2005 Danish general election

General elections were held in Denmark on 8 February 2005.[1] Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's Venstre retained the largest number of seats in parliament. The governing coalition between the Venstre and the Conservative People's Party remained intact, with the Danish People's Party providing the parliamentary support needed for the minority government. The Danish Social Liberal Party made the biggest gains of any party, although it remains outside the governing group of parties. The election marked the second time in a row that the Social Democrats were not the largest party in the parliament, a change from most of the 20th century. The party lost 5 seats and leader Mogens Lykketoft resigned immediately after the election.

2005 Danish general election

8 February 2005
All 179 seats in the Folketing
Turnout	84.4%
Party Leader % Seats ± Venstre Anders Fogh Rasmussen 29.0% 52 -4 Social Democrats Mogens Lykketoft 25.9% 47 -5 DPP Pia Kjærsgaard 13.3% 24 +2 Conservative Bendt Bendtsen 10.3% 18 +2 Social Liberals Marianne Jelved 9.2% 17 +8 SF Holger K. Nielsen 6.0% 11 -1 Red–Green Collective leadership 3.4% 6 +2 Elected in the Faroe Islands Republican Høgni Hoydal 25.4% 1 0 People's Anfinn Kallsberg 24.0% 1 +1 Elected in Greenland Siumut Hans Enoksen 34.3% 1 0 Inuit Ataqatigiit Josef Motzfeldt 25.5% 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister before Prime Minister-elect Anders Fogh Rasmussen Venstre Anders Fogh Rasmussen Venstre

The prime minister called the elections on 18 January. He claimed that he would have called it earlier, but the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake which killed a number of Danes delayed it. Rasmussen still had almost a year left in his term, but said he wanted to call the election before municipal elections in November. His reasoning was that he wanted a clear mandate for the municipal and county government restructuring that his government was implementing.

From the last election the governing coalition of Venstre and the Conservative People's Party had 94 of the 175 seats together with the supporting Danish People's Party. This number was unchanged after the 2005 election. Voter turnout was 84.5% in Denmark proper, 73.0% in the Faroe Islands and 59.4% in Greenland.[2] This was the last election in which counties were used as constituencies.