for one party to win the 90 seats necessary for a majority. No party has achieved this since 1901. All Danish governments since then have been coalitions or one party minority governments. The constitution allows a government to take office without getting a vote of confidence and stay in office as long as it does not lose a vote of no confidence. One consequence is that, unlike in most other parliamentary systems, most Danish governments in modern times are not assured that their legislative agendas will pass, forcing them to assemble a majority for each individual piece of legislation.

The 179 members of the folketing are directly elected to four year terms, subject to calls for early elections. All Danish citizens 18 years or older may vote in legislative elections, which are conducted by secret ballot. Folketing seats are allocated among the various parties using the D'Hondt method of party list proportional representation. A party or electoral alliance must pass the election threshold of 2% of the overall vote to be allocated a seat.

The Danish political system is characterised by a fusion of powers, with the government being drawn from the ranks of the Folketing. Denmark is governed by a cabinet and a prime minister who do not have a majority in the Folketing against them (negative parliamentarism). Since no single party in Denmark has had an absolute majority in the Folketing since 1903, in order to pass laws, the prime minister must form alliances with parties outside his or her own party. This either results in a coalition cabinet of multiple parties, or a single party minority government. During his first term in 2009 to 2011, Lars Løkke Rasmussen led a centre right minority government consisting of the Liberal Party ([[Venstre (Denmark)) 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) 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 of Lene Espersen and the continuing debate over a lack of "true" liberal/conservative ideology in government policy. On 13 January 2011 the continuing turmoil in 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. The Social Democrats under the leadership of Helle Thorning Schmidt have enjoyed continuing majorities in opinion polls since late 2009 and hope 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 2011 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. In the event the Social Liberals did join the new three party coalition government formed on 3 October. Following the 2015 general election, Thorning Schmidt was replaced as Prime Minister by her predecessor Lars Løkke Rasmussen. Until 28 November 2016, he led a government consisting only of Venstre – a very unusual situation in Danish politics.

The members of parliament are allocated into thirty standing parlimentary committees. The standing committees have a portfolio that covers that of one or more government ministers.

Although Denmark is a representative democracy, a bias is seen in the demographics of the Folketing as opposed to the demographics of Denmark, with middle aged men over represented, the Folketing is therefore not a direct representation of the country. About one third of seats have been switched for new members every election, a figure that has stayed more or less constant over previous elections. The largest change in these figures was seen in the election of 1973, where 45 percent of seats saw new members, and the lowest change was in the election of 1988, when 14.8 percent of members were newcomers. Since the incorporation of women into the Folketing in 1915, a general rise in the seats held by women has been observed. In the most recent election in 2022, 78 of 179 seats were held by women. + Sortable and collapsible table Election yearFemale members Percent changePercentage of Folketing1957 15 8,4%1960 17 +13.3%9,5%1964 17 +0.0%9,5%1966 19 +11.8%10,6%1968 19 +0.0%10,6%1971 30 +57.9%16,8%1973 27 10.0%15,1%1975 28 +3.7%15,6%1977 30 +7.1%16,8%1979 42 +40.0%23,5%1981 42 +0.0%23,5%1984 47 +11.9%26,3%1987 52 +10.6%29,1%1988 52 0.0%29,1%1990 59 +13.5%33,0%1994 59 +0.0%33,0%1998 67 +13.6%37,4%2001 68 +1.5%38,0%2005 66 2.9%36,9%2007 67 +1.5%37,4%2011 70 +4.5%39,1%2015 67 4.3%37,4%2019 70 +4.5%39,1%2022 78 +11.4%43,6%

Between 1918 and 1920 the Folketing had 140 seats, this was then increased to 149. The number was increased to 179 in 1953, which it remains to this day.