ABSTRACT
The Danish Venstre is the deviant case among the Nordic farmers' parties. In 1910, The Moderate Left merged with the Left Reformist Party and the new grouping adopted its present name, Venstre. This joining of forces was facilitated by another split in 1905 when a group of MPs were expelled following deep-seated disagreement over the issue of defence spending, a key issue separating Left and Right. They formed a genuinely new party, The Radical Left, which is subsequently referred to as the Radical Liberals. Important for an understanding of Venstre's strategy in the mid-1960s was the fact that it had been in opposition since 1953. Assuming a pivotal centrist position as a way back to power was clearly not an option since that role was firmly in the hands of the Radical Liberals. Like the other Nordic agrarian parties, Venstre was faced with a declining farmer population, especially from the 1960s onwards.
