Establishment From approximately 1699 to 1730, the highest-ranking non-monarchial government official was titled "Grand Chancellor" () and from 1730 until 1848, this office was titled "Minister of State" (). These titles foreshadowed the modern office of prime minister, however, unlike the current office, the grand chancellor and state minister were not formal heads of government. The king held
executive authority as
absolute ruler from 1661 until the enactment of a liberal Constitution in the early nineteenth century. The office of prime minister was introduced as a part of the
constitutional monarchy outlined in 1848 and signed as the
Danish Constitution on
5 June 1849. The new Constitution established a
parliamentary system by creating a new bicameral parliament () and a Council Presidium, headed by a council president. The Council Presidium is regarded as the predecessor of the modern
Prime Minister's Office. From 1855 onwards the prime minister was known simply as the "council president" ().
Carl Christian Hall became the first prime minister/council president to lead a political party (the
National Liberal Party).
Modern office The modern Prime Minister's Office was founded on 1 January 1914, when the Council Presidium was established as a department under the prime minister, in line with its Scandinavian neighbours, Norway and Sweden), which it remains to this day. By the mid-nineteenth century a strong party-system had developed, with most prime ministers being the leader of either () or
Højre (). However, by
1924 the
Social Democrats had become the largest party and Højre had disappeared. During the first years of
Occupation of Denmark, the governments of prime ministers
Vilhelm Buhl and then
Erik Scavenius cooperated with the Nazi occupiers. On 29 August 1943, the Danish government resigned, refusing to grant further concessions to Nazi Germany. All government operations were assumed by the permanent secretaries of the individual departments, and this arrangement lasted until the Liberation of Denmark on 5 May 1945. Since King Christian X never accepted the resignation of the government, it existed de jure until a new cabinet was formed on 5 May 1945. The twentieth century was dominated by Social Democratic prime ministers leading left-wing coalitions; Social Democratic prime ministers were in power nearly continuously from 1924 until 1982. The first prime minister from the
Conservative People's Party,
Poul Schlüter, came to power as the head of a broad centre-right coalition in 1982. The centre-right coalition rule until 1993, lasting for eleven years, made it the longest centre-right government in Danish history since the 1920s. In November 2001 the left-wing coalition in the Folketing lost seats to the right-wing coalition led by , ending their eight years rule. became the largest party since 1924.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, leader of , served as the prime minister from 2001 to April 2009. His coalition government consisted of and the Conservative People's Party, with parliamentary support from the national-conservative
Danish People's Party (). On 5 April 2009, Rasmussen resigned to become
Secretary General of NATO, leaving
minister of finance and vice president of
Lars Løkke Rasmussen to be the prime minister. Following the
September 2011 election the right-wing lost by a small margin to the opposing centre-left coalition, led by
Helle Thorning-Schmidt who on 3 October 2011 formed a
new government initially consisting of the
Social Democrats, the
Danish Social Liberal Party and the
Socialist People's Party. Following a
general election defeat, in June 2015 Thorning-Schmidt resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded by Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who headed a minority government consisting entirely of ministers from . The Social Democrats returned to power after the
2019 election, with
Mette Frederiksen assuming the role of prime minister. ==Role and authority==