Prime Minister of Denmark - Role and Authority

Role and Authority

The Constitution of Denmark states that the Monarch, who is the head of state, has supreme authority and acts out this power through their ministers. The Monarch formally appoints and dismisses ministers, including the Prime Minister. In a sense then, the Prime Minister only has the power and authority that is given to them by the Monarch, according to the Constitution.

Although the Prime Minister is the country's leading political figure, he or she is not nearly as powerful as his or her counterparts in the rest of Europe. This is mainly because it is nearly impossible for one party to get a majority of seats in the Folketing (Parliament), so the government is always a coalition between two or more parties. No Danish party has won a majority since 1901, and for much of that time there has not even been a majority coalition. Because of his limited powers, the Prime Minister is primus inter pares (first among equals). Additionally, as a result of the weak control they have over parliament, the Prime Minister must cobble together a majority for each piece of legislation.

Although, as stated, the Monarch formally appoints all ministers of the cabinet freely, in practice Monarchs only conventionally select the Prime Minister after a leader has gathered support from a majority in the Folketing. A single party rarely has a majority in the Folketing, instead parties form alliances; usually the Social Democrats with centre-left parties, and Venstre with centre-right parties. Following elections when there is no clear leader, the Monarch will hold a "King/Queen's meeting" (kongelig undersøger) where, after a series of discussions and agreements, the leader of the largest alliance and the largest party within that alliance—usually the Social Democrats or Venstre- is appointed as Prime Minister-elect. The new Prime Minister-elect, together with the leaders of the junior parties, select ministers to form a new coalition cabinet, which is the presented to the Monarch.

The Prime Minister chairs the weekly meetings of the council of ministers and has the power to set the agenda of these meetings. The Prime Minister traditionally gathers together a government ministry known as the "Ministry of the State of Denmark" (statsministeriet) or Prime Minister's Office. Atypical of a Danish ministry it does not have any councils, boards or committees associated with it and its near sole responsibility is to act as the secretariat of the Prime Minister. There is a small department under the ministry that takes care of special legal issues not covered under other ministries, among others Greenland's and Faroe Islands relation to the Monarchy, the mass media's contact to the State, number of ministers in the government, or Queen Margrethe II legal status as a civilian.

The Prime Minister, by convention, chooses to dissolve the Folketing and call a new election (although this is formally undertaken by the Monarch), which he or she is obligated to do within four years of the previous election. In spite of this, the Prime Minister has no political say in regard to Denmark's autonomous regions, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, while the Folketing on the other hand does, as all laws passed by the Faroese and Greenlandic parliaments must be ratified by the Folketing.

There exist checks on the Prime Minister's power; the Folketing may revoke its confidence in an incumbent Prime Minister, in which case the Prime Minister must either resign along with the entire cabinet or ask the Monarch to dissolve the Folketing and call a new election. Whenever a Prime Minister resigns, dies, or is forced from office, the Monarch asks them (or, in the case of death, the next available leader in a coalition) to keep the government as a caretaker government until a successor has been elected.