New government in Denmark

[MRC_Hans]

Helle Thorning Scmidt is headed for the position as Denmark's first ever woman premier minister, after winning a hairline victory in yesterday's (2011-09-15) election the the Danish Parliament (Folketinget).

HTS is the leader of the Danish Labour party, Socialdemokratiet, and she is expected to make a coalition with two other parties, one socialist, and one centre/liberal. Even in this coalition, the government will rely heavily cooperation, both with the Tory side, and with yet another left-wing party, the latter having had a small land-slide election, almost tripling their representation.

For those of you not used to multi-partite systems this probably sounds totally unworkable, but we are used to this sort of thing, and although it will certainly be no picnic for our new premier, there seems to be a broad realization among the more realistic of our politicians across the spectrum that the general economical situation calls for pragmatism, so I think we may view the situation with cautious optimism.

Hans

 

[Skepticemea]

Married to Neil Kinnock's son (for those who don't know he was the leader of the real Labour Party in UK in the 80s).

 

[MRC_Hans]

That's correct.

Hans

 

[erlando]

And for US republicans: The party called "Enhedslisten" will probably be a part of a coalition. "Enhedslisten" is a marxist revolutionary party that makes the US Democrats look like the Tea Party movement..

Fun times are ahead in Danish politics.... (or not...)

 

[MRC_Hans]

And for US republicans: The party called "Enhedslisten" will probably be a part of a coalition. "Enhedslisten" is a marxist revolutionary party that makes the US Democrats look like the Tea Party movement..

Fun times are ahead in Danish politics.... (or not...)

No, Enhedslisten have declared that they will not be part of government (not that anybody thought of inviting them, still). Obviously, they are not ready to get their hands dirty doing real government work. However, they will surely seek influence for their seats.

Enhedslisten is itself a coalition of several earlier socialist parties, including the old 'real' communist party, and they come with a number of skeletons in their closets. However, the present leadership, headed by a very charismatic young lady http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanne_Schmidt-Nielsen, seem to be on a course for a somewhat more responsible program.

They still have the nationalization of large companies in their program, but now interprets it as expropriation, not confiscation. The difference is that compensation is supposed to be awarded for expropriation. How they suggest to get the billions of bucks it would take to even half compensate the owners of just the four largest Danish companies is not clear, nor what they expect to accomplish with such a maneuvre, so that part must be taken as wishful thinking.

On your comparisons to US parties: The entire range of Danish politic parties are, from a US POV, hardly distinguishable from each others, and would be regarded by most as ranging from moderate to distinct left-wing. Even our newest liberalist party is in favour of double digit income tax levels, free healthcare, and a public sector taking up more than 30% of the work force. The Tea Partyists would regard them as pure communists.

Anyways, interesting time are surely ahead.

Hans

 

[Ryokan]

Although I consider myself center-right in European politics, I think this is a change for the better for Denmark. Denmark with Venstre at the helm has turned too far too the right, in my opinion. It's time to get back that friendly, open and liberal Denmark we all love..

 

[Virus]

And for US republicans: The party called "Enhedslisten" will probably be a part of a coalition. "Enhedslisten" is a marxist revolutionary party that makes the US Democrats look like the Tea Party movement..

Fun times are ahead in Danish politics.... (or not...)

Why are there still Marxists around?

 

[erlando]

Why are there still Marxists around?

The question is more "Why are marxists able to get 7% of the vote?"...

 

[MRC_Hans]

The question is more "Why are marxists able to get 7% of the vote?"...

Ah, that one is easy. They have a pretty, intelligent, young, blonde female to represent them, and then talk like Social Democrats ^*).

And they will have to keep doing it, if they want to stay on the scene. Otherwise, it's back into the wings, and the last thing they will want is take the blame for bringing the liberal wing back to power, so my guess is they're gonna behave as if they are properly house-broken.

Why there are Marxists? .... Well, I suppose because Marxism seemed such a pretty idea, on paper: Power to the people, have what you need, provide what you can, and all that jazz. You know, it is really the only ideology besides Anarchism that starts with the people. .... Really a pity it turns out to not work in practice.

Hans

*) You know, deep down, nearly all Danes are Social Democrats, but do not confuse that with the Danish political party of the same name.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Although I consider myself center-right in European politics, I think this is a change for the better for Denmark. Denmark with Venstre at the helm has turned too far too the right, in my opinion. It's time to get back that friendly, open and liberal Denmark we all love..

