Social Democrats (Denmark)

Social Democrats Socialdemokratiet
Abbreviation	S A[a]
Chairperson	Mette Frederiksen
Deputy chairs	Lennart Damsbo-Andersen Christian Rabjerg Madsen
Founded	15 October 1871; 153 years ago (1871-10-15)
Headquarters	Vester Voldgade 96 1552, Copenhagen
Newspaper	Socialdemokraten
Student wing	Frit Forum – Social Democratic Students of Denmark
Youth wing	Social Democratic Youth of Denmark
Membership (2020)	32,137[1]
Ideology	Social democracy Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre-left[A][2]
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance
Nordic affiliation	SAMAK The Social Democratic Group
Colours	Red
Anthem	Når jeg ser et rødt flag smælde[3] ('When I See a Red Flag Billow')
Folketing	50 / 179[b]
European Parliament	3 / 14
Regions[4]	64 / 205
Municipalities[5]	756 / 2,436
Mayors	44 / 98
Election symbol
Website
socialdemokratiet.dk
Politics of Denmark Political parties Elections ^ A: The party has also been described as left-conservative,[6] given its more conservative stances on some socio-cultural issues.[7]

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The Social Democrats (Danish: Socialdemokratiet, pronounced [soˈɕɛˀlte̝moˌkʰʁɑˀtɪət], lit. 'The Social Democracy', S) is a social democratic^[8][9] political party in Denmark. A member of the Party of European Socialists, the Social Democrats have 50 out of 179 members of the Danish parliament (following the latest Danish general election held in 2022), Folketing, and three out of fourteen MEPs elected from Denmark.

Founded by Louis Pio in 1871, the party first entered the Folketing in the 1884 Danish Folketing election. By the early 20th century, it had become the party with the largest representation in the Folketing, a distinction it would hold for 77 years. It first formed a government after the 1924 Danish Folketing election under Thorvald Stauning, the longest-serving Danish Prime Minister of the 20th century. During Stauning's government which lasted until the 1926 Danish Folketing election, the Social Democrats exerted a profound influence on Danish society, laying the foundation of the Danish welfare state. From 2002 to 2016, the party used the name Socialdemokraterne in some contexts.^[10][11] The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International from 1923 to 1940. A member of the Socialist International until 2017, the party withdrew to join the Progressive Alliance, founded in 2013.

The party was the major coalition partner in government from the 2011 Danish general election until the 2015 Danish general election, with then-party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt as Prime Minister. After losing power in the 2015 election, Thorning-Schmidt was succeeded as party leader on 28 June 2015 by the former Vice Leader Mette Frederiksen, who shifted the party back to the political left on economics, while criticising mass immigration.^[12][13] Frederiksen led the party to win the 2019 and 2022 Danish general election, forming a single-party minority government from 2019 to 2022 and a majority grand-coalition government with the centre-right Venstre and the centrist Moderates since 2022.

The party traces its own history back to the International Labour Association, founded in 1871 and banned in 1873, loosely re-organised in the Social Democratic Labour Party which in 1876 issued the Gimle program, but as a formal political party it was first founded from 11–12 February 1878 as the Social Democratic Federation. This name was formally carried by the party for almost a hundred years, although in practice it also used a number of other names until it changed its name to Social Democracy in 1965. At a congress in Aalborg in 2002, the party changed its name to the Social Democrats, but from 2016 again only Social Democracy is used.^[10][11]

The party has the letter A as a symbol, but the abbreviation S is often used in the media. The party's classic symbol is a red rose and in recent times an A in a red circle. Aside from the classical socialist red colour,^[14] the party has recently adopted a more light red colour called competition orange.^[15]

The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940.^[16] It is now a member of the Progressive Alliance, an association of progressive social-democratic parties.^[17] The Social Democrats are also a member of the Party of European Socialists while the party's MEPs sit in the Socialists & Democrats group.

The party was founded as the International Labour Association of Denmark on 15 October 1871 by Louis Pio, Harald Brix and Paul Geleff.^[18] The goal was to organise the emerging working class on a democratic and socialist basis. The industrialisation of Denmark had begun in the mid-19th century and a period of rapid urbanisation had led to an emerging class of urban workers. The social-democratic movement emerged from the desire to give this group political rights and representation in the Folketing, the Danish parliament. In 1876, the party held an annual conference, adopting the first party manifesto.^[19]

The stated policy was as follows:

The Danish Social Democratic Labour Party works in its national form, but is convinced of the international nature of the labour movement and ready to sacrifice everything and fulfill all obligations to provide: Freedom, equality and brotherhood among all nations.

