Christian Democrats (Denmark)

Christian Democrats Kristendemokraterne
Leader	Per Ørum Jørgensen
Founded	1970
Headquarters	Allégade 24, 1. 2000 Frederiksberg
Youth wing	Young Christian Democrats
Ideology	Christian democracy, regionalism/decentralization
Political position	Centre
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International
European affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	None
Official colours	Orange
Folketing	0 / 179
European Parliament	0 / 13
Election symbol
K
Website
www.kd.dk
Politics of Denmark Political parties Elections

The Christian Democrats (Danish: Kristendemokraterne) are a political party in Denmark. The party was founded in 1970 to oppose the liberalization of restrictions on pornography and the legalization of abortion. It was known as the Christian People's Party (Danish: Kristeligt Folkeparti) from 1970 to 2003. Originally, the party was not considered part of the European Christian Democratic tradition, and it was better known as a religious conservative party.^[1]

Since its inception, the party has enjoyed an intermittent presence in the Parliament of Denmark, rarely winning much more than the two percent minimum required to gain seats under Denmark's proportional representation system, and frequently falling below the threshold, as happened most recently in the 2007 and 2011 elections. Despite its small size, the party has served in a number of coalition governments. From 1982 to 1988, it was in coalition with the Liberal and Conservative parties; from 1993 to 1994, it served with the Social Democrats, the Social Liberals and the Centre Democrats.

From 2002 to 2005, the party was led by Marianne Karlsmose. The name of the party was changed to the Christian Democrats in 2003. In October 2005, the party elected Bodil Kornbek [1] as its new chairman. Her attempt to introduce a more secular centre-left profile had some success in the beginning, but in the 2007 and 2011 elections, the party received no seats. In October 2008, Kornbek was replaced by Bjarne Hartung Kirkegaard, who represents its more rightist and religious wing.

In 2010, the Christian Democrats regained parliamentary representation when the former conservative Per Ørum Jørgensen joined the party. Since he was not formerly known for having expressed particularly religion-based opinions, these events once more softened the religious character of the party.

On 30 June 2011, it was announced that the Christian Democrats had started cooperating with the grassroot party Fælleslisten, a single-issue party fighting for decentralization, especially in health policy, with some success in regional and local elections. This means that candidates from the two parties will appear on a joint list at the next Danish parliamentary election. The Christian Democrats had themselves taken a somewhat regionalist stance at a moment when Fælleslisten had surged in opinion polls.

The Christian Democrats are a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the Centrist Democrat International.

Leaders

• Jacob Christensen: 1970 - 1973
• Jens Møller: 1973 - 1979
• Flemming Kofod-Svendsen: 1979 - 1990
• Jann Sjursen: 1990 - 2002
• Marianne Karlsmose: 2002-2005
• Bodil Kornbek: 2005-2008
• Bjarne Hartung Kirkegaard: 2008-2011
• Per Ørum Jørgensen: From 2011

References

1. ^ Cook, Chris; Francis, Mary (1979). The first European elections: A handbook and guide. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 0333265750. 

External links

• The Christian Democratic Party - Official site in English
• Kristendemokraterne - Official site in Danish
• Cura. Christian Democratic Magazine - In Danish