Liberal Alliance

Liberal Alliance
Party leader	Alex Vanopslagh
Group chairmanship in the Folketing	Ole Birk Olesen
founding	2007/08
Alignment	Liberalism Classical Liberalism Libertarianism
Number of members	6,600 (2016)
Electoral list	i
Sit in the Folketing	3/179
MEPs	0/14
www.liberalalliance.dk

Liberal Alliance ( LA ), dan. for Liberal Alliance , is a Danish liberal party . From its founding in 2007 to 2008 it was called the Ny Alliance (New Alliance). The party represents traditionally liberal to libertarian positions - both in economic and socio-political issues. It is right of center on the political spectrum.

She advocates tax cuts and the dismantling of welfare services. She rejects state regulation of the private life of the citizens as well as a limitation of immigration. She is critical of the European Union because it regulates too finely.

history

Established as Ny Alliance

It was initiated in 2007 by three prominent politicians under the name Ny Alliance : Naser Khader and Anders Samuelsen , Folketing and European MPs for Det Radikal Venstre , and Gitte Seeberg , EU MP for the Conservatives .

The Ny Alliance presented itself as a party of the middle class, which sees itself as a bridge builder in contrast to the extreme parties of the right and left camps. In particular, she hoped in the 2007 election campaign to be able to oust the right-wing populist Dansk Folkeparti from the role of a majority procurer in the liberal-conservative government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen . The Prime Minister recognized the possibility of increased parliamentary leeway and immediately welcomed the establishment of a new party, although it must mean further competition in the bourgeois camp.

Even before details of a future party program were known, around 3,000 people joined the new party in the first few days, and soon afterwards, according to the party, over 10,000. This would have outstripped established parties such as Dansk Folkeparti or Det Radikalische Venstre in terms of members. The founding chairman and top candidate was Naser Khader. In the early election to the Danish Parliament on November 13, 2007, the party received 2.8% of the vote and moved into the Folketing with five members . After a period of high poll numbers, this result was rather disappointing.

Renamed Liberal Alliance

The young party has since been criticized for not having found a clear political line. A few months after the election, it began to decline. Of the five members of the Folketing Party, three (Seeberg, Aamund and Poulsen) left the party by June 2008. The polls already slipped below one percent in May 2008. In August 2008, the party decided to rename the Liberal Alliance and switched to an economically liberal course. The party chairman Naser Khader left the party in January 2009 and was replaced by Anders Samuelsen .

In the 2011 folk election , the Liberal Alliance was able to improve its result significantly compared to 2007 and win nine seats with five percent of the votes. She then belonged to the opposition to the center-left government under Helle Thorning-Schmidt . In the 2014 European elections , the LA received only 2.9% of the vote - too few for one of the 13 Danish seats.

Government participation

In the 2015 Folketing Elections , the Liberal Alliance improved its result again and achieved 7.5 percent of the vote, leaving the Social Liberals and the Socialist People's Party behind for the first time . It performed best in Gentofte Kommune , an affluent suburb of Copenhagen, where it received 17.5% of the vote. The party now has 13 members in the new Folketing. As part of the “blue block” of the center-right parties, it initially tolerated the minority government of the Venstre party under Lars Løkke Rasmussen . From November 2016, the LA itself was represented in the cabinet, in a coalition with Venstre and the Conservative People's Party ( Lars Løkke Rasmussen III government ). She provided the ministers for external affairs ( Anders Samuelsen ), economy and internal affairs ( Simon Emil Ammitzbøll ), education ( Merete Riisager ), culture and church ( Mette Bock ), transport and construction ( Ole Birk Olesen ) and senior citizens ( Thyra Frank ).

In the 2019 European elections , the party again failed to make it into the European Parliament with 2.2% of the vote.

In the 2019 Folketing election , the party lost 9 of its 13 MPs. Since the resignation of Anders Samuelsen, the Folketing MP Alex Vanopslagh has led the party.

Results in national elections

Folk elections

year	Percent%	Seats	be right	Top candidate
2007	2.8	5/179	97.295	Naser Khader
2011	5.0	9/179	176,585	Samuelsen is different
2015	7.5	13/179	265.129	Samuelsen is different
2019	2.3	4/179	82,228	Samuelsen is different

European elections

year	Percent%	Seats	be right	Top candidate
2009	0.6	0/13	13,796
2014	2.9	0/13	65,480	Christiane Egelund
2019	2.2	0/13	60,693	Mette Bock

Sharpening the liberal profile

In 2007, under the leadership of Anders Samuelsen, the party passed a decidedly economically liberal program. Accordingly, on August 27, 2008, the party name was changed to Liberal Alliance . The main concerns of the Liberal Alliance are:

• Growth policy as the basis of the welfare state
• Lowering the top tax rate from 59% to 40%
• Reducing bureaucracy
• Clear the jungle of prohibitions, fight against the “big mother” society
• Strengthening individual freedom and responsibility

Web links

Commons : Liberal Alliance  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• www.liberalalliance.dk (homepage in Danish)

Press:

• 20min.ch - New party in Denmark founded May 7, 2007
• Welt.de - Vorzeigemuslim founds new party May 8, 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Membership figures 2016 Folketingets Oplysning, accessed on October 28, 2018.
2. ↑ Karina Kosiara-Pedersen, Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard: Change and stability in the Danish party system. In: Marco Lisi: Party System Change, the European Crisis and the State of Democracy. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2019.
3. ^ Erik Albæk, Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Lars Thorup Larsen: Morality Issues in Denmark. Policies Without Politics. In: Isabelle Engeli u. a .: Morality Politics in Western Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (Hants) / New York 2012, pp. 137–160, at p. 152.
4. ↑ Carina Bischoff, Marlene Wind: Denkmark. In: Donatella M. Viola: Routledge Handbook of European Elections. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2016, pp. 267–287, at 272.
5. ^ Result at www.nordschleswiger.dk ( Memento from September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on September 16, 2011.