| Country: | Denmark |
| Abbreviation: | RV B |
| Danish Social Liberal Party | |
| Leader: | Martin Lidegaard |
| Chairman: | Mikkel Irminger Sarbo |
| Newspaper: | Radikal Politik |
| Split: | Venstre |
| Headquarters: | Christiansborg 1240 København K, Denmark |
| Ideology: | Social liberalism Pro-Europeanism |
| Membership: | 5,945[1] |
| Membership Year: | 2022 |
| Position: | Centre to centre-left[2] |
| International: | Liberal International |
| European: | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| Europarl: | Renew Europe |
| Affiliation1 Title: | Nordic affiliation |
| Affiliation1: | Centre Group |
| Youth Wing: | Radikal Ungdom |
| Seats1 Title: | Folketing[3] |
| Seats3 Title: | European Parliament |
| Seats4 Title: | Regions[4] |
| Seats5 Title: | Municipalities[5] |
| Seats6 Title: | Mayors |
The Danish Social Liberal Party (Danish: Radikale Venstre, RV) is a social-liberal political party in Denmark. The party was founded as a split from the Venstre Reform Party in 1905.[6] [7] [8] [9]
Historically, the centrist[10] [11] party has played a central role in Danish politics and has supported governments on both sides of the political spectrum, as co-operation is a primary belief of the party.[12] A pro-European party, it is a member of Liberal International and the ALDE, and has two MEPs in the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.
The party was founded in 1905 as a split from the Venstre. The initial impetus was the expulsion of Venstre
The first Social Liberal Cabinet was formed in 1909 with Carl Theodor Zahle serving as Prime Minister (1909–1910). From 1913 to 1920, Zahle led the second Social Liberal Cabinet with the Social Democrats serving as parliamentary support, keeping Denmark neutral during World War I. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the party served as coalition partners along with the Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning, and managed to lead the country through the recession by implementing far-reaching social reforms.
After 1945, the party continued with its pragmatic ways, influencing either as coalition partner as parliamentary support. From 1957 to 1964 they served as coalition partners in a Social Democratic led government, while Hilmar Baunsgaard served as Prime Minister 1968–1971 in a coalition government with Venstre and the Conservative People's Party as partners. In the 1968 general elections the party reached an all-time high of 15% of the vote, while they only received 11.2% in the 1973 landslide election.
During the 1980s the party served either as parliamentary support or as coalition partner in various Conservative led governments.
After an all-time low in the 1990 general elections (where the party only received 3.5% of the vote), the party once again started cooperating with the Social Democrats under leadership of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, participating in a coalition government in 1993.
In the early 2000s, the political scene was marked by "bloc"-politics, with "blue bloc" being led by Venstre and "red bloc" by the Social Democrats. The Danish People's Party overtook the Social Liberals' key position as prime candidate for parliamentary support. Furthermore, the DPP's anti-immigrant policies made the Social Liberals profile themselves as a progressive party being pro-globalisation, pro-EU and more tolerant towards refugees and immigrants. At the same time the party profiled itself on reforming the welfare system, campaigning to abolish "efterløn" and lower taxes. As such the party served to unite a modern social profile with a more liberal economic profile. This served to appeal the more well-educated urbanised parts of the country, resulting in 9.2% of the vote at the 2005 general elections.
In a 2006 press release, they tried to mark themselves as once again being able to lead a government, doing away with the presumption of the party only being able to serve as government partner or parliamentary support.[16] The strategy proved unpopular both among voters and within the party itself.[17] On 7 May 2007 MP Naser Khader and MEP Anders Samuelsen left the party and formed the New Alliance, known today as the Liberal Alliance, along with Conservative MEP Gitte Seeberg. At a press conference on 15 June 2007, it was announced that MP Margrethe Vestager would take over leadership of the party after Marianne Jelved, and that the party would rethink its strategy. The party returned to its historical role as possible coalition partner and at the political centre of Danish politics.[18] Vestager clarified during the run-up to the 2007 general election that her party would only be supporting a government led by the Social Democrats. Still, the party only won 5.1% of the vote.
At the subsequent 2011 general elections, the party support rose to 9.5% and regained eight seats to resume a total of 17. Together with the Social Democrats and the Socialist People's Party, they formed a three-way government coalition.
