Aslaug's Axe Shed

Well well…Denmark has entered that special kind of frantic mindset that comes with an upcoming, general election.

I for one look forward to this chance to oust our present government, although the chances of doing so are up in the air. But even sending them a clear message that the public is getting tired of them would be nice, and this will happen even if they win again…but lose a lot of mandates.

The Danish parliamentary assembly is called ‘Folketinget’. ‘The ting of the people’, in translation. The word ‘ting’ is ancient in origin, having been used as the term for a legislative assembly as far back as the viking ages. It’s possibly older than that. In ancient times, every freeborn man had a right to vote at a ting, and while freeborn women did not have this right, they at least had a right to speak their mind there. It was the first democracy that the world had seen since the collapse of the Greek city states, and it was so thorough that even Kings of Scandinavian countries had to be elected at the ting. It was not a hereditary title, although the ones elected often -were- the sons of the previous kings. But enough of the history lesson for now. The Folketing consists of 179 seats. Of these, two are allotted to Faroan members of parliament, and two are allotted to members elected in Greenland. Both Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish commonwealth, and despite the scarce population of these two areas, and the fact that they have extensive autonomy and home rule, they are still entitled to representation in the legislative body here in Denmark as well. As it should be. That leaves 175 seats to vote for.

First of all…Denmark is a one-chamber nation. We do not, like the United States, have two chambers in parliament. We used to, but the ‘Landsting’ was abolished in 1953 as it had become an outdated idea. Moreover, the Danish political system varies from for instance that of America in several very important respects. Since I know most of my readership is American, I should probably explain…and since this is my blog, you’re going to have to live with my opinions seeping into this description. Tough break.

Firstly and most importantly, Danes by and large would laugh themselves into an early grave at the notion of a two-party system. Those 175 available seats in parliament are split between eight different political parties. Those eight are also the only ones with a realistic chance to get more than 2 percent of the popular vote, which is what is required to be represented. The reason why the lower limit is indeed so low, is that the general concensus is that even though you are a minority, you have a right to a voice. It helps waste as few votes as possible.

Secondly, as of 1901, Denmark has a system of ‘Parliamentarism’. This, to those of you who are not used to a system of many political parties, means that no government can survive if it has a majority against it.

The truly amazing thing about the governments of Denmark, however, is that despite this system, we have a long and proud history of minority-governments, which survive because because it is backed up by one or more political parties that are not actually part of the government. These are called ‘Support-parties’ and they support the government in return for some of their policies being implemented as well.

This is a good system in my opinion, as it means that most governments are forced to constantly strive towards making legislation that benefits the most possible people. This was, at one time, called ‘The Danish Model’, and simply meant that broad compromises, that would benefit as many people as anyway possible, was desirable and good.

Then came our current government, but I will get back to that.

First, let me briefly run down the eight parties currently represented in the Folketing.

