Prime Minister of Denmark appointment of the Prime Minister is determined by their support in the Folketing (The National Parliament). Since the beginning of the 20th century no single party has held a majority in the Folketing, so the Prime Minister must head a coalition of political parties, as well as their own party. Additionally, only four coalition governments since World War II have enjoyed a majority in the Folketing, so the coalitions (and the Prime Minister) must also gain loose support from other minor parties. The current Prime Minister of Denmark is Lars Løkke Rasmussen. He leads a government consisting of Venstre, Liberal
Folketing Business Affairs and Lars Barfoed, the Justice Minister, was widely expected, but on 14 January the Conservative group in the Folketing unanimously elected Barfoed as their new political leader. The Social Democrats under the leadership of Helle Thorning-Schmidt have enjoyed continuing majorities in opinion polls since late 2009 and hopes to form a centre-left government coalition consisting of the Socialist People's Party and the Social Liberal Party with parliamentary support from the small Red-Green Alliance. Both Margrethe Vestager (Social Liberal Party) and Villy Søvndal (Socialist People's Party) pledged their support to Thorning-Schmidt before the election. But there has been considerable