Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0018/00180.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 32KB | 511 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00180}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Denmark
Danish Politics From Absolutism to Democracy}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Henning Dehn Nielsen}
$Affiliation{Ministry of Foreign Affairs}
$Subject{government
party
denmark
liberal
democratic
constitution
new
social
minister
danish}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Title:       Denmark
Book:        Facts about Denmark
Author:      Henning Dehn Nielsen
Affiliation: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Date:        1990

Danish Politics From Absolutism to Democracy

     On 5 June 1849, Frederik VII, who had come to the throne of Denmark the
previous year, signed the Constitutional Act of the Danish Realm. With his
signature he abolished the absolutism introduced 189 years earlier by Frederik
III - in 1660. Denmark had become a constitutional monarchy. The change-over
from absolutism to representative government in Denmark was undramatic.

     There was no question of a revolution, for although the Constitutional
Act of 1665 gave the ruling monarch almost absolute power, absolutism in
Denmark was to a large extent a collegiate form of government; at the end of
the 18th century it included the foremost men of the Age of Enlightenment.
They carried through a social and economic revolution that covered major
agricultural reforms (including the abolition in 1788 of the principle of
adscription, whereby feudal serfs were attached to the soil) and the Education
Act of 1814. The transition from absolutism to representative government,
although at times spasmodic, was on the whole a gradual process.

International background

     The wars at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th
between France, England, Germany and Russia made it difficult for Denmark to
maintain her neutrality. As from 1780 Denmark had a pact of armed neutrality
with Russia and Sweden, amongst other reasons in order to secure income for
her big merchant fleet on the principle of "free ship, free cargo". But in
1801 Denmark was forced out of this alliance after a British fleet under Lord
Nelson had defeated the Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. In 1807
France and Russia set up a common front against England by introducing the
so-called Continental System, whereupon Denmark abandoned her neutrality and
went over to Napoleon's side. After Napoleon's fall Denmark was committed
under the decisions reached at the Congress of Vienna in 1814 to establish a
constitution allowing provincial consultative assemblies for Holstein.
Although the call for "liberty, equality and fraternity" voiced during the
French Revolution of 1789 was not heard in Denmark, the events of 1830 in
Paris and in the Netherlands made an impression on the Danish monarch,
Frederik VI.

Domestic background

     Fears that the revolutionary movements might spread were increased in
1831, when a demand was raised in Holstein for a free constitution for the
duchies of both Slesvig and Holstein, which were supposed to be forever
undivided (up ewig ungedeelt). Urged on by this situation the king announced
that he had decided to give his people a constitution allowing
consultative provincial assemblies. In 1834 provincial consultative chambers
were indeed set up in four places - apart from Holstein also in Slesvig,
Jutland and Zealand, representing the islands. The first meetings were held in
1835 at Roskilde and Itzehoe. Only men over the age of thirty years - and
possessed of a certain amount of property - were allowed to elect
representatives to the assemblies. With these restrictions the number of
voters was only about 40,000 out of a population of some 2.5 million.

     The issues on which the government asked these assemblies to express
their views mainly concerned laws referring to personal and property rights.
But the open debate and a demand from the Liberals for full freedom of the
press served to accelerate the process towards a really free constitution.

     For farming people this was not a primary objective. Their
dissatisfaction was based on local conditions, social as well as economic.
They objected to being the only ones liable to be conscripted for military
service and they wanted deeds of tenure abolished. A rebellion spread, and in
1846, through the formation of The Society of Farmers' Friends (Bondevennernes
Selskab) they joined the Liberals in a demand for a free constitution. A
strong contributory reason for the solidarity which developed between the
farmers and especially the Liberals of Copenhagen was the Farmers' Circular of
1845, which forbade farming people to "hold meetings in the towns and with men
from outside the parish". The prohibition had the opposite effect from that
intended.

     As soon as Frederik VII came to the throne in January 1849 a conflict
broke out between pro-Danish and pro-German citizens. A deputation from
Slesvig and Holstein, imbued with the spirit of the French Revolution,
demanded of the new king that he provide a free, common constitution for
Holstein and Slesvig and moreover allow Slesvig to be incorporated within the
German Confederation. The National Liberals held meetings of protest in
Copenhagen, and on 21 March went to the king with a counter-demand for a
common, free constitution for Denmark and Slesvig and a new, National Liberal
government. The king yielded that very same day, dismissed the old government
and declared himself to be a constitutional monarch. Two days later a
rebellion broke out in Kiel, in Holstein, which sparked off the three-year
war of 1848-50. Prussia supported the rebels until July 1849, and peace
between Prussia and Denmark was finally concluded on 2 July 1850.
Schleswig-Holstein, which was not included in the agreement, resumed
hostilities on 24 July, but without Prussia's help the duchies were unable to
cope. The Schleswig-Holstein army was disbanded in 1851 and Prussia occupied
Holstein. Denmark had quelled the rebellion but Denmark's constitutional
situation remained essentially the same as in 1848.

The June Constitution

     The new National Liberal government under the leadership of A.W. Moltke
(with the title of premierminister, changed in 1855 to konseilsproesident)
took over in March 1848 and prepared to summon the Constitutional National
Assembly, which on 25 May 1849 adopted Denmark's first free constitution. The
Constitutional Act was signed on 5 June 1849 and thereby ratified by Frederik
VII, whose motto was "my people's love, my strength".

     The principal author of the Constitution was the theologian Ditlev
Gothard Monrad, who had found inspiration in both the Belgian and the
Norwegian constitutions. The result was a two-chamber system consisting of a
lower chamber (Folketing, 100 members directly, elected) and an upper chamber
(Landsting, 51 members, elected indirectly by valgmoend, i.e. members of an
electoral college) known jointly as Parliament (Rigsdagen). All independent
men of unblemished reputation over thirty years of age were given
the vote. A man could be elected to the Folketing from the age of twenty-five
years, but to the Landsting only on reaching the age of forty, and then only
provided he owned property to the value of a least 1,200 rix-dollars. The
Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of
assembly and compulsory education; ordinary conscription was introduced. In
1857 the National Liberals formed a government under Carl Christian Hall. The
Sound Dues were abolished, freedom of trade was introduced and local autonomy
was extended.

The catastrophe of 1864

     The war of 1848-50 had not resolved the fundamental nationality conflict
between pro-Danish and pro-German citizens, i.e. between Denmark and
Schleswig-Holstein. The National Liberal government was left with a tricky
decision: either to introduce a Helstat constitution, i.e. for the kingdom
of Denmark as well as for the duchies of Slesvig and Holstein, or - as it
would have preferred-to establish the border at the River Ejder and thereby
cut off the pro-German province of Holstein. Increasing pressure from the
great powers augmented the difficulties. The June Constitution did not include
Slesvig. According to agreements made in London in 1851-52 Denmark had
promised "not to link Slesvig closer to herself than Holstein" and in this
way had departed from the so-called Ejder programme, i.e. a common
constitution for Denmark and Slesvig. In 1855 a Helstat constitution was
adopted, but it gave rise to violent protests and complaints by Holsteiners
to the German Confederation.

     Negotiations were commenced, but they produced no results. Two years
later, in 1857, the Hall government reverted to the Ejder programme. In 1863
the government had formed the impression - from diplomatic reports and
German sources - that Prussia's chancellor, Bismarck, was prepared to accept
the new constitution.

     On 13 November 1863 the November Constitution was adopted, uniting
Denmark and Slesvig but excluding Holstein. Two days later, on 15 November,
Frederik VII died childless, and with him the last monarch of the Oldenborg
line. His successor, the first Danish monarch in the Glucksborg line,
Christian IX, hesitated to sign the November Constitution. On 16 November
his prime minister, Hall, presented him with a note from Bismarck stating
that "the existing situation must not be altered unilaterally" but Hall
attached no great importance to it, and on 18 November Christian IX signed
the November Constitution. On 1 February 1864 Prussia and Austria declared war
on Denmark, and within four days the Danish troops at Danevirke were obliged
to submit to the enemy's military superiority. On 30 October that same year
Denmark had to sign a peace treaty in Vienna, by the terms of which she
relinquished Holstein, Lauenborg and Slesvig, i.e. about one-third of her
territory, which was thus reduced from 58,000 km^2 to 39,000 km^2. Her
population was correspondingly reduced by 700,000 - from 2.5 million to 1.7
million - 200,000 of whom were Danes under foreign rule.

Constitutional struggle

     The National Liberals held the political responsibility for the
catastrophe. One of the fathers of the 1849 Constitution, Ditlev Gothard
Monrad, who as prime minister was directly responsible when war broke out,
emigrated in 1865 to New Zealand, but returned four years later.
Disappointment in National Liberal circles led to the formation of a new
Conservative party, Right (Hojre), made up of wealthy landowners and a
number of National Liberals. An unsuccessful attempt was made to unite owners
of big farms with smallholders.

     With the assistance of the National Liberals, the Right Party then
carried through an amendment of the Constitution in 1866. Universal suffrage
was abolished and a privileged franchise was introduced for the Landsting,
in which chamber landowners were thereby ensured a permanent majority.
The reduction of the 1849 Constitution's franchise caused deep dissatisfaction
amongst the farming population, whose answer came in 1870 with the launching
of the Liberal Democratic Party (Det forenede Venstre), which by 1872
obtained a majority in the Folketing. But the king continued to appoint
his ministers from amongst representatives of the Right Party, thereby
sowing the seeds of a new constitutional struggle which was to last
twenty-nine years. The final outcome was that the Right Party gave up and the
monarchy submitted to the Liberal Democratic Party's demand for the
introduction of Cabinet responsibility in Denmark.

The provisional period

     In 1875 a landowner named Jacob B.S. Estrup came to head the Conservative
Cabinet - which was now also supported by the National Liberals - and he
remained prime minister for nineteen years, until 1894. His tactic was to
prevent the Folketing majority from exercising any influence on the
government. With the aim of forcing the Estrup government to give in to the
demand for Cabinet responsibility, the Liberal Democratic Party blocked
legislative work in 1881-84 by means of a policy of obstruction. But despite
the Liberal Democratic Party's increasingly dogged resistance, Estrup governed
with the help of provisional finance acts, issued by the government but not
passed by the Folketing - the first time in 1877 and thereafter throughout the
whole period from 1885 to 1894. The major issue in dispute was financial
grants for the fortification of Copenhagen, which  amounted to 36 million
kroner. More than 50 per cent of the government's income in 1890 was spent on
defence. "What's the point of it?"Viggo Horup had asked in 1883 on behalf of
the Liberal Democratic Party.

     The political child of the industrial break-through was the Social
Democratic Party, founded in 1871. The growing working classes organized
themselves into trade unions which, together with this party, formed the
two-stringed Social Democratic Labour Movement. Already at the election held
in 1884, two Social Democrats, Peter Holm and Christen Hordum, got into
the Folketing. The trade union movement tried to force its demands through by
means of strikes. In order to resist the demands for higher wages the Danish
Employers' Federation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening) was formed in 1896, and
in 1898 the trade unions countered by setting up the first national Trades
Union Centre (De Samvirkende Fagforbund). 1899 saw the first trial of
strength between the two major organizations on the labour market. It ended
with the so-called September Agreement (Septemberforliget), which virtually
became the labour market's "constitution", specifying the right of an
employer to decide what work was to be done and who was to do it, and the
ruling that due notice must be issued of impending strikes or lock-outs. The
following year the agreement was supplemented by the setting up of the
Permanent Court of Arbitration (Den permanente Voldgiftsret).

     The constitutional struggle was intensified when Christen Berg, who
was the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and Speaker of the Folketing,
was imprisoned in 1885. People refused to pay their taxes. The government
countered by setting up a gendarmerie corps and introducing laws to authorize
exceptional police measures. But the Right Party, by means of its provisional
laws, had got its financial grants through and achieved its aim: the
completion of Copenhagen's fortification in 1894. These provisional laws
became permanent that same year, when the moderate wing of the Liberal
Democratic Party reached an agreement with the government. This was achieved
with the assistance of moderate members of the Right Party who wanted to get
rid of Estrup. After nineteen years as head of the government - a record up to
the present day - Estrup resigned shortly after the agreement had been
settled. The Right Party, which during the provisional period - dubbed "the
Estrupiate" - had disenchanted many voters, had wearied, and in 1901 finally
gave up. At the election on 3 April it only won 8 seats, whereas the Liberal
Democratic Party secured 76.

     On 24 July 1901, Christian IX appointed the first Liberal Democratic
Cabinet. The king and the Right Party had accepted the principle of Cabinet
responsibility, according to which the king appoints a government that has a
majority behind it - or at all events does not have a majority against it,
which could be called negative Cabinet responsibility. The change of system
was a political reality, but the principle was not incorporated in the
Constitution until the 1953 Amendments.

Change of system

     The Liberal Democratic Reform Party (Venstrereformpartiet), which was
founded in 1895, was the new government party in Denmark. The prime minister
in the government representing the change of system was a law professor,
Johan Henrik Deunt@zer, but the leader of the party was a schoolteacher, Jens
Christian Christensen, who in 1905 became prime minister. The reform
programme that was carried through was liberal. Taxes were introduced on both
capital and income, and a new law covering municipal elections gave women the
vote in parish, town and county council elections. It was not until the
Constitution of 1915 that women were given the vote to both the Folketing
and the Landsting.

     But on account of the constitutional struggle, i.e. the long period of
opposition up to 1901, the liberal Democratic Reform Party had united
opponents of Estrup's policies, who were not necessarily people who were
agreed on which policy should be followed when the struggle for a change of
system had been won. And when the principle of Cabinet responsibility was a
reality, the inner tensions within the Liberal Democratic Reform Party became
too great. The party split on the issue of defence, which in 1905 led to the
formation of the Radical Liberal Party (Det radikale Venstre), who in addition
to the support of opponents of the defence policy won that of the smallholders
from the Liberal Democratic Reform Party. At the rupture in 1905 the Danish
party system, "the four old parties", was established: the Liberal Democratic
Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Radical Liberal Democratic Party,
and the Right Party, which in 1915 became the Conservative People's Party
(Det Konservative Folkeparti).

     In 1908 Christensen's government resigned after the Alberti affair.
Peter Adler Alberti was minister of justice, and shortly after resigning
from the Cabinet it was revealed that he had been responsible for a swindle
to the tune of 15 million kroner. In 1908-09, after two brief Liberal
Democratic Party governments (under the leadership of Niels Neergaard and
Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg respectively) the Radical Liberal Party formed a
government in 1909-10 and again in 1913-20. Holstein-Ledreborg carried
through a new defence system in 1909 which resulted in, amongst other things,
the abandonment of Copenhagen's land fortification, which had been the big
issue disputed during the provisional period. Carl Theodor Zahle became prime
minister, and the Radical Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party
together formed a majority. They asked the Liberal Democratic Party's Klaus
Berntsen (prime minister 1910-13) to continue, but he refused. With the
support of the Social Democratic Party, the Zahle government took office. In
1915 the second June Constitution was adopted. The privileged franchise to the
Landsting was abolished, women and servants were given the vote, and
proportional representation was introduced. In this way it became virtually
impossible for a single party to have a majority on its own. So as to avoid an
election during World War I it was decided to postpone the coming into force
of the new Constitution. The prime minister's title was changed from
konseilspraesident to statsminister.

     With the passing of an act in 1916 to reform the administration of
justice (not enforced until 1919) the government took a decisive step towards
making Denmark a constitutional state. The administration of justice was
separated from the civil service. Whereas formerly the chief constable had
been both prosecutor and judge, the two offices were now divided. Juries were
introduced for cases of extreme violence and political cases. The act thus put
into effect the constitutional clause which Niels Frederik Severin Grundtvig
had insisted on having included in the June Constitution Act of 1849 to the
effect that the administration of justice should be public and oral.

     Denmark declared her neutrality on the outbreak of hostilities in 1914
and succeeded in keeping out of the war. Several attempts to form a coalition
government failed, but in 1916 so-called "control ministers", i.e.
representatives from each of the three opposition parties, were admitted to
the government. The step was prompted not so much by developments in the world
outside neutral Denmark as by a plan to sell the Danish West Indian islands to
the USA, a matter which provoked a passionate and fierce debate and divided
the nation. In 1916 the proposal to sell the three islands for $25 million was
approved by a referendum in which for the first time both women and servants
exercised their franchise in a matter affecting the nation as a whole.
Hitherto unprecedented adjustments in business life were carried through by
the minister for home affairs, Ove Rode, in order to make supplies go round
and ensure a reasonable distribution. He was successful, but the supply
situation became more acute with the development of unrestricted submarine
warfare in 1917. In 1919 an agricultural reform was introduced, which resulted
in the setting up of thousands of smallholdings. That same year it was decreed
that a working day should not exceed eight hours. In 1918 Iceland became an
independent state, though still continuing to share both monarch and foreign
policy with Denmark. In 1920 neutral Denmark, at the request of the Versailles
powers, joined the League of Nations in Geneva. At the election held in 1918,
women were elected to the Folketing for the first time.

The reunion

     After Germany's defeat in World War I, the question of Slesvig's return
to Denmark prompted the holding of two plebiscites in accordance with the
nationality principle adopted at the Treaty of Versailles concerning the right
of peoples to decide questions of national affiliation for themselves. In
North Slesvig (South Jutland) 75 per cent of the voters were in favour of a
reunion with Denmark, whereas in South Slesvig and Flensborg 80 per cent
preferred to remain in Germany. On 20 July 1920 Christian X dramatized the
situation by riding on horseback across the border to the reincorporated
province.

The Easter crisis of 1920

     Disappointment over the plebiscite defeat in South Slesvig unleashed a
strong wave of nationalism, the Flensborg Movement, whose aim was to get
Flensborg to return to Denmark. The Zahle government wanted to respect the
result of the plebiscite and refused a demand for the border question to be
taken up for revision. Zahle rejected a request from Christian X to call a new
election. The government wanted to wait until the new suffrage bill had been
passed. The king felt that the Zahle government no longer had a majority
behind it. He dismissed the government on 29 March, even though it had not
been rejected by a vote of no confidence in the Folketing, and then appointed
a caretaker government under Otto Liebe. The Social Democratic Party and the
Radical Liberal Party called the king's action a breach of the Constitution,
and the situation came to a head when the trade unions issued a general strike
warning. The king thereupon appointed a new and entirely non-political
caretaker government under M.P. Friis, who was entrusted with the task of
seeing the suffrage bill through and holding new elections.

     The Radical Liberal Party suffered a serious defeat in the 1920
elections, whereupon the Liberal Democratic Party, which had won a
correspondingly handsome victory, formed a government with Niels Neergaard as
prime minister. The economy became overheated as a result of the
discontinuation of the regulative measures necessitated by the war. Denmark
amassed a considerable debt in foreign currency. A serious fall in prices on
the world market hit Denmark in 1921. In one year industrial production fell
to the same level as that before the war. A large number of banks collapsed,
and in 1922 there was consternation when even Denmark's biggest bank,
Landmandsbanken, crashed. However, it was reconstructed by the enactment of a
new law and by the injection of new capital, some of it from the National Bank
of Denmark. In 1922 the government succeeded in carrying through a new defence
programme that incorporated considerable savings. Foreign debts and the
general economic depression resulted in increased unemployment and labour
conflicts; in conjunction with the bank crash, these circumstances weakened
the Liberal Democratic government, which was defeated in the 1924 elections.

Power moves to the towns

     The outcome of the 1924 elections was the formation of Denmark's first
Social Democratic government. (Since 1913 the Social Democrats had already
become the largest party in the Folketing). The prime minister was Thorvald
Stauning, who was to become the most important figure in Danish politics for
the next eighteen years, sixteen of which he spent as leader of the
government. It was in 1916, when Stauning took over as a so-called "control
minister" in the Radical Liberal government - during a hastily summoned "night
congress" - that the Social Democratic Party had already decided to abandon
the principle of non-participation in any government unless it had won a clear
majority for itself. And the government of which Stauning found himself at the
head, up to 1927, was a minority government. Nina Bang was made minister of
education, and as such was the first woman in Denmark to become a cabinet
minister. The government tried to curb excess wealth and excessive imports.
The bank rate was raised and the circulation of bank notes was restricted. The
Danish krone thereby became stronger, but this led in turn to a fall in prices
for ordinary commodities and to rising unemployment. When the Stauning
government failed to win a majority for its plan for emergency measures it was
obliged to resign.

     The Liberal Democratic Party formed a government headed by Thomas
Madsen-Mygdal. The liberal principles covering free trade, "the honest krone"
and tight public budgets became the cornerstones of the government's policy.
The competitiveness of the nation's industry and commerce was to be ensured
through lower costs, particularly as regards wages and salaries. Public
spending was severely cut back by lowering old age pensions as well as the
wages and salaries of civil servants. Unemployment rose in 1927 to 23 per cent
and agricultural over-production caused big falls in prices. The Conservatives
were in favour, but the classical disagreement between Conservatism and
Liberalism came close to bringing the Conservatives and the Social Democrats
together in order to introduce customs and import restrictions with the aim of
protecting domestic industries and thereby ensuring employment. This was not
achieved, but in 1929 the Conservatives and the Social Democrats reached
agreement and toppled the Madsen-Mygdal government. The Conservatives wanted
to increase the defence budget by 6.6 million kroner. When Madsen-Mygdal
refused, the Conservatives' new leader, Christmas Moller, announced that the
Conservatives would vote against the finance bill proposals - a move that
would help to assert the new Conservative Party's independent and equal rights
stance compared with that of the Liberal Democratic Party. The Social
Democrats saw a chance to overthrow the government and also voted against the
bill. The Radical Liberals abstained from voting. The finance bill was
rejected and the government collapsed.

Crisis control

     The Social Democratic Party won the election. Together with the Radical
Liberal Party, Stauning formed the coalition government that was to steer the
country through the economic crisis of the 1930s. It was generally acclaimed
as the most stable government in the politically unsettled Europe of the
1930s. The leader of the Radical Liberals, the historian Peter Munch, became
foreign minister. The main points of the government's programme were reduced
defence expenditure, legal reforms and a revision of the 1915 Constitution
with a view to abolishing the Landsting. The two government parties did not
have a majority in the Landsting and therefore had to seek understanding for
their legislation among the ranks of the opposition. In 1930 the death
penalty was abolished - it had not been carried out since 1892. The Wall
Street crash of 1929 and the subsequent world crisis did not reach Denmark in
earnest until 1931. Wages and salaries were reduced by 8 per cent but at the
same time unpaid holiday arrangements were introduced. In 1932 an average of
eighty farms a week were put up for auction. Rural unrest led to the formation
of the Association of Land Users (Landbrugernes Sammenslutning, or L.S.) which
demanded emergency assistance. A so-called Currency Centre was set up to
control imports. The government called a new election in 1932 after the
opposition had refused to support a crisis programme. The coalition government
remained in power: the Liberal Democratic Party lost 5 seats, whereupon the
party's leader, Madsen-Mygdal, resigned and was succeeded by the more
pragmatic Oluf Krag. At this election the Danish Communist Party secured two
seats in the Folketing.

The Kanslergade agreement

     On 30 January 1933 the government and the Liberal Democratic Party
reached an agreement with the aim of counteracting the economic crisis.
Unemployment was now at a level of 44 per cent and agriculture was no longer
profitable. Strikes and lock-outs were forbidden and the Danish krone was
devalued and linked to sterling at the rate of 1 Pound = Kr22.40. A quota
scheme to control pig production was introduced as a result of Great Britain's
decision to give her dominions a preferential position. Under the terms of the
agreement, the government obtained the assurance of the Liberal Democratic
Party that it would not vote against a social reform bill introduced by Karl
Kristian Steincke, minister for social affairs, which reduced the decrees
contained in fifty-five old laws to a mere three. The concept of alms was
abandoned. The principle of providing help "when judged to be necessary" was
to be rejected in favour of providing help as a right.

     In 1933 the International Court of Appeal at the Hague decreed that
Denmark was entitled to sovereignty over the whole of Greenland. Two years
previously, Norwegian sealhunters had occupied East Greenland, whereupon
Denmark appealed the case. In 1935 the government called an election because
the opposition had refused to vote for a crisis plan to include currency
regulations that were unpopular in farming circles. Under the slogan "Stauning
or chaos!" the Social Democratic Party won 46.1 per cent of the votes - its
best election ever. The crisis plan was carried through because the
Conservatives abstained from voting out of consideration for the decision
reached by the electorate.

     The government acquired a majority in the Landsting in the 1936
elections, and in this way the opposition's possibilities of stopping the
government's proposal were exhausted. A new Constitution bill was passed in
the Folketing with the support of the government and the Conservatives and
against the votes of the Liberal Democratic Party. The main points of the bill
were the abolition of the Landsting and the setting up of a Folketing and a
Rigsting which, in the event of disagreement, were to convene in a United
Rigsdag. The same electorate was to elect representatives to both chambers on
the same election day and the voting age was to be set at twenty-three years.
However, when a referendum was held the bill was lost: its supporters were 0.5
per cent short of fulfilling the Constitution's requirement that 45 per cent
of the electorate must be in favour. The leader of the Conservatives,
Christmas Moller, who had declared beforehand that he would resign if the
Constitution bill fell through, suited his action to his word.

     Denmark, having declared her neutrality at the outbreak of war in 1939,
had entered into a pact of non-aggression with Germany the previous June
whereby she was permitted to trade with both combatants. Between September and
New Year ten Danish ships were sunk and 115 Danish sailors lost their lives.