The political system

Bo, Cecilie, Veronika, Louise F, Katrine, Louise N og Nicolai
We are going to the 8th grade, on Nyborg Friskole.

Hello everyone we have this project week, and the content is that we are going to make some documents to present Denmark. Our group have got the job, to tell you a bit about the Danish political system. This document tells you about the history of our government, the construction of our political system, where we are now and our future.


The history of the government
In 1661, here in Denmark there were absolute monarchy. The absolute monarchy lasted until 1848. Then Denmark got democracy.

Since 1848 we’ve got 41 prime ministers in Denmark.
Some of the newer prime ministers are described here:

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, 2001-2009
Born: 1953
Primeminister: 2001- 2009 (Venstre).

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, 2009-2011
Born: 1964
Prime minister 2009-2011 (Venstre)

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is the first woman to be prime minister in Denmark, 2011-
Born: 1966
Prime minister 2011 - (Socialdemokraterne)

The Danish Parliament is called “Folketinget”. It is the legislative assembly in Denmark, which means that it passes the laws that apply in Denmark. The Folketing is also responsible for adopting the state's budgets, approving the state's accounts, exercising control of the Government and taking part in international cooperation.


The Danish EU presidency
The first January 2012, Denmark assumed the EU presidency. It means by and large that the Danish Government will chair and plan the work in the Council among 27 EU Member States’ governments – ministers and officials. The Council is the institution in the EU where EU Member States’ governments meet to negotiate and discuss EU policies.

The Member State holding the EU presidency faces a huge and demanding task. In essence, the main task of the Member State holding the Presidency is to set the agenda in the EU and act as the driving force in the processing of EU matters. It means that the presidency is to plan and chair the meetings of EU Member States’ ministers, etc. in the Council and all the working teams with officials connected with the Council.

The parliament
The parliament in Denmark has 179 members, who are elected by the public at general elections.
That must be held at least every fourth year. Of the 179 Members of Parliament
(MPs), 175 is elected in Denmark, two is elected on the Faroe Islands and two in
Greenland. The Danish Parliament has 26 standing committees. Each committee has up to 29 members.
The danish government is ruled by Helle Thorning-Schmidt. She is the prime minister. Her government is: Socialdemokraterne (Social Democrats), Det Radikale Venstre (Social Liberals) and SF (Socialist People's Party). Enhedslisten (Unity List - far left party) is backing the government up, but they are not A PART of the government. There is 23 ministers in Denmark, and there is 3 leaders from each party.
Politics is about the processes, using power that controls various
social issues and exercises an authority, such as. It’s defined by law or other rules adopted.


Some of the current topics in the danish politics is:

- Denmark has just got EU presidency. Helle Thorning likes that. She’s sure, that it’s good
for Denmark, thinking of the financial crisis. They agreed to enter a fiscal pact.

- They’re talking about broken electoral promises.

- They’re talking about the financial crisis..

- They’re talking about a toll ring around Copenhagen.

- One of the other topics we have in our government is: ‘’human rights in Denmark’’.

The future in Denmark
Someone might say that Denmark’s future looks dark, but I think the future is looking okay. We are probably going to pay a lot more for daily products, but we also have to accept, that the state has to save a lot of money. Yes, maybe it doesn’t sound so good, but I think that the last 7 maybe 10 years, we have been spending a lot of money, and we can’t live that way, that’s unrealistic.
The future looks bright in one side, but dark in another. On the bright side, we have got EU
presidency, maybe that can help us out of the crisis. On the other side, the crisis looks dark right now. We’ll never know when it all falls apart. (If it does)


Tripartite division of power

The tripartite division consists of a legislative power, executive power and judicial power. folketinget - Legislative
Domstol - Judicial
regeringen - Executive.


Here is a link to a presentation of the political system in Denmark:

The political system on Prezi