Every Danish government is pulling the society in its preferred direction, because they know that they're not going to stay in power forever. The now former liberal administration sat for 10 years, which is quite long, but they all know that sooner or later, the other side will take over, and pull in the other direction.

But the leeway for course change is narrow, so the in reality, the practical differences are not that big. It will, however, be very nice to have the xenophobes relegated to the opposition, for a change. They have had far too much to say, during the last decade. Just look at the idiotic border control they had as the price for supporting an economic reform.

However, I think the coming administration is quite happy that the others took on the dirty job of challenging the pension rules. Whatever one feels about it, economic experts quite agree that we won't be able to afford the old system for much longer.

Hans

 

[KDLarsen]

I have to admit, it was quite amusing seeing the Social Democrats and the Socialist People's Party celebrate so much, given that the Social Democrats had a terrible election (no gains since 2007 and still the worst result since 1924) and the Socialists actually lost votes. The only reason they're in power is due to Enhedslisten and the Radical Left gaining ground, and the Conservatives being in full-on freefall collapse (with molten steel and therm*te found in the rubble! ).

I'll give the leftwing bloc a year or two before they call it quits. Especially if the rightwing can keep pretending to be on the moral high ground, avoiding deals that include Enhedslisten, and especially if the Conservatives can get off the ground and stop looking like they're basically around to agree with everything Venstre & DF says.

 

[Ryokan]

the Radical Left

Oh, not a very fortunate translation of Radikale Venstre.. I know it's the literal translation, but it makes them sound more like communists than social liberals..

(And yeah, most Americans would now be confused that they're not the same..)

 

[KDLarsen]

Yeah, I know

At least I forgot to translate Venstre, that would have been even worse

 

[MRC_Hans]

Finally, they got a government together, after, no doubt, a prolonged session of camel swallowing, all around. So, as expected, (arbitrarily translating party names into something remotely comprehensive to foreigners), the Cerntral liberalists, who had a bumper elections and have had a lot of weight to swing around, the social democrats, and the moderate socialists, with the hard socialists backing up, but not actually in government.

I predict some hard sailing ahead, but OTOH, nobody is likely to want to be the ones that topple them and put the Tory wing back in power.

Hans

 

[Toke]

I wonder how different it will be, and suspect not enough for my tastes.
(It looks like radikale venstre* is getting way too much influence for their size.)

On a humourus note, the new secretary of the church were pretty close to resigning his membership of the state church. A couple of hardline ex-priests cousins in the opposition are vivid.


*Cerntral liberalists

 

[Ryokan]

Cerntral liberalists

Cerntral liberalists

Funny how you misspell the same word the same way right after each other..

Anyway, the official English name for Radikale Venstre is The Danish Social Liberal Party, or Social Liberals for short. The word liberalist has some connotations that don't fit with social liberals (At least in Norway, liberalist means something close to what the Americans call libertarianism).

 

[Toke]

Funny how you misspell the same word the same way right after each other..

What a coincidence.

Central liberals sounds more accurate to as they are on the centreline in Danish politics.

We have something like a libertarian party (Liberal alliance), also referred to as the political arm of Saxo Bank. The bank is rumored to hand out a copy of Atlas shrugged to all new employees.
They have toned down the nuttiness a bit to avoid being laughed out and actually got good results in the election.

 

[KDLarsen]

In any case, it's going to be amusing to see how HTS is going to keep the Unity List (aka the Communists) pleased, while at the same time not doing anything to offend the Social Liberals.

Then again, I suppose she only has to pull out the "scare card" that is Danish People's Party...

 

[Toke]

In any case, it's going to be amusing to see how HTS is going to keep the Unity List (aka the Communists) pleased, while at the same time not doing anything to offend the Social Liberals.

Then again, I suppose she only has to pull out the "scare card" that is Danish People's Party...

Maybe, I just don't trust them not to defect.
For all I know there will be one ultimatum after another until she gets fed up and write out another election.

 

[KDLarsen]

Social Liberals defecting? Where to? The Conservative implosion means that a centre-right majority without DF (which I can imagine the Social Liberals will demand) is impossible. And that'd require Liberal Alliance to play along with the Social Liberals, which I can imagine would be an even bigger headache.