The Great Nordic Thread (user search)
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  The Great Nordic Thread (search mode)
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Poll
Question: Will Iceland and Norway ever join the EU?
#1
Iceland, but not Norway
 
#2
Norway, but not Iceland
 
#3
Both
 
#4
None of them
 
Show Pie Chart
Partisan results

Total Voters: 178

Author Topic: The Great Nordic Thread  (Read 200714 times)
Franknburger
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« on: August 06, 2013, 08:25:13 PM »

Out of curiosity - are there still parties on the right calling for the re-introduction of Danish border controls? It definitely didn't help marketing Denmark as a tourism location in Germany....
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Franknburger
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« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2013, 11:03:17 AM »

Out of curiosity - are there still parties on the right calling for the re-introduction of Danish border controls? It definitely didn't help marketing Denmark as a tourism location in Germany....

With Sylt's existence there's really no point in visiting Denmark. 

I prefer Amrum and St. Peter-Ording to Sylt, but anyway...
The Danish North Sea coast is much less crowded than the German one, the Kattegat beaches are quite nice, there is no German equivalent to Bornholm, and guess where LEGOLAND is.

It certainly did not make Denmark a popular destination amongst politicians and newspaper editors, but I'm no so sure about Germany as a whole. Online polls at the time in Die Welt and Bild Zeitung showed that 84 and 77 % respectively approved of the measure. There are of course caveats with those kind of polls, but it doesn't seem like it has played much of a role amongst tourists. When owners of holiday houses and centres are asked, they say that the biggest German worry is the Danish Dog Law as they are unsure about which dog races are forbidden and which offences that will lead to the killing of the dog.
There are of course the hard core holiday house & caravan camping German tourists that have been going to the same place in Denmark for the last 30 summers and will continue to do so, with or without border controls (as long as you make sure that they are not checked for the amount of beer they carry with them). But that demography will gradually die away.
In addition,  you have people wanting to explore a new region every year, some of which (like my family) have a rather European approach, while others have a strong Nordic focus. These people, especially the "Nordic" ones, are the interesting target group. Now, after the introduction of border controls, two of our acquaintances with Nordic focus  shifted their holiday plans away from Denmark, and went to Öland and Lithuania instead (ferries from Travemünde).

The issue here in Schleswig-Holstein is local pride (a concept that surely is not unknown to Denmark). As symbolic as the measure may have been, it came across as "You guys don't trust us that we can do the job well ourselves, and you don't want to do it together with us. If you want to be left alone, we leave you alone. There is other places we can go to."

Anyway, good to hear that most Danish parties will be reluctant to re-introduce the measure. However, if I understand the latest polling correctly, after the next elections it may be quite difficult to form a government without DF, so they may start a new 'blackmailing' attempt ..
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Franknburger
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Germany


« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2013, 06:39:23 PM »
« Edited: December 27, 2013, 06:44:26 PM by Franknburger »

First of all, politicus - Congratulations to your well-selected combination of photos!

I actually see some similarity to Germany, where the CDU is prepared to give in to most of the SPD´s requests related to welfare (minimum wage, rent control, etc.), as long as they can avoid accepting dual citizenship (held by 5.4% of Lübeck's population, though officially non-existing), and legalising gay marriage.
The language issue is a bit more problematic in Germany, as Danish has already been registered  with the EU as official minority language. Same with food - the list of traditional German food will most likely become slightly longer than the Danish one. Moreover, banning pizza, French fries, Gyros and Döner might ultimately turn out to be rather unpopular here...

What is the ecologists' position on this? Wouldn't promoting Danish food culture put even more pressure on the shrinking herring population in the Baltic Sea?

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas meat balls Our roasted goose was delicious.  
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Franknburger
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Posts: 1,401
Germany


« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2013, 09:24:34 AM »


I actually see some similarity to Germany, where the CDU is prepared to give in to most of the SPD´s requests related to welfare (minimum wage, rent control, etc.), as long as they can avoid accepting dual citizenship (held by 5.4% of Lübeck's population, though officially non-existing), and legalising gay marriage.


There is a big difference between things like that coming from conservatives and from SD left wingers. Its the intra party aspect, where SD left wingers are marginalized by a dominant right wing, I find interesting. Is cooperation between "right wing" populists and SD left wingers  something we will see in the future, because those two groups are the only major groups outside of the neo-liberal consensus?
I think right wing populists are too genuinely rightist in most countries, but I was interested in your thoughts.

Well, if you read the German grand coalition compromise the other way round, the SPD was prepared to concede on issues like dual citizenship, gay marriage and protecting privacy to get their social policy agenda through. They didn't have to revert to silly "food culture" arguments, though, because they knew Angela Merkel was populist enough to give in on issues that the majority of the electorate supported.

The Danish intra-party aspect is interesting and special, indeed. A similar debate took place within the SPD a few years ago, but it was triggered by a right-winger (read: fiscal conservative), namely Thilo Sarrazin. That debate had the "modernisation" and the "social justice" wings inside the SPD uniting against a common internal enemy. Ultimately, with the Grand Coalition, the "social justice" wing looks forward to achieving a good part of their objectives, while "modernisation" has mostly been postponed to 2017 at earliest.

As concerns other European countries, I could imagine Austria's and Italy's right wing populists being prepared for similar deals, but I doubt the political left there will make them an offer as generous as the current Danish one (well, in Italy, you never know...).

On a side note: In the "Danish municipal elections" thread, I noted a surprisingly high share of local candidates with migration background, across the whole political spectrum, which gave me the impression that integration is working quite well in Denmark (at least compared to Germany). So, what is this debate all about?
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Franknburger
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Posts: 1,401
Germany


« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2014, 03:44:08 PM »

How will SF leaving the coalition affect the government? Will Social Democrats and Social Liberals continue a minority government, hoping for parliamentary support from SF in addition to Enhedslisten? Or will they now look for an additional partner, maybe DPP? While I understand that the government is not keen on new elections, will they really be able to avoid them?
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Franknburger
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Germany


« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2014, 10:20:16 AM »

Comrades turned social-democratic are not necessarily the worst politicians - see Willy Brandt.
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