In 1884, the party had their first two members of parliament elected, namely Peter Thygesen Holm and Chresten Hørdum.

In 1906, the party created the Social Democratic Youth Association, lasting until 1920 when the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark and current party's youth wing was founded.

In the 1924 Danish Folketing election, the party won the majority with 36.6 percent of the vote and its first government was put in place with Thorvald Stauning as Prime Minister.^[20] That same year, he appointed Nina Bang as the world's first female minister, nine years after women's suffrage had been given in Denmark. Stauning stayed in power until his death in 1942, with his party laying the foundations for the Danish welfare state based on a close collaboration between labor unions and the government.^[21]

In January 1933, Stauning's government entered into what was then the most extensive settlement yet in Danish politics, namely the Kanslergade settlement (Danish: Kanslergadeforliget) with the liberal party Venstre.^[22] The settlement was named after Stauning's apartment in Kanslergade in Copenhagen and included extensive agricultural subsidies and reforms of the legislation and administration in the social sector.^[23] In 1935, Stauning was reelected with the famous slogan "Stauning or Chaos".^[24]

Stauning's second cabinet lasted until the Nazi occupation of Denmark in 1940, when the cabinet was widened to include all political parties for a national unity government and the Danish government pursued a collaborative policy with the German occupiers. Through the 1940s and until 1972, most of Denmark's Prime Ministers were from the party.^[25]

The Social Democrats' social policy through the 1990s and continuing in the 21st century involved a significant redistribution of income and the maintenance of a large state apparatus with collectively financed core public services such as public healthcare, education and infrastructure.

Social Democrats-led coalition governments (the I, II, III and IV Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen) implemented the system known as flexicurity (flexibility and social security), mixing strong Scandinavian unemployment benefits with deregulated employment laws, making it easier for employers to fire and rehire people in order to encourage economic growth and reduce unemployment.^[26][19]

The Cabinets of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen maintained a parliamentary majority during the period from 1993 to 2001 by virtue of their support from the Socialist People's Party and the Red–Green Alliance.^[27]

Towards the end of the 1990s, a trade surplus of 30 billion kroner (US$4.9 billion) turned into a deficit.^{[citation needed]} To combat this, the government increased taxes, limiting private consumption. The 1998 initiative, dubbed the Whitsun Packet (Danish: Pinsepakken) from the season it was issued, was not universally popular with the electorate; it may have also been a factor in the Social Democrats' defeat in the 2001 Danish general election.

After being defeated by the Liberal Party in the 2001 Danish general election, the party chairmanship went to former finance and foreign minister Mogens Lykketoft. Following another defeat in the 2005 Danish general election, Lykketoft announced his resignation as party leader and at an extraordinary congress on 12 March it was decided that all members of the party would cast votes in an election of a new party leader. The two contenders for the leadership represented the two wings in the party, with Helle Thorning-Schmidt being viewed as centrist and Frank Jensen being viewed as slightly more left-leaning. On 12 April 2005, Thorning-Schmidt was elected as the new leader.^[28]

In the 2011 Danish general election, the Social Democrats gained 44 seats in parliament, the lowest number since 1953.^[29] Nonetheless, the party succeeded in establishing a minority government with the Danish Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party. The incumbent centre-right coalition led by the Liberal Party lost power to a centre-left coalition led by the Social Democrats, making Thorning-Schmidt the country's first female prime minister. The Danish Social Liberal Party and the Socialist People's Party became part of the three-party centre-left coalition government. The new parliament convened on 4 October. The government rolled back anti-immigration legislation enacted by the previous government^[30] and passed a tax-reform with support from the liberal-conservative opposition.^[31] The tax reform raised the top tax threshold, which had previously applied to over half the working population. The aim of the tax reform was to increase labour output to fend off a projected labour shortage within the next decades. The stated goal was to entice Danes to work more in order to compensate for the decreasing workforce by lowering tax on wages and gradually lowering welfare payments to those outside of the labour market to increase the economic benefit of working relative to receiving welfare.^[32]

