The first few years after the Second World War and the German occupation were marked by specific political circumstances. It was necessary to re-establish a functioning democratic government, and it was politically important to distance the government from the occupation. Fairly soon, the parliamentary system fell into place in its established form, with the resumption of the four-party system. However, domestic politics was increasingly influenced by international relations and the Cold War. It was also affected by the development of a new political culture in which social and cultural upheavals and the media came to influence political agendas. This resulted in new parties and a significantly greater focus on individual politicians and single issues. The development culminated in dramatically changed voting patterns at the Folketing elections on 4 December 1973, the so-called ‘earthquake election’ (jordskredsvalg), the consequences of which had a major impact on Danish politics after 1973.

Re-establishment of the political system

When the Second World War ended, Denmark had effectively been without a government since August 1943, when the collaboration policy broke down. The days after the liberation in May 1945 were therefore chaotic. During the last months of the war, Danish politicians and the leaders of the Freedom Council, which had co-ordinated the resistance movement, had negotiated a temporary liberation government. This unity government (samlingsregering) consisted of nine ministers from the four major parties and nine ministers from the Freedom Council. It was recognised by the Allies and entered office on 9 May 1945. The main task of the government was to re-establish public administration, to deal with the economic and legal challenges caused by the German occupation and to restore parliamentary democracy by preparing a general election that would result in a legitimately elected government according to the rules of the constitution.

The Folketing election was held on 30 October 1945, and the campaign was dominated by debates on the future and on the policy of cooperation and negotiation. The result was a major defeat for the Social Democrats and a significant advance for the Communist Party of Denmark, members of which had been very active in the resistance movement. However, the result of the election also showed remarkable political continuity, and the first post-war government became a Venstre government that had to find solutions to shortages of goods, unemployment and a lack of housing, among other things.

The political and legal aftermath of the occupation

Aside from the jubilation of liberation, the first few days after the war were marked by violence and vengeance, especially against the Danes who had collaborated with the occupying power. Suspected informants were killed, and women who had had relationships with German soldiers were stripped of their clothes, painted with swastikas and dragged through the streets with their heads shaved. The government and leading resistance fighters appealed to the population to maintain ‘a dignified attitude’ so that German sympathisers would not be punished by vigilantism or without trial. There was no functioning police force or military, so the resistance movement forces detained almost 22,000 Danes who were suspected of having supported the German occupying forces.

‘Judicial purge’ (retsopgøret) became the term for the legal process initiated by the Folketing and carried out under exceptional legal circumstances. The range of penalties for certain offences was tightened, and it was possible to be prosecuted for ‘treason and subversive activities’ committed before 29 August 1943, even though the official Danish policy until then had been that the population should co-operate with the German occupying power. In other words, the authorities engaged in retroactive criminalisation. Approximately 13,000 people were convicted under the legislation, though it was clear that those sentenced in the initial post-war years received harsher punishments than those sentenced later. The death penalty, which had fallen into disuse long before it was abolished in 1930, was re-introduced. Between 1946 and 1950, seventy-eight death sentences were handed down, of which forty-six were carried out.

The Parliamentary Commission was set up in 1945 in order to assess the actions of politicians and civil servants during the occupation, with a view to possible prosecution. The reports were considered by the Folketing, which concluded in 1955 that there was no basis for initiating legal action against the leading figures in the co-operation government.

The new constitution, 1953

The overall constitutional framework for the Danish state was amended when the new constitution came into force on 5 June 1953. The new constitution was based on the widespread desire from the inter-war period to revise the bicameral system and abolish the Landsting (the Upper House). The proposal had fallen at a referendum in 1939 due to low voter turnout, so it was now important to get people to the ballot box. This was achieved by introducing a new proposal to amend the Act of Succession to allow conditional female succession, meaning that a woman could inherit the throne provided she had no brothers (whether older or younger). This paved the way for Frederik IX’s oldest daughter, Margrethe, to take over her father’s role, which occurred upon his death on 14 January 1972. Unconditional female succession was only introduced after a referendum in 2009.

