Who can become prime minister? There are basically three candidates. Mette Frederiksen from the Social Democrats currently holds the post of prime minister and is seeking re-election. She is challenged, on paper, by two candidates from the right: the Liberal Party’s Jakob Ellemann-Jensen and the Conservative People’s Party’s Søren Pape Poulsen. But it is not the case that those who have not registered as prime minister candidates are out of the game for that reason. For example, Lars Løkke Rasmussen can claim the post of prime minister in negotiations. His party, the Moderates, is in the middle in Danish politics, and they have not announced which prime ministerial candidate they will point to. WAR: The election in Denmark is taking place while the war in Ukraine affects the whole of Europe. Photo: GENYA SAVILOV / AFP In a time of economic crisis and a tense security situation in Europe, as a result of the war in Ukraine, a political earthquake may be brewing in Denmark. Neither the right-wing nor the left-wing bloc looks set to win a majority on its own. Who will demand what in negotiations is open – and can someone change sides politically already on election night? The traditionally large parties seem to be going back, while smaller wing parties seem to be doing well. Voters no longer gather around three or four large parties, but are distributed among 10-12 different parties. Why is Lars Løkke Rasmussen back? NEW PARTY: Former Liberal Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has started a new party – the Moderates. They can have a decisive role in the election. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix Emil Helms / NTB Previously, Lars Løkke Rasmussen led the party Venstre, which for a long time was the largest on the bourgeois side. During the election campaign in 2019, he launched the idea of a government with the Left and the Social Democrats, the Norwegian Labor Party’s sister party. It was poorly received in large parts of the Liberal Party and led to an internal leadership battle. Rasmussen resigned from the chairmanship of the party in August of the same year. Lars Løkke Rasmussen was among the minority in Venstre’s parliamentary group that voted against former immigration minister Inger Støjberg being impeached after the so-called “child marriage case”. When she was more or less kicked out of the party, Lars Løkke Rasmussen also signed up and became a non-member in the Folketinget. In April this year, he announced that he had started a new party, the Moderates, which would be a centrist party. At the beginning, it did not seem that the party would even enter the Norwegian Parliament. But throughout the election campaign, the Moderates’ support has increased. The party is now so large in the opinion polls that there is little indication that any bloc can gain a majority without their mandates. Why are there so many parties in Denmark? There have never been more than this year, fourteen parties. But strictly speaking, there are normally more people standing for parliamentary elections in Norway. The Danish system is nevertheless slightly different. 179: There are 179 seats in the Danish Parliament. Thus, you need 90 mandates in the back to have a majority. Photo: NILS MEILVANG In order to submit a list for the Folketing elections, the party must have been elected to the Folketing at the previous election, or manage to collect enough signatures to become what is called “entitled to stand”. You must have the same number of signatures as 1/175 of all votes cast at the last election. Prior to this election, 20,182 signatures were required in order to run. Then the party and party name can be approved by the Electoral Board. For example, a party like the Christian Democrats has had to collect the necessary signatures before every election since 2007, since they have not been able to get over the barrier. The blocking threshold is 2 per cent, which means that there are not that many votes needed to manage to end up in the Folketing. What will decide the election? It has been an election campaign in which a few issues have received a lot of attention. First and foremost, inflation and people’s private finances have been a topic. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen launched, among other things, a salary package to raise the salary of certain public employees. Other parties, especially on the bourgeois side, have talked more about tax relief for individuals. POSTERS: The election posters have characterized all of Denmark in recent weeks. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP Another topic that has come up is the lack of manpower, especially in the healthcare sector. Lars Løkke Rasmussen and the Moderates demand reforms in this area. The Social Democrats have pointed out that they want reforms in the labor market and in schools. Which issue will ultimately be most important to the voters, you won’t know for sure until the election is over. Who has had the best and worst election campaign? It is often difficult to choose the “winner of the election campaign”, but if you look at the opinion polls, the Liberal Alliance seems to be doing much better than it appeared at the start of the election campaign. Alex Vanoplagh, who is chairman of the party, has also had great success on social media. In several surveys, the party is also the largest among young voters (under 30). WINNERS AND LOSERS: The Liberal Alliance and Alex Vanoplagh (left) have succeeded in reaching out on social media and are popular, particularly among young voters. Søren Pape Poulsen must realize that the prime minister’s office is failing this time. Photo: PHILIP DAVALI / AFP On the opposite side of the scale are the Conservative People’s Party and Søren Pape Poulsen. This summer, his party was likely to become the largest on the bourgeois side. He signed up as a candidate for prime minister. But after that it didn’t go particularly well. Part of the reason may be an extensive series of articles in Ekstra Bladet. The newspaper reported, among other things, that his current ex-husband had lied about both family relations with the president of the Dominican Republic and that he had a Jewish background. Ekstra Bladet also wrote articles about Poulsen allegedly breaking corona rules during trips to her husband’s home country, and having meetings with politicians there without informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Four of the cases the newspaper has had to admit contained errors. But the prime ministerial dream of Søren Pape Poulsen appears to be crushed before the election is even carried out. Who is Jakob Ellemann-Jensen? OFFICER AND GENTLEMAN: Jakob Ellemann-Jensen got politics into his life as a child. Now he is trying what his father could never do. Photo: SCANPIX DENMARK / Reuters Jakob Ellemann-Jensen is leader of the party Venstre. As in Norway, it is a bourgeois party. Originally it was also a typical party for Danish farmers. Jakob Ellemann-Jensen became chairman of the Liberal Party when Lars Løkke Rasmussen resigned from the post after the election defeat in 2019. He had very little time to run in politics before that, and has actually marketed himself as a candidate for prime minister who has a career other than just politics. He is a trained business lawyer and officer, and served in Bosnia during the Balkan war, among other things. The party is hurt after losing its two biggest vote-getters in Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Inger Støjberg, but looks set to become the biggest bourgeois party – even if they will make a historically bad choice. Jakob Ellemann-Jensen is also the son of former foreign minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, also from the Liberal Party, who was one poor Faroese mandate away from becoming prime minister in Denmark in 1998. What do Greenland and the Faroe Islands have to do with the election? Denmark is Denmark. But “Det Danske Rigsfællesskab” is something else. It also includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands. They have their own parliaments, but after the constitution was last amended in 1953, they also have a total of four seats in the Folketing – two each. VOTED YESTERDAY: Sjurdur Skaale, who sits in the Folketing for the Social Democrats in Javnadarflokkurin, voted on 31 October. The Faroe Islands carried out the election one day earlier, since 1 November is an official day of mourning in the Faroe Islands in memory of those who have lost their lives at sea. Photo: ALVUR HARALDSEN / AFP They don’t normally make a big deal out of themselves in the Folketingsalen (but you can get to know the man in the picture in Søndagsrevyen better here). Of course, their votes count as much as anyone else’s. It has happened that they have had the opportunity to tilt the majority in Denmark. As mentioned, it happened in 1998, when a Faroese mandate changed sides and tipped Uffe Ellemann-Jensen out of the winning position. The election in the Faroe Islands is already over, and what has been common in recent years is also happening now: They send one red and one blue mandate. When will Denmark get a new government? What happens after the election is the really big question. Many experts believe that it may take some time before Denmark has a new government. To put the first thing first: Theoretically, Mette Frederiksen can stay in office, if she believes that she has a parliamentary basis for it. If she is not defeated by a vote of no confidence, then the case is fine. Then she and her government can continue. QUEEN AROUNDS: Queen Margrethe II is central when a new government is to be formed. Constitutionally, at least. Photo: Niels Hougaard / Ap What is somewhat more typical after an election in which many representatives are replaced, however, is to carry out a “queen round”. Queen Margrethe then talks to the various party leaders and nominates the one she believes has the broadest support in the Folketing to become “royal investigator”. Then the negotiations and attempts to find a basis for government that is supported by the majority begin. It may take several queen rounds before a government is ready. And there is no set deadline for the negotiations either. When a royal examiner thinks he has a majority behind his government, he can put on the Prime Minister’s hat and call the people he or she wants into the government. Sources: folketinget.dk, dr.dk and berlingske.dk
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Eight questions and answers about the Danish election – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
