The President of Denmark? And there is no such thing

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Denmark is a democratic country that came to this state of affairs in society not through revolutions and upheavals, but with the help of decrees from above. Having seen enough of the bloody horrors of the British, French, and, in part, the Dutch revolutions, which raised the liberal values of a new social class - the bourgeoisie, to the flag, the Danish ruling elite, led by the monarch, decided not to run in horror from the locomotive when it knocked on the rails, but by themselves govern by granting his people a parliament, elections and liberal freedoms. Here, however, from this the president did not appear in Denmark.

Constitutional Monarchy

If you're trying to find out who the current President of Denmark is, then quit immediately. Denmark is a country of a constitutional monarchy, which means that the head of state here is a monarch, and there can be no president here.

However, in fact, as in all states where there is a constitutional monarchy, the role of the king(queen) is more reduced to the representative and the role of a kind of historical talisman. Denmark is one of them.

This Scandinavian country legally ceased to be an absolute monarchy during the reign of King Frederick VII, who issued a decree creating the first Danish constitution and parliament (Folketing).

However, formally, the functions of the prime minister (first deputy king) were carried out even before the introduction of parliamentarism, almost since the Middle Ages. They were called differently: from the great chancellor, the prime minister to the chairman of the secret council. But there has never been a post of President of Denmark.

Minister of State

That's how (in Danish - stasminister) in Denmark is called the position, which is usually associated abroad with the prime minister. However, earlier she was called both the prime minister and the chairman of the government council.

Is Denmark a king or a president?

If you have this question, again, do not look for an answer to it. Because there is no king or president in Denmark. We have already found out everything about the President of Denmark, and instead of the king, since 1975, the country has been ruled (as far as the constitution allows) by Queen Margrethe II (pictured above), with the help of her prime minister, of course. Now it is Lars Rasmussen (photo below).

All Prime Ministers of Denmark

Name	Time in office	Party	Monarch
August Adam Wilhelm	1849-1852	Unaffiliated	Frederick VII
Christian Albrecht Blume	1852-53, 1864-65	Heire	Frederick VII, Christian IX
Anders Sande Oersted	1853-54	Heire	Frederick VII
Peter Georg Bang	1854-56	Heire	Frederick VII
Karl Christopher Georg Andrae	1856-57	Unaffiliated	Frederick VII
Karl Christian Hall	1857-59, 1860-63	National Liberal Party	Frederick VII
Karl Eduard Rothwitt	1859-60	Society of Friends of Peasants	Frederick VII
Karl Bror	1860	Heire	Frederick VII
Ditlev Gotland Morland	1863-64	National Liberal Party	Christian IX
Christian Emil	1865-70	National landowners	Christian IX
Ludwig Henrik Karl Hermann	1870-74	Center Party	Christian IX
Kristen Andreas Fonnesbeck	1874-75	National landowners	Christian IX
Jakob Brenum Scavenius Estrup	1875-94	National landowners, Heire	Christian IX
Kjell Tor Tage Otto	1894-97	Heire	Christian IX
Hugo Egmont Herring	1897-1900	Heire	Christian IX
Hannibal Sechested	1900-01	Heire	Christian IX
Johan Henrik Deuntser	1901-05	Reformist Venstre	Christian IX
Jens Christian Christensen	1905-08	Reformist Venstre	Christian IX, Frederick VIII
Niels Thomasius Neergaard	1908-09, 1920-24	Venstre	Frederick VIII, Christian X
Johan Ludwig Carl Christian Tido	1909	Reformist Venstre	Frederick VIII
Karl Theodor Sahle	1909-10, 1913-20	Danish Social Liberal Party	Frederick VIII, Christian X
Klaus Berntsen	1910-13	Venstre	Frederick VIII, Christian X
Karl Julius Otto Liebe	1920	Unaffiliated	Christian X
Michael Petersen Friis	1920	Unaffiliated	Christian X
Thorwald August Marinus Stauning	1924-26, 1929-42	Social Democrats	Christian X
Thomas Madsen-Mugdal	1926-29	Danish Liberal Party	Christian X
Wilhelm Buehl	1942, 1945	Social Democrats	Christian X
Eric Scavenius	1942-43	Unaffiliated	Christian X
Knut Christensen	1945-47	Venstre	Christian X, Frederick IX
Hans Christian Hettoft Hansen	1947-50, 1953-55	Social Democrats	Frederick IX
Erik Eriksen	1950-53	Venstre	Frederick IX
Hans Hansen	1955-60	Social Democrats	Frederick IX
Olfert Kampmann	1960-62	Social Democrats	Frederick IX
Jens Otto Krag	1962-68, 1971-72	Social Democrats	Frederick IX, Margrethe II
Hilmore Tormod Ingolf Baunsgaard	1968-71	Danish Social Liberal Party	Frederick IX
Anker Henrik Jørgensen	1972-73, 1975-82	Social Democrats	Margrethe II
Pole Hartling	1973-75	Venstre	Margrethe II
Poul Schlueter	1982-93	Conservative People's Party	Margrethe II
Poul Rasmussen	1993-2001	Social Democrats	Margrethe II
Anders Rasmussen	2001-09	Venstre	Margrethe II
Lars Rasmussen	2009-11, since 2015	Venstre	Margrethe II
Helle Thorning-Schmidt	2011-15	Social Democrats	Margrethe II

The only womanas Danish Prime Minister - Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

The system of representative power in Denmark

The people choose the parliament (Folketing). The monarch selects the most influential and professional person from the Folketing and appoints him as Minister of State (Prime Minister). As a rule, this is the representative of the majority party in parliament. The prime minister forms the government and approves its composition from the monarch. The prime minister, who is responsible to the monarch, has the right to resign, advocate changes in government, and also demand the dissolution of parliament. It may seem strange to some, but such a system seems to work well, given that the social and economic life of Denmark is going smoothly.

So don't look in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, for the president. They do well without it.