In the new year, politicians in Folketinget are expected to begin negotiations on changing the naturalisation process in Denmark.
This will follow an expert group presenting its findings on the legalities of potentially adding a new screening system to the current naturalisation requirements.
Most parties have given fairly clear indications as to what they are hoping to get out of these negotiations. This article will present each party’s views one by one.
The Danish Dispatch has reached out to the eleven parties that will be involved in these negotiations. Only two responded: the Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) and the Alternative (Alternativet).
Social Democrats (Socialdemokratiet)
The Social Democrats, alongside the right-of-centre blue parties, supported the extraordinary additional hearings of three applicants in 2024. However, after the hearings, they did not support excluding the three controversial applicants.
It is also Social Democratic-led governments (and ministers) who established the expert group tasked with assessing the legalities of a screening process and who have currently frozen citizenship applications.
The party supports introducing some form of screening process for “undemocratic views”.
In a statement to DR, its naturalisation spokesperson Katrine Evelyn Jensen said, “I believe that a great many Danes, like the Social Democrats, care about ensuring that we grant citizenship to people who also carry Danish and democratic values in their hearts.”
On whether to find a short-term solution for applicants who had been included on L98, party leader and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is clearly opposed and reportedly rolled her eyes at a colleague who suggested this.
Frederiksen also shared her views in 2021 that citizenship should be conditional on the new citizen not committing criminal offences, suggesting citizenship should be revoked from those who do.
The Green Left (Socialistisk Folkeparti)
The Green Left was one of the parties that opposed the 2024 screening hearings, taking a clear stand against the idea of additional screening.
However, since then, the party has become a coalition partner in the new government, and its position has changed a fair bit.
In August 2026, its spokesperson on naturalisation, Kirsten Normann Andersen, suggested the party is open to adding a new screening process for applicants, telling TV2 Østjylland, “We would rather not have people with Danish citizenship who hold anti-democratic views and who work against our democratic society.”
However, the party does support finding a short-term solution to passing a bill with the L98 applicants from earlier this year.
Venstre
Venstre, as one of the right-of-centre blue-bloc parties, supported the 2024 screening hearings. Like the Social Democrats, however, they did not back removing the three controversial applicants from the final bill.
The party supports introducing additional screening for “undemocratic views”, but it goes further and suggests that, for the first five years after an application is voted through Folketinget, the applicant should be on a five-year trial period before final citizenship is granted.
In such a trial period, the rights that come with citizenship would not be granted, and only after the trial period would citizenship become permanent.
Party leader Troels Lund Poulsen wrote in a blog post, “If Denmark agrees to make you a Danish citizen, it is simply not unreasonable to expect that you, in return, stay clear of serious crime. That should in fact be an absolute minimum.”
Danish People’s Party (Dansk Folkeparti)
The Danish People’s Party, and especially its immigration spokesperson and Chairman of the Naturalisation Committee, Mikkel Bjørn, led the charge on the 2024 extra hearings.
It also tried to put together a coalition to have two of the three controversial applicants taken off the list, though this failed.
At the start of 2024, the party proposed a wide-reaching reform of naturalisation. This would see a maximum of 250 new citizenships given out in a year, personal conversations held with every applicant, and compulsory military service for new citizens.
The party has also suggested a review of all new citizenships handed out in the past twenty years, and the withdrawal of any citizenship given out on false premises.
On the number of naturalisations over the past years, Bjørn has said, “It is an unmanageable and irresponsible number, which makes it completely impossible to check the applicants.
“They are simply dumped into a pool, without any form of individual processing. We therefore know nothing about these people’s values and views, and there is no doubt that we are currently granting citizenship to people who are Islamists or who support terrorist movements.
“There must therefore be individual processing of applications, and the most qualified applicants must attend a personal interview, so that we get a handle on who we grant citizenship to.”
Liberal Alliance
Liberal Alliance joined other blue parties in supporting the hearings in 2024, which marked a bit of a conservative turn for the otherwise previously socially liberal party. They did not, however, back the proposed removal of names from the list.