On 31 August 2014, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt nominated Margrethe Vestager as Denmark's EU Commissioner, resulting in her resignation as party leader. The party's parliamentary group subsequently elected Morten Østergaard as new leader.[19]
At the 2015 general elections, the party lost nine out of 17 seats and was reduced to 4.6%. The party lost a share of its voters to the newly formed The Alternative, a Green political party formed by former member of the party Uffe Elbæk.[20]
At the 2019 general elections, the party rose to 8.6% of the vote, doubling its number of seats to 16. Østergaard stated that he would support a government led by the Social Democrats only if changes would be made to the previous government's strict immigration policies.[21]
On 7 October 2020, Morten Østergaard stepped down as leader of the party following allegations of sexual harassment from within the party. Sofie Carsten Nielsen was elected new leader the same day.[22]
Nielsen resigned on 2 November 2022, following the loss of nine out of 16 seats in the 2022 Danish general election. The Social Liberal Party had instigated the election by threatening a vote of no confidence against Mette Frederiksen's government in July 2022 due to the 2020 Danish mink cull.[23] [24] One day later, Martin Lidegaard became leader of the party.[25]
The Danish Social Liberal Party has traditionally kept itself in the centre of the political scale. Since the early 1990s, though, it has primarily cooperated with the Social Democrats. Internationally, the party has cooperated with the Swedish Centre Party and Liberals, the Norwegian Venstre party, the Dutch Democrats 66, and the British Liberal Democrats.
The literal translation of the party's name Radical Left refers to its origin as the historically radical wing of its parent party Venstre (Left). In a modern context, this literal translation is somewhat misleading, as the party is considered to be centrist in the Danish political spectrum. The use of Left in the name of the party, as with the Norwegian party Venstre, is meant to refer to liberalism and not modern left-wing politics. The Danish Venstre was originally to the left of the conservative and aristocratic right-wing party Højre, whose name meant Right.
DateFormat = x.yPeriod = from:0 till:25TimeAxis = orientation:verticalAlignBars = justifyScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:0Colors= id:SB value:rgb(0.255,0.155,0.255) PlotData= bar:% color:magenta width:15 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1906 from:start till:12.6 text:12.6 bar:1909 from:start till:15.5 text:15.5 bar:1910 from:start till:18.6 text:18.6 bar:1913 from:start till:18.7 text:18.7 bar:1915 from:start till:18.7 text:18.7 bar:1918 from:start till:20.7 text:20.7 bar:1920 from:start till:11.9 text:11.9 bar:1920-2 from:start till:11.5 text:11.5 bar:1920-3 from:start till:12.1 text:12.1 bar:1924 from:start till:13.0 text:13.0 bar:1926 from:start till:11.3 text:11.3 bar:1929 from:start till:10.7 text:10.7 bar:1932 from:start till:9.4 text:9.4 bar:1935 from:start till:9.2 text:9.2 bar:1939 from:start till:9.5 text:9.5 bar:1943 from:start till:8.7 text:8.7 bar:1945 from:start till:8.1 text:8.1 bar:1947 from:start till:6.9 text:6.9 bar:1950 from:start till:8.2 text:8.2 bar:1953 from:start till:8.6 text:8.6 bar:1953-2 from:start till:7.8 text:7.8 bar:1957 from:start till:7.8 text:7.8 bar:1960 from:start till:5.8 