Favourites look set to take leadership of Danish Liberal Party

In a joint post on Facebook, the two politicians, who are currently serving as Denmark's defence minister and as the head of the regional government in southern Denmark, said they would stand at the party's annual congress on November 18th. 

"We've both received many calls for us to move our party forward. We are incredibly happy about that," they wrote. "We therefore hope that the members of the Liberal Party will support Troels becoming the new chair, while Stephanie will be re-elected as vice chair, but in a new role where Stephanie will serve as a minister in the government." 

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The party's former leader, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, on Monday announced that he was resigning from the leadership and leaving politics for good after his party -- which has historically competed with the Social Democrats to be the main party of government in Denmark -- gained the support of just 8.5 percent of voters in a poll, the lowest in its history. 

When he made his announcement, Ellemann-Jensen was flanked by Lose and Poulsen, effectively anointing them as his successors.

The two have since received the backing of some of the party's most powerful grandees, including former Defence Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen and the parliament's speaker, Søren Gade, and the country's former health minister, Sophie Løhde. 

After the announcement, Lars Christian Lilleholt, the party's group leader in the parliament, told the Ritzau newswire that the party's MPs were unanimous in their support for Poulsen. 

So far, no rival candidates have come forward. 

In their post, the two asked party members for their patience, saying that it would take time for the party's fortunes to recover. 

"We are fully aware that it will take time to regain the confidence of the Danes. It will be a difficult task, and it will probably take time before we can see positive progress for our party," they wrote.

"There are no quick fixes or short cuts. But with calmness, stability, seriousness, hard work and concrete political results that people can feel, we believe that we can reverse the development.

"The Liberal Party is at the foot of a mountain. Now it's time to take the first step."

While Elleman-Jensen was off sick between February and August, Lose took over Poulsen's position as Minister for Economic Affairs, while he took over Elleman-Jensen's role as Defence Minister. 

In their post, they said that they had learned to work together effectively during this period. 

"It's no coincidence that we have chosen to announce this in a joint post," they wrote. "We had a close and trustful cooperation for six months in the government when Troels was Defense Minister and Stephanie was Minister for Economic Affairs. We complement each other. And we will work hard and fight for the Liberal Party to move forward."