Municipality
Bornholm Regional Municipality is the local authority (Danish, kommune) covering the entire island. It comprises the five former (1 April 1970 until 2002) municipalities on the island (Allinge-Gudhjem, Hasle, Nexø, Rønne and Aakirkeby) and the former Bornholm County. The island had 22 municipalities until March 1970, of which 6 were market towns and 16 parishes. The market town municipalities were supervised by the county and not by the Interior Ministry as was the case in the rest of Denmark. The seat of the municipal council is the island's main town, Rønne. The first regional mayor was Thoms Thors. The mayor as of 2010 is Winni Grosbøll, a member of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) political party.
Ferry services connect Rønne to Świnoujście (Poland), Sassnitz (Germany), Køge (near Copenhagen, Denmark); and catamaran services to Ystad (Sweden). Simrishamn (Sweden) has a ferry connection during the summer. There are also regular catamaran services between Nexø and the Polish ports of Kołobrzeg, Łeba and Ustka. There are direct train and bus connections Ystad-Copenhagen, coordinated with the catamaran. There are also flights from Bornholm Airport to Copenhagen and other locations.
Bornholm Regional Municipality was merged with other municipalities on 1 January 2007 in the nationwide Kommunalreformen ("The Municipal Reform" of 2007), although the island is quite far from the rest of Denmark.
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