Chamber:
	Folkentiget
Dates of elections / renewal (from/to):
	21 September 1994
Purpose of elections:
	Elections were held for all the seats in Parliament three months before the normal expiry of its term. Since general elections had previously been held in December 1990, they were at the latest due by the end of 1994.
Background and outcome of elections:
	Following the previous (December 1990) general elections, Prime Minister Poul Schluter and his conservative coalition Cabinet resigned in January 1993 over a refugees-related scandal and Mr. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeded Mr. Schluter at the head of a centre-left coalition since his Social Democratic Party (SD) held a parliamentary plurality at the time. The centre-right groups had been in power since 1982. On 29 August 1994, the election date was set for September – i.e., three months before the polling deadline. Economic issues dominated debate during the short campaign, as both the ruling coalition and its opponents sought to take credit for recent positive developments in this field – continued annual growth in the gross national product (GNP), paralleled by a low inflation rate and decreasing budget deficit. The two sides disagreed on the question of Denmark’s extensive welfare system, with Mr. Rasmussen pledging to bolster it and Mr. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, leader of the Liberal Party, advocating cuts so as to reduce the deficit further. The latter in fact generally called for more restraint on public spending to allow for lower taxes and to stimulate higher private-sector growth. On polling day, the outgoing governing coalition – comprising the SD, the Radical Liberals (RV), the Centre Democrats (CD) and the Christian People’s Party (KrF) – lost a total of 14 seats while the Liberal gained an almost equivalent number to become the second-ranked party in the Folketing. Despite this turn of events, the SD and its allies (minus the KrF) were returned to power, Prime Minister Rasmussen and his Cabinet being sworn in on 26 September. As this minority Government controlled but 76 of the 179 Folketing seats (14 short of a majority), it would need the support of two other leftist parties including the extremist Red-Green Alliance, an anti-European Union group represented in Parliament for the first time. At the other end of the ideological gamut, the far-right, anti-foreigner Progress Party (FP) captured 11 seats, but its controversial extremist policies had led to criticism of Mr. Ellemann-Jensen during the campaign when he had proposed that the group participate in a right-wing governing alliance.

STATISTICS

Round no 1 (21 September 1994): Elections results
Number of registered electors	3,988,787
Voters	3,360,637 (84.3%)
Blank or invalid ballot papers	33,040
Valid votes	3,327,597

Round no 1: Distribution of votes
Political Group	Candidates	Votes	%
Social Democratic Party	106	1,150,048	34.6
Liberal Party (Venstre)	99	775,176	23.3
Conservative People’s Party	103	499,845	15.0
Socialist People’s Party	103	242,398	7.3
Progress Party	103	214,057	6.4
Radical Liberal Party	98	152,901	4.6
Red-Green Alliance	99	104,701	3.1
Centre Democrats	96	94,496	2.8
Christian People’s Party	104	61,507	1.9
Independents	28	32,668	1.0

Round no 1: Distribution of seats
Political Group	Total	Gain/Loss
Social Democratic Party	62	-7
Liberal Party (Venstre)	42	+13
Conservative People’s Party	27	-3
Socialist People’s Party	13	-2
Progress Party	11	-1
Radical Liberal Party	8	+1
Red-Green Alliance	6	+6
Centre Democrats	5	-4
Christian People’s Party	0	-4
Independents	1	+1

Comments:
	Excluding Greenland and Faeroe Islands seats.

Distribution of seats according to sex:
Men:	119
Women:	60

Distribution of seats according to age:
Under 30 years	8
30-39 years	26
40-49 years	58
50-59 years	74
60-69 years	12
70 years	1
Distribution of seats according to profession:
Salaried employees in the public sector	69
Salaried employees in the private sector	61
Self-employed	35
Workers in the public sector	2
Workers in the private sector	2
Wage-earners (non-specified)	2
Unemployed	8