He was preceded and succeeded by the Social Democratic leader of that time, Jens Otto Krag as prime minister.

However, after the 1968 elections, he abandoned the Social Democrats and formed a centre-right coalition with the Conservative Party and the Liberal Venstre.

In spite of this, they utterly failed to tackle the growing problems of the welfare state and rein in public spending.

However, in doing so they alienated sufficient numbers of core supporters to lose the 1971 election, which brought the Social Democrats back to power.

Baunsgaard is often credited with being the first major Danish politician to truly embrace TV as the main media for communication with the voters.