Legislative elections were held in Denmark on February 8, 2005. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal Party (Venstre) regained the largest number of seats in parliament. The governing coalition between the Liberals and Conservative People's Party remained intact. They will likely be supported by the Danish People's Party, which gained 2 seats. The Danish Social Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre) made the biggest gains of any party, although it remains outside the governing group of parties. The election marked the second time in a row that the Social Democrats were not the largest party in the parliament, a change from most of the 20th century. The party lost 5 seats and leader Mogens Lykketoft resigned immediately after the election.

The prime minister called the elections on January 18. He claimed that he would have called it earlier, but the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake which killed a number of Danes delayed it. Rasmussen still had almost a year left in his term, but said he wanted to call the election before municipal elections in November. His reasoning was that he wanted a clear mandate for the municipal and county government restructuring that his government was implementing.

From the last election the governing coalition of the Liberal Party and the Conservative People's Party had 94 of the 175 seats together with the supporting Danish People's Party. The election increased their mandate to 95 out of 179.

Results

	Party	Leader	Votes	% of total vote	Mandates	+/-
	Liberal Party (Venstre) (V)	Anders Fogh Rasmussen	974,657	29	52	−4
	Social Democrats (A)	Mogens Lykketoft	867,933	25.9	47	−5
	Danish People's Party (O)	Pia Kjærsgaard	444,205	13.2	24	2
	Conservative People's Party (C)	Bendt Bendtsen	345,132	10.3	18	2
	Danish Social Liberal Party (Radikale Venstre) (B)	Søren Bald	307,132	9.2	17	8
	Socialist People's Party (F)	Holger K. Nielsen	201,162	6	11	−1
	Unity List - The Red-Greens (Ø)	Collective Leadership	111,394	3.4	6	2
	Christian Democrats (K)	Marianne Karlsmose	57,836	1.7	0	−4
	Centre-Democrats (D)	Mimi Jakobsen	33,635	1	0	0
	Minority Party (M)	Rune Engelbreth Larsen	8883	0.3	0	N/A

(+/-) - Difference in seats from 2001 election.

The participation rate was 84.4%.

An additional four members are elected to represent Greenland and the Faroe Islands. They are directly elected on election day. From Greenland Lars Emil Johansen from Siumut won one seat and Kuupik Kleist from Inuit Ataqatigiit won the other. From the Faroe Islands Høgni Hoydal, Tjóðveldisflokkurin won a seat and Anfinn Kallsberg from Fólkaflokkurin won the last seat.

63 out of the 179 members of the new folketing are newly elected. Although women make up 38% of the total, several women hold prominent positions, notably Pia Kjærsgaard, leader of the third larget party. Marianne Jelved, Connie Hedegaard, Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil and Helle Thorning-Schmidt are other important women in the parliament. A couple of parties, including the social democrats are holding leadership races which may be won by women. 9 of the top 20 candidates, in terms of personal votes, were women. [1]

Following the election, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen reformed his cabinet as the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen II.

Platforms

Venstre, the liberal party of the prime minister, campaigned on their municipal restructuring plan, as well as a continuation of the "tax-freeze" and tight immigration requirements. They also promised to see 60,000 jobs created during a second term.

The largest opposition party, the Social Democrats led by Mogens Lykketoft focused on employment, which they claim has decreased under the current government.

The Danish People's Party, who support the Venstre-Conservative coalition, criticized the "tax-freeze" but agreed, conditionally, to support it for another parliamentary term. They also wanted increasingly tough immigration restrictions.

External links

• Official info from Folketinget website
• Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker