1.
Municipalities of Denmark
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Denmark is divided into five regions, which contain 98 municipalities. This structure was established per an administrative reform, effective Monday 1 January 2007 which replaced the counties with five regions, the 270 municipalities were consolidated into 98 larger units, most of which have at least 20,000 inhabitants. The reason was to give the new municipalities greater financial and professional sustainability, many of the responsibilities of the former counties were taken over by the enlarged municipalities. Presented in a report put forward as a proposal by the government in April 2004, the report on the structural reform of the public sector was first presented 9 January 2004 by the commission which was set up by the government 1 October 2002. The archipelago of Ertholmene is not part of any municipality, but is administered by the Ministry of Defence, the existing coat of arms of the municipalities. The average land area of a Danish municipality is 432.59 km2,167.08 square miles, the Constitution of Denmark states, Article 82. The right of municipalities to manage their own affairs independently, under State supervision,2,522 municipal councillors were elected on Tuesday 15 November 2005 being the first councils elected since the new reform. The number of councillors was reduced to 2,468 in the 2009 elections, in 1997 there were 4,685 municipal and 374 county councillors in the then 275 municipalities and 14 counties. As an example of the reduction in the number of councillors, Bornholm then had a total of 122 councillors in five municipalities, after the merger on 1 January 2003, of the five municipalities and the county, there was one single municipal council with 27 municipal councillors. These guidelines replaced the old guidelines with the elections in 2005 after the laws initiating the structural reform were passed in parliament. Council elections are held on the third Tuesday of November every four years, the previous were held on 19 November 2013 and the next are due to be held on 21 November 2017. 32 municipalities including those of the recently formed Ærø Municipality and Bornholm Regional Municipality remained unchanged and were not merged with other municipalities, copenhagen County was not included in the municipal reform of 1 April 1970. This is probably because the municipality was extremely populous. Thus the number of municipalities was 277 from 1 April 1970 to 1 April 1974, still, the reform is called The municipal reform of 1970, because the decisive changes happened 1 April 1970, when 1098 municipalities were reduced to 277. Also on 1 April 1974, Avedøre, which was part of Glostrup Municipality, was conjoined with Hvidovre Municipality and this combination was logical, as Avedøre bordered Hvidovre, but was separated from Glostrup. This brought the number of municipalities down to 271 from 1 January 2003, the final agreement from 2005 included more parties. Until 1978 the fiscal year from 1 April to 31 March was in use in the sector since a law was passed in 1849. As a consequence of a law passed by the Folketing in 1976, many reforms and laws passed prior to 1979 therefore have effect from 1 April
2.
Regions of Denmark
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth
3.
Region Zealand
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At the same time, smaller municipalities were merged into larger units, reducing the number of municipalities from 271 before 1 January 2006, when Ærø Municipality was created, to 98. The reform was implemented in Denmark on January 1,2007, Zealand Region consists of the former counties of Roskilde, Storstrøm, and Vestsjælland. The region is named after the island of Zealand, which it shares with the neighbouring Danish Capital Region, Zealand Region also includes the adjacent islands of Lolland, Falster, and Møn. Media related to Region Sjælland at Wikimedia Commons
4.
Venstre (Denmark)
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Venstre, full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti, is a conservative-liberal and agrarian political party in Denmark. Founded as part of a movement against the landed aristocracy. Venstre is the party of the centre-right in Denmark. The party has produced many Prime Ministers, Denmarks current government is a minority government consisting of Venstre alone, supported by the other right wing parties. In the 2015 parliamentary elections, Venstre received 19. 5% of the vote and it is led by Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who took over as party leader and Prime Minister from Anders Fogh Rasmussen when the latter became Secretary General of NATO in 2009. The party is a member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals, one of Denmarks thirteen MEPs are from Venstre in the 2014-19 term of office, and they sit with the ALDE Group in the European Parliament. Venstre is categorised as centre-right on the political spectrum and it is a market liberal party within the Nordic agrarian tradition, and today is notably more pro-free market than its sister parties. Some describe it as liberal, since its leader from 1998 to 2009. His book advocated a reform of the Danish welfare state along classical liberal lines, including lower taxes and less government interference in corporate. Since the elections in 2001, Venstre has enacted a tax stop in order to halt the growth in taxes seen during the previous eight years under the Social Democrats. This tax stop has been under fire from the parties on the left wing of Danish politics, allegedly for being asocial. Venstre, or the Left in English, was founded in 1870 under the name Det Forenede Venstre and it was formed through the merger of three parliamentary factions, all of whom had identified as leftist in the context of the time. From 1895 to 1910 it was known as Venstrereformpartiet, and after that simply as Venstre, Venstre was traditionally a party advocating free trade and farmers interests as opposed to the interests of the aristocracy which were the platform of the then conservative party, Højre. This traditional landed basis resulted in a decline in influence due to the rapidly accelerating urbanisation of Danish society. Starting in the 1880s, the party began expanding into urban regions as well, after the 1960s these developments reoriented Venstre from a classical liberal party to conservative liberalism. During the leadership of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the party turned further to the right, the name has, however, its historical explanation. At the time of its foundation, Venstre affirmed progressive ideas in the then Danish parliament and their opponents, Højre, the forerunner of the present-day Conservative Peoples Party, advocated for established interests, particularly the Church of Denmark and the landed gentry. In current Danish politics there is a distinction between the concepts of Venstre and venstrefløj