On 3 February 2014, the Socialist People's Party left the government in protest over the sale of shares in the public energy company DONG Energy to the investment bank Goldman Sachs.^[33] Because of the government's minority status and of its dependency on the support of the Danish Social Liberal Party, the government had to jettison many of the policies that the Social Democrats–Socialist People's Party coalition had given during the campaign. Although critics have accused the government of breaking its promises, other studies argue that it accomplished half of its stated goals, blaming instead poor public relations strategies for its increasingly negative public image.^[34] The government pursued a centrist compromise agenda, building several reforms with support from both sides of the parliament. This caused friction with the supporting Red–Green Alliance, who were kept outside of influencing decisions.^[31]

In the 2015 Danish general election, the Social Democrats gained seats and became the biggest party in the parliament again since 2001, yet lost the government because the right-wing parties had a majority. The results of the 2015 election and the defeat of the left-bloc led Thorning-Schmidt to resign as prime minister on election night and making way for the next leader Mette Frederiksen.^[35] Under Frederiksen, the Social Democrats voted in favor of a law allowing Danish authorities to confiscate money, jewellery and other valuable items refugees crossing the border may have as long as those valuables have no sentimental value,^[36] despite harsh condemnation from the United Nations Human Right Council^[37] and widespread comparisons between the plan and the treatment of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.^[38] The law had been used 17 times in the first six years.^[39]

Similarly, the Social Democrats voted for a law banning wearing of burqas and niqabs, while abstaining during a vote on a law on mandatory handshakes irrespective of religious sentiment at citizenship ceremonies and on a plan to house criminal asylum seekers on an island used for researching contagious animal diseases. Frederiksen has also backed the right-wing populist Danish People's Party in their paradigm shift push to make repatriation rather than social integration the goal of asylum policy. She has called for a cap on non-Western immigrants, expulsion of asylum seekers to a reception centre in North Africa and forced labour for immigrants in exchange for benefits. Labeling foreign policies of Europe as too economic liberal, Frederiksen has criticised other social democratic parties for losing their voters' trust by failing to prevent globalisation chipping away at labour rights, increasing inequality and exposing them to uncontrolled immigration.^[40]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2023)

In the 2019 Danish general election, the Social Democrats gained one further seat and the opposition red bloc of left-wing and centre-left parties (the Social Democrats, the Danish Social Liberal Party, the Socialist People's Party and the Red–Green Alliance along with the Faroese Social Democratic Party and Greenland's Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut) won a majority of 93 out of 179 seats in the Folketing while support for the Danish People's Party and the Liberal Alliance collapsed, costing Lars Løkke Rasmussen his majority. With the result beyond doubt on election night, Rasmussen conceded defeat and Frederiksen has been commissioned by Queen Margrethe II to lead the negotiations to form a new government.^[41][42]

On 27 June 2019, Frederiksen was successful in forming the Frederiksen Cabinet, an exclusively Social Democrats minority government supported by the red bloc, becoming the second woman in the role after Thorning-Schmidt as well as the youngest prime minister in Danish history at the age of 41.^[43] Despite having run on an anti-immigration stance during the election, Frederiksen shifted her stance on immigration by allowing more foreign labour and reversing government plans to hold foreign criminals offshore after winning government.^[44][45][46]

Since its foundation, the lemma of the party has been "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" and these values are still described as central in the party program. In the political program, these values are described as being consistent with a focus on solidarity with the poorest and social welfare to those who need it, with individual responsibility in relation to other members in society and with an increased involvement in the European Union project.^[47]

As well as adopting more left-leaning economics, the party has become increasingly sceptical of mass immigration from a left-wing perspective in the late 2010s. The party believes that immigration has had negative impacts for much of the population, a more pressing issue since at least 2001 after the 11 September attacks which intensified during the 2015 European migrant crisis. It also returned to a more sceptical view of economic liberalism, including the view that perception of adopting the Third Way and practicing centrist, neoliberal economics, and supporting unrestricted economic globalisation contributed to its poor electoral performance in the late 2000s and early 2010s.^[12][13] In a biography written before becoming the prime minister in 2019, Mette Frederiksen wrote: "For me, it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalisation, mass immigration and the free movement of labour is paid for by the lower classes."^[48]

