Det Radikale Venstre
Det Radikale Venstre (literally: The Radical Left, but officially translated by the party as
Danish Social Liberal Party), is a
social liberal party in
Denmark.
The party is a member of
Liberal International and the
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. It was founded in
1905 as a split from the liberal
Venstre Reform Party. The literal translation
radical left is nowadays somewhat misleading, as the party is traditionally described as being in the center of the Danish left-right political scale. The use of the word for "left" in the name of the mother party
Venstre and the
Norwegian party
Venstre is also meant to refer to
Liberalism and not
Socialism.
The party president is
Søren Bald and it has seventeen members of parliament. By far the most prominent member, however, is parliament group leader and spokesperson
Marianne Jelved, former vice prime minister and minister of economic affairs. The party is currently in opposition.
The party performed well at the
2005 elections, adding 8 seats to its group. It now has 17 seats with 9.2 % of the popular vote. The party remains in opposition to the right-wing coalition, led by the
Liberal Party.
Lately the party has been inspired by
Richard Florida's book "The rise of the Creative Class". The party have also released their own book/political program called "Det kreative Danmark" (
The Creative Denmark).
Current issues high on the agenda for the party are:
- a strong opposition to the tight immigration policies of the current government, particularly the 24 year rule (that prohibits danish citizens from living with a spouse with foreign citizenship if either is under the age of 24).
- Opposition to the educational policies of the current government, which according to the party stresses centralization, nationalized testing and old-fashioned educational ideas over creativeness, teachers methodical freedom and personal development.
- A major tax reform, which should simplify the tax system in such a way that income taxes will be reduced in favour of more green taxes, less tax deductions and higher taxes on property. The point of this is to make working more attractive and the hiring of service workers more attractive. This implies that the party is also strongly opposed to the current governments "tax-stop" ("skattestop"), which prohibits any taxincreases and hereby renders a tax reform impossible.
*
Marianne Jelved*
Naser Khader*
Liberalism*
Contributions to liberal theory*
Liberalism worldwide*
List of liberal parties*
Liberal democracy*
Liberalism and radicalism in Denmark*
Radikal Ungdom the youth wing of the party
*
Det Radikale Venstre official site
*
English summary*
Web site of the party's youth organisation (mainly in Danish)
