Despite the potential political instability within the Danish political party Venstre, the recent EU election shows that according to Søren Gade, Troels Lund Poulsen is the clear leader of the center-right block. Even though the Liberal Alliance is polling stronger than Venstre domestically, Søren Gade, the Speaker of the Danish Parliament, believes that Venstre’s chairman has proven his position as the leader of the conservative wing. “All speculations that Venstre was no longer the largest conservative party have been proven wrong. We are twice as big as the Moderaterne and the Liberal Alliance. Troels Lund Poulsen can stand tall and say, ‘I am the leader of the blue Denmark, the largest party. We are in government to steer Denmark in the right direction, and that is the task we have now,'” says Søren Gade to Jyllands-Posten.
Although Venstre decreased compared to the 2019 EU election, the party secured 14.7 percent of the votes and two seats, making them the largest blue party. Gade also dismisses the notion that Alex Vanopslagh from the Liberal Alliance could be the conservative leader, even though the LA is projected to become the largest blue party in current polls. In the latest Voxmeter survey, Venstre is at 8.9 percent of the votes, while the Liberal Alliance is at 14.2 percent. In the EU election, LA garnered 7 percent and one seat. Despite this, Alex Vanopslagh has congratulated Venstre on the election and highlighted that conservative parties, in general, have performed well.
Jyllands-Posten notes that the election result can be interpreted in two ways: either as an endorsement of Troels Lund Poulsen’s strategy or as a signal that Venstre is stronger as an independent entity than as part of a broad coalition with the Social Democrats and Moderaterne. Søren Gade emphasizes that the situation needs thorough analysis, but he does not want Venstre to step out of the government. On election night, Gade stated to Ritzau that Troels Lund Poulsen should have more time to focus on his roles as party leader and deputy prime minister. However, Gade adds to Jyllands-Posten that he does not want to speculate on a possible new ministerial position for Troels Lund, who is currently the Minister of Defense.