Danish People's Party

Danish People's Party
Dansk Folkeparti
AbbreviationDF
O
LeaderMorten Messerschmidt
Parliamentary leaderPeter Kofod
Founded6 October 1995
Split fromProgress Party
HeadquartersChristiansborg,
1240 Copenhagen
Youth wingYouth of the Danish People's Party
Membership (2021)9,427
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing to far-right
ReligionEvangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark
European affiliationPatriots.eu
European Parliament groupPatriots for Europe
(since 2024)
Nordic Council affiliationNordic Freedom
Colours
  •   Blue
  •   Red (official)
  •   Yellow (customary)
Folketing
7 / 179
European Parliament
1 / 15
Regional Councils
6 / 205
Municipal Councils
64 / 2,436
Mayors
0 / 98
Election symbol

O
Party flag
Website
danskfolkeparti.dk

The Danish People's Party (DPP; Danish: Dansk Folkeparti, DF) is a nationalist and right-wing populist political party in Denmark. It was formed in 1995 by former members of the Progress Party (FrP).

The party saw a period of significant growth after its founding and lent its support to the VenstreConservative People's Party coalition government that ruled from the general election of 2001 until the 2011 election defeat. While not part of the cabinet, DF cooperated closely with the governing coalition on most issues and received support for key political stances in return, to the point that the government was commonly referred to as the "VKO-government" (O being DF's election symbol). It also provided parliamentary support to Lars Løkke Rasmussen's cabinets from 2016 to 2019, again without participating in it. In the 2014 European Parliament election in Denmark, DF secured 27% of the vote as part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. This was followed by receiving 21% of the vote in the 2015 general election, becoming the second largest party in Denmark for the first time.

However, since 2015, the party has since seen a decline in support, falling to 3rd place and 10.8% of the vote in the 2019 European Parliament election in Denmark, and to just 8.7% in the 2019 Danish general election, resulting in a loss of 21 seats and a return to opposition. The party would later lose over half of its seats in the 2021 Danish local elections, losing 130 of the 221 it held before the election, achieving just 4.1% of the vote. Some commentators attributed the losses to internal conditions within the party and conflicts with the leadership, its perceived indecisiveness in government and rival parties adopting many of its policy ideas. The DF would also suffer a number of defections during 2022 following the rise of the Denmark Democrats party which many former DF members and supporters joined. It would receive its worst general election result ever in 2022, when it only won five seats. As of February 2023, due to defections from Nye Borgerlige, DF now has seven of the seats in the Danish Folketing.