The party had factions that promoted anti-immigration policies since the 1980s, but it was Mette Frederiksen that completed the party's right-turn on immigration. Since then, Social Democrats have been supporting strict controls of immigration, arguing that it is integral to "a new class struggle" as it protects the national culture, rural communities and the working-class identities of Denmark.^[49] The party's proposals include expulsion of asylum seekers, a cap on non-Western immigration, and a requirement for immigrants to work at least 37 hours per week before being given a right to social and welfare benefits. Social Democrats also adopted a more conservative stance on cultural diversity, supporting repatration rather than integration, postulating a ban on burqas and niqabs, and voting in favour of a law allowing Danish authorities to confiscate valuable items from refugees crossing the border.^[7]

Since then, the party is described as a "left conservative" social democratic party, as it "places itself to the left on issues related to welfare and redistribution, and right on cultural and value‐related issues".^[6] It has also been described as welfare chauvinist,^[50] and nativist.^[51] Programmaticaly, the party has been compared to the German Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance and the Dutch Socialist Party, known for their culturally conservative positions.^[52]

The current Party Leader is Mette Frederiksen. She succeeded Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who stepped down after the left bloc's defeat in the 2015 Danish general election. Deputy Party Leaders are Lennart Damsbo-Andersen and Christian Rabjerg Madsen. The Secretary General is Annette Lind.^[53]

• Thorvald Stauning (1924–1926, 1929–1942)
• Vilhelm Buhl (1942, 1945)
• Hans Hedtoft (1947–1950, 1953–1955)
• Hans Christian Hansen (1955–1960)
• Viggo Kampmann (1960–1962)
• Jens Otto Krag (1962–1968, 1971–1972)
• Anker Jørgensen (1972–1973, 1975–1982)
• Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (1993–2001)
• Helle Thorning-Schmidt (2011–2015)
• Mette Frederiksen (2019–incumbent)

No.	Portrait	Leader	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Pio, LouisLouis Pio (1841–1894)	1871	1872	0–1 years
2		Wurtz, CarlCarl Würtz (1832–ca. 1873)	1872	1873	0–1 years
3		Klein, Ernst WilhelmErnst Wilhelm Klein (1830–ca. 1879)	1873	1872	1–2 years
(1)		Pio, LouisLouis Pio (1841–1894)	1875	1877	1–2 years
4		Hordum, ChristenChristen Hørdum (1846–1911)	1877	1878	0–1 years
5		Meyer, A CA.C. Meyer (1858–1938)	1878	1878	0 years
6		Wiegell, Saxo WSaxo W. Wiegell (1843–1909)	1878	1880	1–2 years
(4)		Hordum, ChristenChristen Hørdum (1846–1911)	1880	1882	1–2 years
7		Knudsen, Peter ChristianPeter Christian Knudsen (1848–1910)	1882	1910	27–28 years
8		Stauning, ThorvaldThorvald Stauning (1873–1942)	1910	1939	28–29 years
9		Hedtoft, HansHans Hedtoft (1903–1955)	1939	1955	15–16 years
10		Hansen, H CH. C. Hansen (1906–1960)	1955	1960	4–5 years
11		Kampmann, ViggoViggo Kampmann (1910–1976)	1960	1962	1–2 years
12		Krag, Jens OttoJens Otto Krag (1914–1978)	1962	1972	9–10 years
13		Jorgensen, AnkerAnker Jørgensen (1922–2016)	1972	1987	14–15 years
14		Auken, SvendSvend Auken (1943–2009)	1987	3 September 1992	4–5 years
15		Rasmussen, Poul NyrupPoul Nyrup Rasmussen (born 1943)	3 September 1992	14 December 2002	10 years
16		Lykketoft, MogensMogens Lykketoft (born 1946)	14 December 2002	12 April 2005	2 years
17		Thorning-Schmidt, HelleHelle Thorning-Schmidt (born 1966)	12 April 2005	28 June 2015	10 years
18		Frederiksen, MetteMette Frederiksen (born 1977)	28 June 2015		9 years

The Social Democrats governed Denmark for most of the 20th century, with a few intermissions such as the Conservative People's Party-led government of Poul Schlüter in the 1980s. It continued to be Denmark's largest party until 2001 when Anders Fogh Rasmussen's liberal Venstre party gained a landslide victory, becoming the largest party and forming a centre-right government. The Social Democrats returned to government from 2011 to 2015 and since 2019.

