After the 1901 Danish Folketing election, the Council President Johan Henrik Deuntzer of the Venstre Reform Party became the leader of Denmark's first liberal government.

The cabinet marked the introduction of parliamentarism in Denmark[1] and with the exception of the Easter Crisis of 1920 no Danish government since 1901 has been formed against the vote of a majority of the members of Folketinget.

Princess Marie of Orléans, wife of Prince Valdemar and daughter-in-law of Christian IX, was the one to recommend Deuntzer to the king, and she had written a complete step-by-step plan for him on how to get rid of Sehested and Højre.

[3] Deuntzer was not an obvious choice for Council President as his only political experience was a failed candidacy for Landstinget 15 years earlier and as he was no more a pronounced member of the Venstre Reform Party than for Hugo Egmont Hørring to offer him the position as justice minister in the Cabinet of Hørring in 1897,[4] an offer he had declined on the advice of Viggo Hørup.

Princess Marie knew him from her frequent visits to the office of the East Asiatic Company, where both he and her husband were members of the board, and her main reason for recommending him to the king was the fact that his limited connection to the opposition would prevent his appointment from appearing to be an acknowledgement of parliamentarism.

The reports showed that the party's support of the government mildly put was failing, which was in direct contradiction with Sehested's relaxed description of his situation.

At the same time the Gymnasium became more up-to-date as Latin and Greek were replaced by English, German, and French as the main subjects of the languages line.

The legal reform Alberti presented to the Rigsdag in 1903 was a controversial attempt at controlling violence by reintroducing judicial corporal punishment.