What is "venstre"

Venstre is the name of two Scandinavian liberal political parties

• Venstre (Denmark)
• Venstre (Norway)

Venstre (, literally "left"), full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti , is a conservative-liberal and agrarian political party in Denmark. Founded as part of a peasants' movement against the landed aristocracy, today it espouses an economically liberal pro- free market ideology.

Venstre is the major party of the centre-right in Denmark, and the third largest party in the country. The party has produced many Prime Ministers. Denmark's 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 34 out of 179 seats. 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 and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). One of Denmark's thirteen MEPs are from Venstre in the 2014-19 term of office, and they sit with the ALDE Group in the European Parliament.