The party supports stricter rules on naturalisation, including a screening process to weed out “undemocratic views”, as well as no automatic citizenship for children of applicants who are over the age of fifteen.
Liberal Alliance does not support a quick solution for the applicants on L98 and announced at the end of 2025 that it would actually vote against the law, and any other like it, until a screening process is introduced.
In an interview with Politiken, party leader Alex Vanopslagh said, “In my view, one of the most important requirements to set, and one of the most important things to address, is that one increasingly assesses whether you actually have a democratic mindset.”
The Moderates
The Moderates were the only party in the last SVM government that did not support the additional hearings in 2024. However, as part of the same government, they did support setting up the aforementioned expert group.
The party is generally quite vague on its policy on naturalisation. However, it has made clear that it wants to see a speedy solution for applicants who had been on L98.
Conservative People’s Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti)
The Conservatives were, as part of the blue bloc, one of the parties that supported the extraordinary screenings in 2024. They were also one of the three most hard-line parties that thereafter supported taking two of the three controversial applicants off the law.
The party supports introducing a permanent screening system for “undemocratic views”. The party has also suggested introducing a five-year ban on applying for foreigners whose children commit crimes.
Its official policy reads, “There are far too many examples of us having granted Danish citizenship to foreigners who have committed crimes or who do not share Danish values such as democracy, freedom of speech, and equality.”
The Red-Green Alliance
The Red-Green Alliance was one of the staunchest opponents of the hearings in 2024. In an interview with The Danish Dispatch, party spokesperson on naturalisation Peder Hvelplund called it “one of the most shameful days I have had as a democrat.”
The party considers such a screening process to be comparable to thought control, and has also pressed for citizenship applications to continue to be processed, including the ones that were included on L98.
In the same interview, Hvelplund also said, “In a democratic state you have to be able to hold strange attitudes. There are citizens with views I find completely unacceptable: right-wing extremist, left-wing extremist, Islamist, anti-democratic.
“I will fight those attitudes. I would never say that means they should lose the chance to vote.”
This is currently the only party represented on the Naturalisation Committee supporting a restart of processing beyond L98 before the expert group finalises its work.
The Social Liberals (Radikale Venstre)
The Social Liberals did not support the 2024 extraordinary hearings, being some of the biggest critics of the move.
The party is also generally against introducing a screening system such as that proposed by other parties. However, it notes that if such a screening were to be introduced, it would need to be based on objective requirements.
In the party’s official policy, it says, “Whether an applicant meets the conditions for citizenship should not depend on politicians’ individual judgement, but on criteria that can be verified by the authorities.”
The party supports a speedy process for securing citizenship for the applicants who were included on L98.
Denmark Democrats
The Denmark Democrats supported the hearings in 2024 and also supported taking two of the three controversial applicants off the final bill.
The party supports introducing a permanent screening process which would include applicants being required to recognise the state of Israel.
The party also supports introducing a ten-year trial period for citizenships (similar to the five-year period suggested by Venstre) where criminality can lead to the citizenship being revoked.
Party leader Inger Støjberg has said, “I honestly think it is only fair and reasonable that we tell the people applying for Danish citizenship that if you commit a crime, we will take the citizenship away from you again.
“The Danish passport is a declaration of trust, and if you break that trust, the trap snaps shut.”
The Alternative
The Alternative was ardently against the 2024 hearings, being one of the most outspoken parties on this issue.
In a written statement to The Danish Dispatch, the party spokesperson on naturalisation, Elise Sydendal, wrote, “The Alternative takes a firm stand that citizenship should be subject to clear, simple and transparent criteria that can be administered and processed by the civil service, after which the Folketing grants citizenship through a bill.
“We regard the idea of conviction screening as a proposal that would move Denmark in a more totalitarian direction, replacing clear rules with politicians’ personal preferences.
“We are a rule-of-law party that protects not only citizenship, but also the democratic values we believe Denmark should stand for.”
The party supports a solution for applicants on L98, but does not have a seat in the current formation of the Naturalisation Committee.