I’ll do this in no particular order, mind you.
First, we have ‘Enhedslisten’. Translated their name means ‘the Unity List’. This rather strange name covers a conglomerate of old ultra-left wing parties. Various communist parties and other leftovers from the sixties who had no realistic chance of getting elected once the spirit of Woodstock died out and even the working class had access to consumer goods, banded together in 1989. They are currently represented by 6 members in parliament, and are the self-procclaimed conscience of the parliament…a title they are not alone about laying claim to, I might add. They tirelessly speak their mind and a generally considered too radical to take completely seriously. Their influence is absolutely minimal. They have chosen to run a young woman by the name Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, of Palestinian origins, as one of their possible electees at this general election. While I support the idea of ethnic minorities getting elected, Asmaa made a splash by making religiously based statements about homosexuals (Enhedslisten is a professed atheistic party, mind you), and saying that insurgents in Iraq were justified in shooting Danish soldiers, as they were carrying out a legitimate resistance war to an illegal occupier. As a result, Enhedslisten is currently floundering around 1 percent in the opinion polls and stand to lose all their members of parliament. When asked why they have left, former voters and members of the party have almost unanimously stated that they are humanists, and that Asmaa’s views are not in synch with their political beliefs. Enhedslisten supports the social democratic leader, Mrs. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, in her bid for the post as minister of state. While they don’t like her, officially, thinking she’s too right-wing…they like her better than the liberals. So…as the lesser of two evils…
Next is ‘Ny Alliance’, meaning ‘New Alliance’. This name should be taken for what it is, although I do wonder if they’ll still call themselves ‘Ny’ (new) in fifty years time…should they still exist. Ny Alliance was formed during this past, parliamentary period, when Syrian born Nasser Khader broke out from his former party, creating a new one. This meant that Ny Alliance got members of parliament overnight, without having actually had anyone vote for them yet. This is because in Denmark, people who are elected onto parliament are considered to have the support of the voters…not the political parties they represent. They are therefore free to swap parties, although doing so generally means political suicide. However, in the case of Nasser Khader, this is not true. He seems to be thriving, as is his new party. It is a center-right party, which believes in ‘flat taxation’ and humane treatment of immigrants and refugees amongst other things. It should be said that while I disagree with Mr. Khader politically, I consider him one of the greatest and most purebred democrats on Parliament at this time. He’s got a better understanding of what true democracy means than almost anyone else currently there, he’s written some quite eloquent books about it and he is personally popular for the fact that he, as a practicing muslim, stood up in defense of freedom of speech during the Muhammed-crisis in the spring of 2006 (some might remember…the whole mess about 12 drawings of the prophet Muhammed). He received massive death-threats from muslims all over the world, including here in Denmark, and several radical groups have a bounty on Mr. Khader’s head. As I said, I don’t agree with him politically, but I can’t help admire the man’s guts and his steadfastness. Here’s someone who’s willing to lay down his life for Danish democracy…and he wasn’t even born here. That’s class, if anyone asks me. This party looks to have overwhelming influence after the election as they will pretty much decide who becomes our next minister of state if the opinion polls hold. Not that they will get a lot of the votes (about 6 percent or so), but because the two main candidates can’t muster enough support without this party, they look to get a lot of influence indeed. At the moment it seems more likely that they will support the liberals, and thereby ensure that the current government can continue, but this may be too problematic a road as I will explain later.
Next we have ‘Det radikale venstre’. Oddly enough, this means ‘the radical left’…but this is a center party. Sometimes center-left, sometimes center-right. They are usually portrayed humerously in the media as the person who doesn’t know what hand to raise. This isn’t entirely true. They are a very old political party, originally formed in 1905, from a splintergroup that had broken out of the party ‘Venstre’ (left) ten years earlier. They are social-liberal in their political line and they have traditionally supported strong education, environmental issues and a meek foreign policy. They are supporting the social democrats when it comes to the post of minister of state, and should the social democrats get enough support to form a government, they will become part of the next government.

Next, we have “Det Konservative Folkeparti”, or the Conservative People’s Party. To imagine a conservative party ‘for the people’ is probably hilarious to most non-Danes, but that’s what they try to be. This party has a very long and rich history, originally being known as ‘H?¸jre’ (Right), but changing their name in 1915. They have held the position of Minister of State only once, with Poul Schl??ter, but his government fell after a tremendous political scandal in 1993. The minister of justice was tried at a ‘rigsret’ (the same as an impeachment in the United States) and found guilty of deliberately delaying the applications for political asylum by a large number of Tamils from Sri Lanka, which ultimately led to the death of several of these people’s families. Since then, the Conservatives have struggled desperately to regain their former popularity. They were a huge party in the 1980s, the largest right wing party in Denmark in fact…and nowadays they are wobbling around with 8-9 percent of the popular vote. Internal strife and a number of ineffective leaders have not helped their cause. They are currently the junior member of government, with the liberals being the bigger party of the two, but while they have some of the most popular individual ministers in government, they are unable to make themselves heard by and large, and the demand for their current leader, Bendt Bentsen, to step down and make room for a change of the guard, is increasing. If they lose mandates in the upcoming election, I expect them to elect a new, younger leader very quickly. Political developments in Denmark in recent years have led to the bizarre situation that on certain key issues, the Conservatives are less right-wing oriented than the Liberals…but at least not overall. They support the Liberal leader, current minister of state, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in his bid for a third term in office.

