1870–1910 Venstre was founded in 1870 under the name "Det Forenede Venstre" (). Originally, the party consisted of multiple conflicting groups, all united under the
classical liberal (then the standard
left-wing) ideology, the safeguarding of farmers' interests and opposition to the then
right-wing classical conservative party
Højre (literally "Right"). After the party in 1872 gained an absolute majority in the
Folketing, it became the leading voice in the battle for
parliamentarism, whereafter the party in 1895 split in two, Venstrereformpartiet ("Venstre Reform Party") and Det Moderate Venstre ("The Moderate Left"). In 1905, social liberal factions split from the party and formed
Radikale Venstre (also known as the Danish Social Liberal Party), and in 1910 Venstrereformpartiet and Det Moderate Venstre reunited again under the name Venstre.
1910–2009 With the decreasing numbers of farms and the growing urbanisation, membership and voter support dropped in the 1950s. During the 1960s the party gradually evolved from being a traditional farmers' party to a more general liberal party. In 1984
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was elected chairman, and by profiling the liberal ideology in sharp confrontation to the
Social Democrats, for example by campaigning for a reduction of the public sector, increasing market management and privatisation, and by being pro-EU, the party returned to its historical position as the biggest liberal party in the 1990s.
2009–present In the
2011 general elections, the party gained 26.7% of the vote and 47 seats, but was not able to form a government, instead leading the opposition against Prime Minister
Helle Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democratic coalition. Even though the party lost voter support in the
2015 general elections, only gaining 19.5% of the vote, the party formed a minority government. This government was short-lived, and in 2016 Løkke Rasmussen invited the Conservative People's Party and the
Liberal Alliance to form a coalition government instead. During the campaign of the
2019 general elections, Løkke Rasmussen published an autobiography, in which he opened up for the possibility of forming a government with the Social Democrats. This was seen as controversial in the liberal "blue bloc", and Social Democratic leader
Mette Frederiksen immediately declined the proposition. Following internal fighting in the party, Løkke Rasmussen and vice chairman
Kristian Jensen both resigned on 31 August 2019. On 21 September 2019, political spokesman and former Minister for Environment and Food
Jakob Ellemann-Jensen was elected the party's next chairman. Following the
2022 general election, in which Venstre suffered its worst result since 1988, Venstre joined a
grand coalition government led by Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen, and also comprising the
Moderates, a Venstre splinter formed by former Prime Minister
Lars Løkke Rasmussen. ==Ideology==