Danish politics is hard to follow even for those with a lifetime’s experience of the political system and fluency in the language. For foreigners trying to follow events, it can be extremely confusing.
But once you’re armed with a bit of background knowledge and some Danish political vocabulary, the country’s politics does get easier to understand (at least, most of the time).
With Denmark preparing for what could be a knife-edge election on Tuesday, March 24th, here’s our guide to the key phrases, terminology and names you’ll need.
The basics
The word for ‘election’ is valg, which also means ‘choice’, just to make things extra confusing for Danish learners.
Denmark has three types of election: folketingsvalget (the election for the national parliament), regionalvalget (the regional election) and kommunalvalget (the municipal election).
READ ALSO: Danish word of the day: Valg
These do not take place at the same time. The latter two, both local elections, were last held in November 2025.
That leaves the country to fully concentrate on March 24th on voting for the next regering (government) to take its place in the folketing or parlament (parliament) at Christiansborg, the seat of the government in Copenhagen.
Danish citizens over the age of 18, including foreign born, naturalised Danes, have stemmeretten (the right to vote). Although the national election tends to get more attention, foreign residents of Denmark should know that they may be able to stemme (vote) in the regional and local elections.
If you’re stemmeberettiget (eligible to vote), either as a Danish national or as a foreigner in local elections, you will receive a valgkort (voting card) in the post.
Prior to elections, you are likely to see increasing reference to meningsmålinger (opinion polls) showing which parties are ahead and which are lagging as voting day nears. There will also be no shortage of valgplakater (election posters), the placards which all parties hang up all over the country in an effort to give their candidates maximum exposure.
READ ALSO: What are the rules on Denmark’s election posters?
The campaigning
The valgkampagne (election campaign or election season) is already underway with the parties falling over themselves trying to present the most attractive valgløfter (campaign promises) or, if you want to be more cynical, valgflæsk (overly generous promises; literally ‘election pork’).
Broadcasters DR and TV2 host partilederdebatter (party leader debates). During these debates, there’s a good chance one party leader will accuse another of saying things that are floskler (empty phrases or platitudes).
The voting
Voters are permitted to brevstemme (literally ‘vote by letter’ but meaning to vote in advance). On March 24th, valgdagen (the day of the election), valglokaler and valgsteder (polling stations) could have long queues.
At polling stations, voters take the stemmeseddel (ballot paper) and sætter kryds (place a cross) next to their preferred parti (party), before placing it in the stemmeurn (ballot box).
In most valgkredser (constituencies) there will be the option to stemme personligt, which is when you tick the name of a specific candidate who you think should represent the party as folketingsmedlem (member of parliament). Voters can also just vote for the liste, meaning they give a general vote to a party.
Alternatively, people may choose to stemme blankt, which is when you do turn up at the polling station on the day, but instead of voting you put a blank slip of paper in the ballot box as a form of protest.
Denmark generally enjoys high valgdeltagelse (voter turnout). In the both the 2019 and 2022 elections, more than 84 percent of over 4.2 million eligible voters cast their vote.
The contenders
There are as many as 12 different Danish parties in parliament currently.
Their names are (deep breath): Socialdemokratiet (Social Democrats), Venstre (Liberal), Socialistisk Folkeparti (Green Left, usually shorted to SF), Radikale Venstre (Social Liberals), Enhedslisten (Red-Green Alliance), De Konservative (Conservatives), Danmarksdemokraterne (Denmark Democrats), Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People’s Party, sometimes shortened to DF), Liberal Alliance (Liberal Alliance), Alternativet (The Alternative), Moderaterne (Moderates) and Borgernes Parti (literally, 'The Citizens' Party').
A number of current members of parliament are meanwhile uden for folketingsgrupperne or løsgængere (independent).
You may have noticed that the Liberal party's Danish name is Venstre, which is actually the word for 'left'. Confusingly, Venstre are a højrefløjsparti (right wing party), even though their name suggests they are venstreorienteret (on the left).
OPINION: Why do the names of Danish political parties have to be so confusing?
The current government is led by the Social Democrats, who are a venstrefløjsparti (left wing party) and part of the rød bloc (‘red bloc’) of allied parties on the left wing.
The traditional opponents are højrefløjen (the right wing), also referred to as blå bloc (the ‘blue bloc’) and sometimes de borgerlige (the bourgeois – which doesn’t automatically have the same strong connotations in Danish as in English).
Unusually, the outgoing koalitionsregering (coalition government) is a bred regering (‘broad government’), meaning a centre coalition or a cross-aisle government. Its formation after the 2022 election was a break with the established ‘bloc politics’ system which sees the left- and right-wing parties in opposing factions.
READ ALSO: What is Danish 'bloc politics' and why is it making a comeback in the 2026 election?
The future
According to meningsmålinger (opinion polls), the two blocs could be very close following the vote on March 24th. That could mean lengthy post-election forhandlinger (negotiations). Another government hen over midten (‘across the centre’) is not an impossibility, although a return to some form of bloc-based arrangement seems more likely at the time of writing.
The next government could be a mindretalsregering (minority government), but this might not be the case if several parties come together to form a koalitionsregering (coalition government) which commands a flertal (majority) in parliament.
Danes vote specifically for a prime minister or statsminister.
The election decides the distribution of parliament’s 179 seats or mandates, mandater. Therefore, any party or group of parties (in practice it is always a group of parties working together) can win if it claims 90 or more mandates, giving it a majority.
The winning party leader is likely to become kongelig undersøger. ‘Winning party’ in this sense means the party that gets the most votes within either the left or right wing ‘bloc’ that takes an overall majority in the election.
The kongelig undersøger is found through a so-called kongerunde or ‘King’s round’ (previously dronningerunde when Queen Margrethe was still monarch), whereby each of the parties goes to the King and nominates a candidate to attempt to form government.
Because each party will usually pege på (meaning ‘point to’, essentially nominate) a preferred party leader to lead the government, the bloc with the largest vote share will normally come together and nominate the leader of the largest party within its group, putting them in the driving seat to form the new government.
Additional kongerunde can happen if the negotiations are unsuccessful, opening the door for a different party leader to get the nod.
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The siddende statsminister (incumbent prime minister) can stay in place after the election if they have a majority of Denmark’s 179 MPs behind them – meaning their own party along with allied parties has an overall majority.
The leader of the losing bloc can also concede the election.
Once a new prime minister and government is in place, they are formally nominated by the King at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen before emerging and facing the public on the palace square.
Can you think of any other Danish political words? Let us know in the comments and we’ll add them to the list.
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