The Prime Minister and Parliament

The Prime Minister has, like the other government ministers, a number of tasks in relation to parliament.

The Prime Minister’s most important tasks in the parliament are:

The major parliamentary debates

The major debates are the debates at the opening of parliament in October and the closing debate before the summer holidays.

You can find the Prime Minister’s opening speeches under the item “speeches” in the menu on the left.

The parliamentary debates often last for many hours. The minutes of the debates can be found on the parliament’s homepage. (The minutes are only available in Danish.)

Handling of draft legislation and basis for decisions

Draft legislation and basis for decisions within the area of the Prime Minister’s Office are also debated by the parliament.

You can read more about the Prime Minister’s Office's legislation here. You can read about the actual processing of legislation through the parliament on the Parliament's homepage.

Answers to questions from members of parliament

The individual members of parliament can submit questions to the prime minister, as they can to any other minister. Members of parliament can choose whether they wish the Prime Minister to answer verbally or in writing. This is the so-called paragraph 20 question.

The Prime Minister can answer either in writing or verbally during the parliament’s question time.

The members of parliament can also ask questions to be answered immediately by the minister. This occurs during the weekly question time, which is held on Wednesdays. The Prime Minister announces on the previous day, before 10 am, which ministers will attend and answer questions during the question time on Wednesday.

Answers to questions from the Parliamentary Committee

A parliamentary committee can ask questions that the minister must answer in writing or verbally, during a formally summoned committee.

Interpellation debates on special issues

Through a request to one or more ministers, one or more members of parliament can have a case about a public matter discussed in parliament.

An interpellation debate often ends with a vote on one or more proposals for approval.