Folketing
Year	Votes	%	± pp	Seats	+/–	Rank	Result
1884	7,000	4.9	New	2 / 102	New	2nd	Opposition
1887	8,000	3.5	1.4	1 / 102	1	3rd	Opposition
1890	17,000	7.3	3.8	3 / 102	2	3rd	Opposition
1892	20,000	8.9	1.6	2 / 102	1	4th	Opposition
1895	24,510	11.3	2.4	8 / 114	6	4th	Opposition
1898	31,870	14.2	2.9	12 / 114	4	4th	Opposition
1901	38,398	17.8	3.6	14 / 114	2	3rd	Opposition
1903	48,117	21.0	3.2	16 / 114	2	3rd	Opposition
1906	76,612	25.4	4.4	24 / 114	8	2nd	Opposition
1909	93,079	29.0	3.6	24 / 114	0	1st	External support
1910	98,718	28.3	0.7	24 / 114	0	2nd	Opposition
1913	107,365	29.6	1.3	32 / 114	8	1st	External support
1915	1,134	8.8	20.8	32 / 114	0	3rd	External support
1918	262,796	28.7	19.9	39 / 140	7	2nd	External support
1920 (April)	300,345	29.2	0.5	42 / 140	3	2nd	Caretaker government
1920 (July)	285,166	29.8	0.6	42 / 140	0	2nd	Opposition
1920 (September)	389,653	32.2	2.4	48 / 149	6	2nd	Opposition
1924	469,949	36.6	4.4	55 / 149	7	1st	Minority
1926	497,106	37.2	6.0	53 / 149	2	1st	Opposition
1929	593,191	41.8	4.6	61 / 149	8	1st	Coalition
1932	660.839	42.7	0.9	62 / 149	1	1st	Coalition
1935	759,102	46.4	3.7	68 / 149	6	1st	Coalition
1939	729,619	42.9	3.5	64 / 149	4	1st	Coalition
1943	894,632	44.5	1.6	66 / 149	2	1st	Coalition
1945	671,755	32.8	11.7	48 / 149	18	1st	Opposition
1947	836,231	41.2	8.4	57 / 150	9	1st	Minority
1950	813,224	39.6	1.6	59 / 151	2	1st	Opposition
1953 (April)	836,507	40.4	0.8	61 / 151	2	1st	Opposition
1953 (September)	894,913	41.3	0.9	74 / 179	13	1st	Minority
1957	910,170	39.4	1.9	70 / 179	4	1st	Coalition
1960	1,023,794	42.1	2.7	76 / 179	6	1st	Coalition
1964	1,103,667	41.9	0.2	76 / 179	0	1st	Minority
1966	1,068,911	38.2	3.7	69 / 179	7	1st	Minority
1968	974,833	34.2	4.0	62 / 179	7	1st	Opposition
1971	1,074,777	37.3	3.1	70 / 179	8	1st	Minority
1973	783,145	25.6	11.4	46 / 179	24	1st	Opposition
1975	913,155	29.9	4.0	53 / 179	7	1st	Minority
1977	1,150,355	37.0	7.1	65 / 179	12	1st	Minority (1977–1978)
							Coalition (1978–1979)
1979	1,213,456	38.3	1.3	68 / 179	3	1st	Minority
1981	1,026,726	32.9	5.4	59 / 179	9	1st	Minority (1981–1982)
							Opposition (1982–1984)
1984	1,062,561	31.6	1.3	56 / 179	3	1st	Opposition
1987	985,906	29.3	2.3	54 / 179	2	1st	Opposition
1988	992,682	29.8	0.5	55 / 179	1	1st	Opposition
1990	1,221,121	37.4	7.6	69 / 179	14	1st	Opposition (1990–1993)
							Coalition (1993–1994)
1994	1,150,048	34.6	2.8	62 / 179	7	1st	Coalition
1998	1,223,620	35.9	1.3	63 / 179	1	1st	Coalition
2001	1,003,023	29.1	6.8	52 / 179	11	2nd	Opposition
2005	867,350	25.8	3.3	47 / 179	5	2nd	Opposition
2007	881,037	25.5	0.3	45 / 179	2	2nd	Opposition
2011	879,615	24.8	0.7	44 / 179	1	2nd	Coalition
2015	925,288	26.3	1.5	47 / 179	3	1st	Opposition
2019	915,363	25.9	0.4	48 / 179	1	1st	Minority
2022	971,995	27.5	1.6	50 / 179	2	1st	Coalition