Next we have ‘Venstre’ (Left). They are the Liberals, but as opposed to the United States where the term ‘liberal’ has become synonymous with ‘bleeding heart pseudo-socialist’, Europeans still see Liberalism as a right-wing political system, as originally conceived by John Stuart Mill. However, I often think that poor ol’e Mill would do summersaults in his grave if he knew what these guys were doing with his ideals. John Stuart Mill advocated that everyone must be free to pursue happiness, BUT NEVER at the expense of the weak in society. That the strong had an unquestionable, absolute moral obligation to ensure that those who were not the few, the bright and the rich were taken good care of and that they too had the opportunity to make good lives for themselves. This seems to be lost on the Liberals today. The more populist they can get, the better it seems. I will grant them that the Danish state finances haven’t looked this good in fifty years. But it is also generally understood that the basis for this was laid under the PREVIOUS government…which was led by the social democrats. Unemployment is very low, and this, at least, is largely the doing of the current government. I won’t deny that. However, their treatment of issues that are close to my heart is horrifying. These people more or less demolished the environmental ministry, leaving it a shadow of its former self, then hired an expert, Bj?¸rn Lomborg (formerly on Forbes’ 100 most powerful people in the world-list), to tell everyone that the world had no environmental problems at all. That the polar icecaps are not melting, that the ozone-hole over Antarctica is a myth and that consumerism doesn’t hurt the world whatsoever. This became so unpopular as the evidence against this claim rose, that they eventually had to fire him again and grudgingly admit that maybe we do have a responsibility not to wreck the planet for the coming generations. They deny people who are obviously in extreme need of political asylum this right. At the moment, 500 Iraqi refugees are the centerpiece of a major dispute in Denmark because they have been rejected for asylum, but refuse to leave. Roughly half of these people are confirmed members of Christian minorities in areas of Iraq where the Mehdi militia are in complete control of law and order. If these people are sent home, they’ll be dead within a week. But according to our government, Iraq is a perfectly safe country to return to, no one is ever killed there and naturally we can’t protect these people just because they know their ‘our father’. At the same time, 200 Iraqi translators and office-clerks who had helped the Danish forces in Basra were evacuated earlier this year, along with their families, to protect them against repurcussions from the locals. But no one is killed in Iraq these days. No further comment. The Liberals support their leader, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in his bid for staying in power.

Next we have Socialdemokratiet (The Social Democracy). They are, by now, a center-left party and look to once more capturing the throne as largest political party in Denmark from the liberals who had taken that lead at the last two elections. The Social Democrats are led by Mrs. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is the first woman to make a bid for the post as minister of state in this country. She was critizised when taking over, for being completely untested in Danish politics (she had previously held a seat in Brussels, in the European Parliament, but never in the Folketing), but she has managed to quiet her critics. Probably the most talented debater in Danish politics at the moment, even the current Minister of state who has previously been considered nearly unbeatable in political debates, is unwilling to debate openly with this woman because she floors him every damned time. She is a modern social democrat, meaning she does not believe in state-run companies and the likes, but she has a very strong social conscience. Education, environment, health-care, caring for the old and infirm and working conditions are all key issues to this party. They are also traditionally on the side of the employees, rather than the employers, and the unions have traditionally supported the social democrats, although in recent years that support has waned somewhat. The Social Democrats are looking to get a very good election, regaining some of their former strength (if not all of it) and seriously challenging the current governments position, hoping to put their own leader in the position of minister of state, and reclaiming government power.

Second to last, we have Socialistisk Folkeparti (the socialist people’s party). This party, sounding like it comes out of an old Warsaw-block country, was actually a splinter from the old communist party. It was formed in 1958, because the founder was opposed to violent revolution and vehemently opposed to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Since then, the party has mellowed a lot more, and today they are a very serious political party. When asked, recently, who he would vote for if he absolutely HAD to vote for a left-wing personality, the current minister of state pointed to the leader of this party, stating that he was one of the most dedicated politicians out there, a genuinely nice fellow and an idealist. This nice, likable idealist is named Villy S?¸vndal, and he took over as leader during this past session of parliament. He has since made an incredible impact, and Socialistisk Folkeparti looks to be the biggest winner of this election, almost doubling their popular support from 6.5 to 12.4 percent of the popular vote, making them the third biggest party in Parliament if this holds. They support the social democrats when it comes to political leadership, but have stated that they wish to be part of government. If this is possible remains to be seen, but they have more weight in this demand than for the past 30 years. They are in favor of a complete seperation of church and state, very strong environmental legislation, humane treatment of political or religious refugees, very strong education system with better support for students who wish to take university degrees, free healthcare on all levels, for everyone, good and inexpensive child-care and decency in old age. They are also, it should be added, in favor of a more independent foreign policy, where Denmark doesn’t wag its tail every time some great power pops up, waving a baton around. These guys have gotten my vote since I started voting and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.

Lastly…and by GODS I wish they would be last come election day as well…we have Dansk Folkeparti (the Danish People’s party). Can you see the trend of ‘Folkepartier’ yet, guys? Well, in this case, the ‘Dansk’ (Danish) part should be taken quite, quite literally. These are the people I term ultranationalists. Be blonde, blue-eyed, speak perfect Danish, have a Danish name and all-Danish values…or you are a bloody wob who deserves only to be ridiculed or kicked out. These guys will sue the pants off anyone calling them racists, yet their parliamentarians will gladly stand up, making such statements as “all Muslim societies are societies of losers” and the likes. Their party program consists of speaking to the lowest, common denominator, making people fear anything that isn’t Danish, presenting all foreigners who do not conform to their ideals of the ‘right kind of people’ as deeply suspect. Generally ‘the right kind of people’ includes Scandinavians, Americans, most nothern Europeans (provided they are protestants) and heterosexuals. This party represents everything that is loathesome in human nature, by deliberately fostering fear and xenophobia, and deliberately making integration of immigrants almost impossible. They back the current government, as a support party, and will support Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a bid to continue as minister of state. Whether they will demand to become a part of government is up in the air. They might, but the conservatives are strongly opposed to that idea.  The day these people are voted out of parliament, I swear I will feast and celebrate for a week. Their parliamentarians include former members of ultra-right wing organizations who support Neo-Nazi groups, and though they have all officially distanced themselves from such things, at least one of them still speaks at rallies for these organizations. They are a chilling, -dangerous- bunch of people in my opinion.