text:5.8 bar:1964 from:start till:5.3 text:5.3 bar:1966 from:start till:7.3 text:7.3 bar:1968 from:start till:15.0 text:15.0 bar:1971 from:start till:14.4 text:14.4 bar:1973 from:start till:11.2 text:11.2 bar:1975 from:start till:7.1 text:7.1 bar:1977 from:start till:3.6 text:3.6 bar:1979 from:start till:5.4 text:5.4 bar:1981 from:start till:5.1 text:5.1 bar:1984 from:start till:5.5 text:5.5 bar:1987 from:start till:6.2 text:6.2 bar:1988 from:start till:5.6 text:5.6 bar:1990 from:start till:3.5 text:3.5 bar:1994 from:start till:4.6 text:4.6 bar:1998 from:start till:3.9 text:3.9 bar:2001 from:start till:5.2 text:5.2 bar:2005 from:start till:9.2 text:9.2 bar:2007 from:start till:5.1 text:5.1 bar:2011 from:start till:9.5 text:9.5 bar:2015 from:start till:4.6 text:4.6 bar:2019 from:start till:8.6 text:8.6 bar:2022 from:start till:3.8 text:3.8
| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1906 | 38,151 | 12.6 (#4) | 9 | |||
| 1909 | 50,305 | 15.5 (#4) | 6 | |||
| 1910 | 64,884 | 18.6 (#3) | 5 | |||
| 1913 | 67,903 | 18.7 (#3) | 11 | |||
| 1915 | 677 | 5.3 (#3) | 1 | |||
| 1918 | 189,521 | 20.7 (#3) | 1 | |||
| 1920 (Apr) | 122,160 | 11.9 (#4) | 15 | Caretaker government | ||
| 1920 (Jul) | 109,931 | 11.5 (#4) | 1 | |||
| 1920 (Sep) | 147,120 | 12.1 (#4) | 2 | |||
| 1924 | 166,476 | 13.0 (#4) | 2 | |||
| 1926 | 151,746 | 11.3 (#4) | 4 | |||
| 1929 | 151,746 | 10.7 (#4) | 0 | |||
| 1932 | 145,221 | 9.4 (#4) | 2 | |||
| 1935 | 151,507 | 9.2 (#4) | 0 | |||
| 1939 | 161,834 | 9.5 (#4) | 0 | |||
| 1943 | 175,179 | 8.7 (#4) | 2 | |||
| 1945 | 167,073 | 8.1 (#5) | 2 | |||
| 1947 | 144,206 | 6.9 (#4) | 1 | |||
| 1950 | 167,969 | 8.2 (#5) | 2 | |||
| 1953 (Apr) | 178,942 | 8.6 (#4) | 1 | |||
| 1953 (Sep) | 169,295 | 7.8 (#4) | 1 | |||
| 1957 | 179,822 | 7.8 (#4) | 0 | |||
| 1960 | 140,979 | 5.8 (#5) | 3 | |||
| 1964 | 139,702 | 5.3 (#5) | 1 | |||
| 1966 | 203,858 | 7.3 (#5) | 3 | |||
| 1968 | 427,304 | 15.0 (#4) | 14 | |||
| 1971 | 413,620 | 14.4 (#4) | 0 | |||
| 1973 | 343,718 | 11.2 (#4) | 7 | |||
| 1975 | 216,553 | 7.1 (#4) | 7 | |||
| 1977 | 113,330 | 3.6 (#8) | 7 | |||
| 1979 | 172,365 | 5.4 (#6) | 4 | |||
| 1981 | 160,053 | 5.1 (#7) | 1 | |||
| 1984 | 184,642 | 5.5 (#6) | 1 | |||
| 1987 | 209,086 | 6.2 (#5) | 1 | |||
| 1988 | 185,707 | 5.6 (#6) | 1 | |||
| 114,888 | 3.5 (#7) | 3 | ||||
| 1994 | 152,701 | 4.6 (#6) | 1 | |||
| 131,254 | 3.9 (#7) | 1 | ||||
| 2001 | 179,023 | 5.2 (#6) | 2 | |||
| 308,212 | 9.2 (#5) | 8 | ||||
| 2007 | 177,161 | 5.1 (#6) | 8 | |||
| 2011 | 336,698 | 9.5 (#4) | 8 | |||
| 2015 | 160,672 | 4.6 (#7) | 9 | |||
| 2019 | 304,273 | 8.6 (#4) | 8 | |||
| 2022 | 133,931 | 3.8 (#9) | 9 |
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| Election | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 56,944 | 3.6 (#10) | 0 | ||
| 1984 | 32,560 | 1.6 (#9) | 0 | ||
| 1989 | 50,196 | 2.8 (#8) | 0 | ||
| 1994 | 176,480 | 8.5 (#6) | 1 | ||
| 180,089 | 9.1 (#4) | 0 | |||
| 2004 | 120,473 | 6.4 (#6) | 0 | ||
| 2009 | 100,094 | 4.3 (#7) | 1 | ||
| 2014 | 148,949 | 6.5 (#7) | 1 | ||
| 2019 | 277,929 | 10.1 (#4) | 1 | ||
| 2024 | 173,355 | 7.1 (#6) | 1 |
In the European Parliament, the Danish Social Liberal Party sits in the Renew Europe group with one MEP. [26]
In the European Committee of the regions, the Danish Social Liberal Party sits in the Renew Europe in the European Committee of the Regions group, with one full and two alternate members for the 2020 - 2025 mandate. [27]