Municipal elections Year Seats No. ± 1925 1,840 / 11,289 1929 1,957 / 11,329 117 1933 2,218 / 11,424 261 1937 2,496 / 11,425 278 1943 2,713 / 10,569 217 1946 2,975 / 11,488 262 1950 2,960 / 11,499 15 1954 3,139 / 11,505 179 1958 3,023 / 11,529 116 1962 2,196 / 11,414 827 1966 2,638 / 10,005 442 Municipal reform 1970 1,769 / 4,677 769 1974 1,532 / 4,735 237 1978 1,704 / 4,759 172 1981 1,601 / 4,769 103 1985 1,722 / 4,773 121 1989 1,753 / 4,737 31 1993 1,700 / 4,703 53 1997 1,648 / 4,685 52 2001 1,551 / 4,647 97 Municipal reform 2005 900 / 2,522 651 2009 801 / 2,468 99 2013 773 / 2,444 28 2017 842 / 2,432 69 2021 756 / 2,436 86

Regional elections Year Seats No. ± 1935 85 / 299 1943 92 / 299 7 1946 94 / 299 2 1950 89 / 299 5 1954 97 / 299 8 1958 96 / 303 1 1962 100 / 301 4 1966 99 / 303 1 Municipal reform 1970 162 / 366 63 1974 135 / 370 27 1978 144 / 370 9 1981 140 / 370 4 1985 143 / 374 3 1989 146 / 374 3 1993 136 / 374 10 1997 136 / 374 0 2001 129 / 374 7 Municipal reform 2005 77 / 205 52 2009 68 / 205 9 2013 67 / 205 1 2017 70 / 205 3 2021 64 / 205 6

Mayors Year Seats No. ± 2005 45 / 98 2009 49 / 98 4 2013 33 / 98 16 2017 47 / 98 14 2021 43 / 98 4

European Parliament
Year	List leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	EP Group
1979	Kjeld Olesen	382,487	21.92 (#1)	3 / 16	New	SOC
1984	Eva Gredal	387,098	19.45 (#3)	3 / 16	0
1989	Kirsten Jensen	417,076	23.31 (#1)	4 / 16	1
1994		329,202	15.83 (#3)	3 / 16	1	PES
1999	Torben Lund	324,256	16.46 (#2)	3 / 16	0
2004	Poul Nyrup Rasmussen	618,412	32.65 (#1)	5 / 14	2
2009	Dan Jørgensen	503,982	21.49 (#1)	4 / 13	1	S&D
2014	Jeppe Kofod	435,245	19.12 (#2)	3 / 13	1
2019		592,645	21.48 (#2)	3 / 14	0
2024	Christel Schaldemose	381,125	15.57 (#2)	3 / 14	0

At the 2019 election the Social Democrats won 48 seats in parliament. Henrik Sass Larsen was originally elected, but resigned his seat on 30 September 2019, after which Tanja Larsson took over his seat.^[54] Ida Auken was originally elected as a member of the Socialist People's Party, but switched to the Social Democrats on 29 January 2021.^[55][56]

At the 2019 European Parliament election, the Social Democrats won three seats. The Social Democrats are part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.^[57]

• Niels Fuglsang
• Christel Schaldemose
• Marianne Vind

Of the 16 Danish members of the Nordic Council, four are members of the Social Democrats. The members of the Nordic Council are not elected by the public, but instead chosen by the parliamentary party groups. The Social Democrats are part of The Social Democratic Group in the Nordic Council.^[58][59]

• Orla Hav
• Anders Kronborg
• Henrik Møller
• Kasper Roug

The Social Democratic Youth of Denmark (Danish: Danmarks Socialdemokratiske Ungdom) is the Social Democrats' youth wing. It was founded on 8 February 1920 and is an independent organization from the Social Democrats. This allows them to formulate their own policies and make their own campaigns. Prominent Social Democrats beginning their political work in the Social Democratic Youth include prime ministers Hans Hedtoft, H. C. Hansen, Jens Otto Krag, Anker Jørgensen and Mette Frederiksen, as well as ministers Per Hækkerup and Morten Bødskov.^[60][61]

Frit Forum is the Social Democrats' student organization. It was founded in 1943 in Copenhagen. It has since 1973 been organizationally part of Social Democratic Youth. Prominent members previously leading Frit Forum include prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and other leaders of the Social Democrats Mogens Lykketoft and Svend Auken.^[62][63]

• Politics of Denmark

• Official website (in Danish)
• Official website (in English)