Denmark Parliamentary Election - June 18, 2015

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ah, I see even Denmark falls into the "males are reffered to by their last name - females by their first name" patronizing category of countries like Brazil in their Presidential race recently. Good to know.

Lökke was his middle name though, right?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Aren't there limits on private contributions to political parties in Denmark? It's pretty disturbing that Saxo Bank has so much influence over a political party.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Aren't there limits on private contributions to political parties in Denmark? It's pretty disturbing that Saxo Bank has so much influence over a political party.

No, you just have to declare your contributions.

Well, that's quite an Epic Fail on Denmark.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Just to clarify: I did not mean to say LA is an extremist party, just that a sizeable share (likely a majority) of its voters are people who would traditionally be right wing Conservatives and others who would be right wing Liberals. This puts a pressure on them to cater to right wingers and they increasingly give in to this pressure - also because part of their parliamentary group are themselves right wingers.

I also think it is interesting whether a party a) attracts extremists b) if so, what kind of extremists. And LA clearly has an appeal to various radicals that the traditional centre-right doesn't.

What parties were these extremists voting for before LA appeared? DFP? Venstre?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Former PM Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is the "secret guest" at SPPs annual conference where he has delivered a few veiled attacks on Thorning. Nyrup suggests that Red Bloc should unite in support of the European tax on financial transactins (Danish SDs are the only SDs in Western Europe not supporting this #) and says the profit can easily support better cutting the work hours it takes to regain unemployment benefits 1 year of full time employment to 6 months (the government clinging to 6 months despite opposition from unions and SD left wingers). Not the first time Nyrup has taken a jab at his successor. Last time was when he spoke out against privatizing Dong Energy as well. He was on the right wing of his party in the 90s, but clearly to the left of Thorning and Corydon.

# Irish Labour do (AFAIK), but I consider them Social Liberals, not SDs.

Clearly there's nothing Social Democratic left about the Danish SDs either.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh great, another sh*tty election result.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh great, another sh*tty election result.

Given the circumstances it is actually quite good for people like you. As noted above the reverse result would have been a disaster for the left.

This might very well be the ouverture for a Frederiksen goverment in 2016 with a weaker Radikale = a more classical SD line. Alternativet is a joker, but if you count them as somewhat leftist/green, this is not bad for the left. DPP won so big that they might be tempted/feel obliged to enter government, which is the safest way to break a right wing populist party - especially such a weak government.

The Thorning/Corydon axis was a guarantee for a all round quite right wing party, both on economics, immigration and civil rights/justice. It was only on the environment that this goverment was (moderately) leftist. If Thorning had stayed on with a decent election result this would have continued.

Thanks for the explanation, that's quite heartening actually.

When will the next SD Congress be held? And who are the leading candidates? Hopefully the next leader will be a left-winger.

[Antonio the Sixth]

So the next Danish government will only have the support of the party that came in third? That just seems wrong.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The Social Democrats voted for Kjaesgaard? God, this party...