Now for the big problem…

At this time, neither side can muster enough votes to have a parliamentary majority supporting them. The left side, led by the social democrats, are gaining on the right side, led by the liberals, but almost certainly, neither side can muster a majority, without the MPs of Ny Alliance, come November 13th (election day). As mentioned, Ny Alliance is most likely to support the current minister of state but there is a big, big problem there…

This means that Ny Alliance and Dansk Folkeparti will be the supporting parties…and they can’t agree on much, to put it mildly. The fact alone that Ny Alliance has a Syrian-born leader is a severe thorn in the eye of most of Dansk Folkeparti’s voters, and while the parliamentarians could probably look past that (Nasser Khader is pretty much the ultimate proof that one does not have to be Danish born to be a democratic, well functioning member of society), the political programs of these two parties are often in direct opposition. This would mean that in order to gain the support of both parties, the Liberals and Conservatives who are currently making up the government, has to mix apples and oranges. They have to literally balance diametrically opposite political parties and most political commentators expect that if this is the case, we will have a new general election in less than a year. Probably in about six months. Such elections NEVER go well for the incumbents, since people feel they are ineffective if they can’t last longer than that.

The point is that Denmark is looking at one of its strangest elections since WWII at the moment. It may also be one of the most defining, since a stable government, which can last a full, 4-year term or at least close to it, will be responsible for making the decision on whether to put either put the EU-Constitution up for a popular referendum or not. Danes are notoriously EU-sceptic, and we do not blindly say yes to everything coming out of Brussels. The Constitution smacks a lot of loss of sovereignty and many, many danes want the referendum to be able to say no. At the moment, a very solid majority wants this referendum…but neither the liberals/conservatives, nor the social democrats/radical left constellation want to do this. They are all in favor of EU and fear that another Danish no will mean we get kicked out of EU altogether, or at least that we are relegated to a position of no influence whatsoever. Many Danes already feel we have no influence whatsoever and that we just wag our tails and nod happily whenever the Commissars in Brussels start sprouting their infinite wisdom (hear the irony, folks).

Personally…I believe the current government will continue for one more period…and then people will be so fed up by them that they’ll go out with a bang. The problem for them is, that Danes are strongly opposed, as a nation, to the notion of inequality and the ‘privilege of the few’. However, the one statistic that they can’t outrun is that during their two terms in office, the number of Danes living in poverty has almost doubled, and the number of homeless has trippled. A member of the conservative party made a complete ass of herself by stating, to the media, that increased inequality in society was a boon and blessing, because it meant some people were doing really well for themselves. She said this while brushing down her million-kroner race-horse in front of the cameras. That was a -severe- blow to government popularity, because what she, and others in her party, fail to understand is that no Dane will deny anyone a good life they’ve earned and worked for…but that inequality in society doesn’t NECESSARILY mean that ‘some people are doing really well for themselves’. It can ALSO mean that some people are doing really POORLY for themselves. And since the numbers clearly state that this is what is happening, people are starting to grumble in the corners.

Denmark is a wellfare state. We are very proud of this fact, and apart from a select few young ultra-liberals who scream against the wind for a state where wellfare is a banned word, and where one either makes a fortune for oneself or lives in the gutters, no one would dream of abolishing this system. So this election is about whether we want to maintain a high standard of wellfare for everyone, or whether we want tax-cuts. The government claims we can do both, saying we can ‘get more for less’. It’s a catchy slogan, but the media is filled with stories every day of old people who can only get a bath once a week because their helpers are dictated by a stop-watch, saying they have exactly so many minutes and so many seconds to help each individual every day. There are stories of families where the parents have to pick clothes out of dumbsters for their children, and where buying a birthday present or a Christmas present is completely unthinkable, since food has to take priority. This is a SHAMEFUL situation in a society as rich as ours, and these stories are increasing in frequency.

We have the wealth to ensure that this does not endure. The current government, however, does not have the political will to ensure it. They claim to have, but their actions have proved otherwise so far. Fine words don’t make politics. Decisions and action does.

I for one hope for a change, before this country loses any claim to moral integrity.