The Moderates ( ) is a liberal political party in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

founded by former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

and current

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

Lars Løkke Rasmussen Lars Løkke Rasmussen (; born 15 May 1964) is a Danish politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2015 to 2019. He was Leader of the Ve ...

. He announced the name in a foundational speech on 5 June 2021. At the same time, he said that his main scenario was that the party would be formed after the

2021 Danish local elections Local elections were held in 2021 for Denmark, Denmark's Municipalities of Denmark, 98 municipal councils and Regions of Denmark, five regional councils. All 2,436 seats were contested for the 2022–2025 term of office, together with 205 seats i ...

. The name was, according to Rasmussen, inspired by the fictitious Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg's party ''Moderaterne'' in the hit political TV drama '' Borgen'' (itself allegedly inspired by the Social Liberal Party) as well as the Swedish

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( , , M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative* * * * * List of political parties in Sweden, political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free ma ...

, the then–second largest party in the Swedish

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

. The Moderates' political position is referred to as

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

. According to Rasmussen, Moderaterne is a

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

party that has the ambition to create "progress and change in a crossroads between a blue bloc that is tormented by value politics and a red bloc that is stuck in a past view of individual and state". Thus, it is not aligned with either bloc in the Folketing. The party began collecting voting declarations in June 2021. On 15 September 2021 Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced that they had received the 20,182 signatures needed to be eligible to stand in the

2022 Danish general election General elections were held in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark on 1 November 2022, except in the Faroe Islands, where they were held on 31 October as 1 November was a national day of mourning for victims at sea. Of the 179 members of the Fo ...

. The Moderates saw a surge in popularity during campaigning for the 2022 general election, eventually ending up as the third largest party with 16 seats, as polls had suggested. They had positioned themselves as

kingmaker A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a monarchy or royal in their political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the ...

s in deciding who the next prime minister should be, but the incumbent red bloc won a majority, thus preventing the Moderates from having the decisive seats in the next government. Despite this, the Moderates entered negotiations with the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

and Venstre and successfully formed a

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

government, the

Frederiksen II Cabinet The Frederiksen II Cabinet (colloquially, the SVM government; Danish: ''SVM-regeringen'') is the current Government of Denmark, which took office on 15 December 2022. It succeeded the Frederiksen I Cabinet following the 2022 general election. ...

Election results

Parliament

European Parliament

Notes

References

{{Danish political parties Liberal parties in Denmark Centrist parties in Denmark Centre-right parties in Europe Political parties established in 2022 Moderates (Denmark)

Election results

Parliament

European Parliament

Notes

See also

References