The new constitution meant greater democratisation, since the Landsting’s special election rules were originally intended as a conservative guarantee against sudden upheavals. In order to replace the Landsting’s tradition-preserving and conservative function, it was stated in the new constitution that one third of the Folketing’s members should be able to send bills to a referendum in order to safeguard minorities and prevent abrupt changes. The new constitution also laid down provisions for the transfer of Danish sovereignty, which was important in relation to the supranational and inter-governmental collaborations that became part of Danish foreign policy. Finally, it upheld a political practice that had been in force since the Change of System (Systemskiftet) in 1901: the parliamentary principle. This principle meant that no government could have a majority against it in the Folketing.

Changes to the four-party system

Following the first Folketing elections after the liberation, Venstre formed a government with Knud Kristensen as prime minister. This lasted until 1947. Erik Eriksen was leader of a Venstre-Conservative People’s Party government from 1950 to 1953. The Social Democrats were in charge of government from 1947 to 1950, from 1953 to 1968 and again from 1971 to 1973. From 1968 to 1971 there was an interlude with a government made up of Venstre, the Conservative People’s Party and the Social Liberal Party, but overall the post-war decades should be seen as an era dominated by the Social Democrats. During this time, the party was able to implement many of its key policies, in particular relating to redistribution and welfare.

At the beginning of the post-war period, political culture was marked by a continuation of the four-party system. The four largest parties – the Social Democrats, Venstre, the Social Liberal Party and the Conservative People’s Party – each represented their own class or section of the population and were accepted as parties of government. Apart from at the Folketing elections in 1945, the Communist Party had limited voter support, but it functioned as an ideological opposition during the Cold War and, despite its modest size, managed to set many agendas in relation to labour disputes (for example, in connection with the strikes in 1956), the trade union movement and culture and peace policy.

From around 1960, traditional class- and party-affiliated politics began to break down, and new parties were formed on both the right and the left wings. These included Socialistisk Folkeparti (Socialist People’s Party, in 1959), Venstresocialisterne (the Left Socialists, in 1967), Kristeligt Folkeparti (the Christian People’s Party, in 1970), Fremskridtspartiet (the Progress Party, in 1972) and Centrum-Demokraterne (the Centre Democrats, in 1973). Traditional bloc politics in its original form disappeared from Danish politics, and the predictability and stability of the political system diminished.

The Vietnam War was a catalyst for the political youth rebellion in 1968. Protests against the American war spread to the whole of western Europe – including Denmark. This photograph is from a demonstration against the Vietnam War in Copenhagen in 1969. Opposition to the war, the USA, imperialism, NATO and President Nixon were linked together, as the banners show. Photo: Gregers Nielsen, Ritzau Scanpix

The new left

The youth rebellion coincided with the development of new parties that created a new left-wing politics, detached from Soviet communist and social democratic ideology alike. The left wing thus moved away from its traditional identity as grounded in the working class, and the ‘worker’ was no longer the socialist archetype. The ‘New Left’ became a collective term for the new parties and movements on the left that arose from the mid-1950s, initially in opposition to the communism of the USSR and the Eastern bloc. The use of military force, imprisonment, execution and prosecution to maintain communist power was well known. The Soviet invasion of Hungary following the uprising in 1956 helped to further the idea of a ‘third way’, to the left of the Social Democrats and in opposition to Warsaw Pact communism. The Communist Party of Denmark, which retained its faith in Moscow, was met with general anti-communist sentiment from the right and left, which was closely connected to the Cold War, and new conceptions of socialism, communism and Marxism therefore emerged.

Against this background, two new parties gained representation in the Folketing. The Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti) was formed in 1959 by former members of the Communist Party, and following disagreements defectors from the Socialist People’s Party formed the Left Socialists (Venstresocialisterne) in 1967. From the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s, several smaller communist and Marxist groups and factions also emerged, but remained politically very marginal.

