UPDATE: Denmark’s deputy PM Ellemann-Jensen resigns and quits politics

Ellemann-Jensen will quit politics with immediate effect, he said at a Liberal party briefing on Monday morning.

“My presence is overshadowing the Liberal party from improving its position,” he said.

“I am therefore taking responsibility now and resigning as the leader of the Liberals. The Liberals do not have support the Liberals should have,” he said.

Last week, the party returned its worst opinion poll result of all time, with 8.5 percent of voters in Denmark would back the party if an election were held today.

The party received 13.3 percent of votes at the election in November last year, which itself represented a poor result. It has not exceeded that percentage since taking office in December as part of the the coalition government.

At the 2019 election, the Liberals took a vote share of 23.4 percent, which more closely reflects its traditional size in modern Danish politics but was not enough for an election victory over the Social Democrats. Ellemann-Jensen took over as party leader in late 2019 following the election defeat.

The outgoing Liberal leader had returned to work in August after an extended spell of stress-related sick leave.

He was appointed Defence Minister in the coalition government, but swapped roles in August with party colleague Troels Lund Poulsen and has since been Economy Minister, a role which he also leaves on Monday.

"I have fought for what I believe in but it's not always been sufficient, even though I've given all I have. And sometimes more than that," Ellemann-Jensen told media.

Poulsen will temporarily take over as economy minister and deputy PM, while the Liberal leader of the South Denmark regional health board, Stephanie Lose, will be interim leader until the party holds a national congress in November. It is likely that Ellemann-Jensen's permanent successor will be chosen at the congress. 

Poulsen and Lose previously stood in for Ellemann-Jensen during his absence on sick leave between February and August this year.

Unlike in other parliamentary systems, Ellemann-Jensen's departure does not mean a by-election to find a replacement. The Liberals retain Ellemann-Jensen's former seat, which is taken by Heidi Bank, who ran for election with the party in 2022.

The Liberal party will continue as part of the government pursuing the policies set down in the coalition agreement, Poulsen confirmed during Monday's briefing. He also said that the party is to retain its position in favour of a CO2 tax on agriculture, a divisive issue among the Liberal base which traditionally relies on heavy support from rural and agricultural regions.

"We want to develop and in vest in our excellent food production. But today is not about agricultural policy," he said.

Ellemann-Jensen was leader of the Liberals for four years after taking over from Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who was ousted as a result of internal disputes in the wake of the 2019 election defeat. Rasmussen later left the party and started the centrist Moderate party, now a partner of the Liberals in the coalition government alongside the Social Democrats.

Another high profile former Liberal MP, Inger Støjberg, also quit the party under Ellemann-Jensen's leadership and formed the national conservative Denmark Democrats. Both Støjberg and Rasmussen's parties have taken chunks out of the Liberal party vote share, from the right and left of the party's voter spectrum respectively.

Ellemann-Jensen decided after the 2022 election to enter coalition with the Moderates and Social Democrats, governing across the traditional left-right divide in Danish politics for the first time in decades.