The crisis within the Venstre party has escalated, coinciding with a further decline in the party's support in opinion polls, after a number of its deputies announced their rejection of a new bill regulating the use of fertilizers and tightening the rules related to nitrogen emissions from the agricultural sector.
The dispute comes as the Danish parliament prepares to continue debating the bill, while farmers head to the capital to protest it, in a move that includes large numbers of tractors entering Copenhagen and gathering near parliament.
Four MPs from Finsbury reject the bill
Four members of the Venstre party have announced that they will not support the bill in its current form, in a clear challenge to the position adopted by the party leadership.
These include Søren Gade, a member of the Venstre party and the current Speaker of the Danish Parliament, along with three other members of the Venstre parliamentary group.
Søren Gat's position carries particular political weight due to his role as Speaker of Parliament. He was re-elected Speaker following the parliamentary elections in March 2016 and currently holds the position.
Venstr leader Troels Lund stands by the Green Deal
In contrast, the leader of the Venstre party, Troels Lund Poulsen, is holding fast to the political pact known as the «Green Tripart» (Den Grønne Trepart), which sets a new framework for agricultural and environmental policy in Denmark.
The new rules are linked to the use of fertilizers with the aim of reducing the amount of nitrogen that reaches the environment, especially coastal waters, as part of efforts to improve the environmental condition of the Danish seas and straits.
Opponents of the law within the party and in the agricultural sector believe that the new rules may impose additional burdens on farmers and affect agricultural production and costs, which has turned the issue into a political confrontation within Finstree itself.
Farmers escalate their protests with tractors
The dispute moved to the streets on Tuesday, with farmers staging a large tractor protest in Copenhagen, where groups of tractors headed to the Christiansborg area, where the Danish parliament is located, to protest the bill and put pressure on MPs before the vote.
In this context, Copenhagen police warned that the move would affect traffic within the capital and on the roads leading to it, and called on drivers to expect congestion and delays and to choose alternative routes or means of transport.
Tractors also moved from different areas in Zealand towards Copenhagen during the morning hours, while the city of Aarhus also witnessed a tractor protest on the same issue.
Venstre party slips in new poll
This confrontation coincided with a further decline in the popularity of Venstre, the largest party in the Blue Bloc, in the March 2026 parliamentary elections. A Voxmeter poll for the Ritzau agency, published on August 31, showed Venstre receiving 8.7% of voters’ votes in the event of a parliamentary election, compared to 9.3% in the previous week’s poll.
This result places Venstre in fourth place among the Blue Camp parties, behind the Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti), the Liberal Alliance, and the Conservative Party (Det Konservative Folkeparti).
The Liberal and Conservative alliance each received 8.8% in the latest measurement, slightly higher than Venstre, while the Danish People's Party received a much higher percentage. The differences between some of these parties fall within the margin of statistical error of 2.5%.
Finster's retreat comes at a sensitive time for the party leadership, amid internal conflict and agricultural protests.
Parliament prepares to vote
Parliament is discussing the fertilizer bill in a second reading on Tuesday, while the third reading and final vote are scheduled for Thursday.
Despite the opposition within Venstre, the bill appears to have sufficient parliamentary support to pass, which means that the core of the crisis is not only about the fate of the law, but also about the unity of the Venstre party and the position of its leadership in the next stage.
These developments present the party leader and former defense minister, Troilus Lund Poulsen, with a complex political test, as he must maintain the party's commitment to the Green Deal while simultaneously dealing with internal opposition from four MPs, one of whom is the speaker of parliament, as well as increasing pressure from farmers and the party's decline in opinion polls.
The fertilizer issue has thus turned from an environmental and agricultural matter into a political crisis within Finsburg, at a time when the party leadership is trying to maintain its cohesion and position within the blue camp.