The new left was not only party-based, however. Young people and students in particular introduced new forms of action and organisation, and took up new political topics such as the environment, peace, lifestyles and gender. This led to grassroots movements, which were consciously extra-parliamentary in character. Hard-core Leninists, conscientious hippies and campaigning peace activists all formed part of the new left, and the differences between them make it difficult to see it as a homogeneous group. The new left also had different forms of expression and ideologies. There were many intense political discussions about how socialism should be realised and which norms and values should guide the socialist life.

Protest parties

Another main reason for the break-up of political culture was that populism, personalities and snappy political statements began to play a greater role in Danish politics, and the political scene thus became more complex and less predictable. This trend primarily manifested itself on the political right wing. New parties were formed that focused on single issues, often led by strong, media-savvy politicians. Three parties in particular can be taken as examples of these political trends. The Christian People’s Party (Kristeligt Folkeparti) was founded in 1970 as a direct response to the liberalisation of pornography and access to legal abortion, campaigning on a Christian critique of social and political development. The Progress Party (Fremskridtspartiet) was created by Mogens Glistrup in 1972 with a programme that mainly criticised the tax burden and state expenditure. And the Centre Democrats (Centrum-Demokraterne) were founded in November 1973, shortly before the election of that year, by the Social Democratic defector Erhard Jakobsen. The party campaigned for better conditions for suburban home- and car-owners, and strongly criticised what it saw as the left-wing orientation of journalists in the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Danmarks Radio).

There were several reasons for this new right-wing trend. Much of it can be seen as a reaction against the expansion of the welfare state and the public sector in the 1960s, which, with its ‘state paternalism’, ‘pedantic officials’ and ‘red tape’, had led to increased taxation and control over Danish citizens. Danish membership of the European Community, following the referendum in 1972, created an opposition movement that advocated more protectionism and preservation of Danish national identity. The norms and values of the youth rebellion also created a right-wing counter-reaction.

Television appeared in Denmark in 1951 and quickly became a widespread platform for new parties with charismatic leaders. Finally, there were early signs of economic disequilibrium, such as rising unemployment, falling investment and a deficit in the balance of payments, which was interpreted by some as a signal to put a stop to modern social changes. The backdrop to the tendency was therefore largely a mistrust of traditional Folketing politics and a protest against development and modernisation. Ironically, it was the post-war break with norms and class affiliation – as well as the growing importance of the media – that helped the protest parties achieve political and parliamentary impact.

A new kind of politician

Mogens Glistrup and Erhard Jakobsen were prime examples of the changing role of the politician. The prime ministers of the 1940s and 1950s were more traditional representatives of their position and their party. As a former farmer, Venstre’s Knud Kristensen (prime minister 1945–1947) was solidly anchored in his party’s traditional supporter base, but he was also extremely strong-willed and ended up being ousted. Hans Hedtoft (prime minister 1947–1950 and 1953–1955) was a typical social democrat from a working-class background, formed by the trade union movement. His party colleague H.C. Hansen (prime minister 1955–1960) was from a similar background, and both men were typical workers’ leaders. This situation changed with Viggo Kampmann (prime minister 1960–1962) and Jens Otto Krag (prime minister 1962–1968 and 1971–1972), who were both university graduates and thus broke with the importance of class affiliation. The Social Liberal Hilmar Baunsgaard (prime minister 1968–1971) was an exceptionally talented communicator, not least on television, which helped considerably to advance his party in the Folketing election in 1968. The ability to handle the media and the press became an increasingly vital qualification for success as a politician.

To a certain extent, the demographic of the Folketing members also changed: more young people and women were voted in. This was particularly apparent in the 1971 Folketing elections, when politicians such as the Social Democrats Ritt Bjerregaard, Svend Auken, Birte Weiss and Helle Degn won seats. Their opposition to the party line on EC and NATO policy and their increased focus on environmental policy showed that the new left and tendencies of change also found their way into established parties.