Conservative People's Party (Denmark)


The Conservative People's Party, also known as the Conservatives is a conservative centre-right political party in Denmark. The party is a member of the European People's Party and International Democrat Union.

History

The party was founded 1916 based mostly on its predecessor, Højre, 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 and 4 months later on October 23, 2004, it 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, 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

Party chairmen

Youth and student wings

Election year# of votes% of Danish vote# of overall seats won# of Danish seats won+/-Notes
1918167,86518.3 14part of the opposition
Apr 1920201,49919.6 6parliamentarian crisis
Jul 1920180,29318.9 2tolerating a Venstre-government
Sep 1920216,73317.9 N/Atolerating a Venstre-government
1924242,95518.9 1part of the opposition
1926275,79320.6 2tolerating a Venstre-government
1929233,93516.5 6part of the opposition
1932358,50917.3 3part of the opposition
1935293,39317.8 1part of the opposition
1939301,62517.8 part of the opposition until 1940 / then part of a unity government
1943421,52321.0 5part of a unity government
1945373,68818.2 5tolerating a Venstre-government
1947259,32412.4 9part of the opposition
1950365,23617.8 10part of the Venstre-led government
Apr 1953358,50917.3 1part of the Venstre-led government
Sep 1953383,84316.6 N/Apart of the opposition
1957383,84316.6 part of the opposition
1960435,76417.9 2part of the opposition
1964527,79820.1 4part of the opposition
1966522,02818.7 2part of the opposition
1968581,05120.4 3part of the Social Liberal-led government
1971481,33516.7 6leading the opposition
1973279,3919.2 15tolerating a Venstre government
1975168,1645.5 6part of the opposition
1977263,2628.5 5part of the opposition
1979395,65312.5 7part of the opposition
1981451,47814.5 4leading the opposition until 1982 / then leading the government
1984788,22423.4 16leading the government
1987700,88620.8 4leading the government
1988642,04819.3 3leading the government
1990517,29316.0 5leading the government until 1993 / then leading the opposition
1994499,84515.0 3part of the opposition
1998303,9658.9 11part of the opposition
2001312,7709.1 part of the Venstre-led government
2005344,88610.3 2part of the Venstre-led government
2007359,40410.4 part of the Venstre-led government
2011175,0474.9% 10part of the opposition
2015118,0153.4% 22015–16: tolerating a Venstre-government
2016–2019: part of the Venstre-led government
2019233,3496.6% 6part of the opposition

Election year# of votes% of Danish vote# of overall seats won# of Danish seats won+/-Notes
1979245,30913.98% 2 13.98%-
1984414,17720.69% 2 6.71%-
1989238,76013.3% 2 7.39%-
1994368,89017.74% 1 4.44%-
1999166,8848.47% 2 9.27%-
2004214,97211.3% 2.83%-
2009297,19912.69% 1.39%-
2014208,2629.1% 3,59%-
2019170,5446.2% 2.9%-