The election shock only came at twelve minutes past one last night. The very last counted polling station in Copenhagen changed the picture: Suddenly the red bloc could collect 90 mandates and a mathematical majority in the Folketing. Mette Fredriksen wiped a tear from her left eye. She looked beyond the election vigil. She said “Dear Denmark”. Then the stomping and shouting took over before she could start the acceptance speech script. The message of an intact majority, invitation to broad cooperation, the reminder that reality awaits after the election campaign had to wait a few seconds. The evening was hours into overtime anyway. We are the only people’s party, said Mette Frederiksen to the Social Democratic Party’s election vigil last night. Photo: Sergei Grits / AP What a revenge for a prime minister who was pressured to call an election. After being reviled, scandalized and threatened with censure. The Social Democrats proceed from a position and make their best choice in over 20 years. The party is gaining ground in the cities after a disappointing municipal election in 2019. Nevertheless, she wants a cross-block government. She won on election night, now she has to win the formation of the government. It can be at least as demanding. Friends or enemies? Behind margins, shock results, new parties and a changed landscape hides a strange but understandable shared destiny between the two who got their big revenge this election night: Mette Frederiksen and Lars Løkke Rasmussen. The great, old Social Democracy may need a five-month-old party founded by a former prime minister from their fiercest opponent the Liberals. So she held out a hand to him. Power player, comeback kid and Denmark’s previous blue Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen can gain more power by pointing to an old main opponent. When he was overlooked by his old party for looking over the middle, he started a new one. The two may simply find each other in common need: the Social Democrats have already left the red bloc in immigration policy. They will more easily get support for comprehensive reforms if they do not have to agree with wing parties on the far left. Frederiksen’s old support party Radikale, threatened with censure and forced her to write the election. It takes more than a smørrebrød to save domestic peace on the red block. It is therefore understandable that the Social Democrats are reaching out. Across the middle. The two major bourgeois parties Venstre and Konservative took a few minutes to decline Frederiksen’s invitation. So if Fredriksen is actually serious, only Løkke can help her. Kingmaker and queen rounds The blocs can block reforms, said Lars Løkke Rasmussen when he greeted the election vigil last night. He brings 15 other politicians to the Folketing. Photo: FABIAN BIMMER / Reuters It was successful for Løkke. Although the twelve-to-one shock does not mean that Frederiksen has to talk to him, the situation in Danish politics means that she wants to try. Already during the night’s party leadership round, Løkke said that he would recommend to the queen that Frederiksen should lead the negotiations on a new government foundation. He had emphasized to his own that the Frederiksen government must give up the keys to the offices of power for a short time. – I know for sure that Denmark will have a new government, he said to great applause at his election vigil. It will probably take several rounds and will require more time than usual before the final government is ready. The political tug of war will be greater than usual. More is at stake, and there are different paths to power that can be pitted against each other in the negotiations between the parties. Løkke will play his cards smart and hardly choose the shortest route to the goal. The landscape and the building blocks The political landscape has changed. Building power that lasts and can contribute to major reforms will be demanding. The migration of voters between parties and between blocs is significantly greater than usual in Denmark. Danish voters are more fragmented than ever. Photo: Matt Rourke / Ap A political system with two distinct blocs has suddenly gained a centrist party in the Moderates. There are a record 12 parties in the National Assembly. The Social Democrats are more than twice the size of the largest bourgeois party. The left is almost halved. The third (Moderates) and fifth (Danmarksdemokratene) largest parties did not exist a year ago. Both formed by former government members and leading figures in the Liberal Party. The Danish People’s Party won the election in 2015 with over 20 percent. Now they barely managed the blocking limit of 2 percent. The Conservatives clashed with the Liberals to become the biggest on the bourgeois side this summer. Søren Pape Paulsen’s party suffered a puncture in the election campaign and is half-way in a month. The Radicals, who most of all forced the general election right now, were more than halved. In the section “Everything is possible”, it should also be mentioned that the Blue Block is courting the Radicals. Then the red block’s majority breaks. This probably rather underpins why Frederiksen looks over the middle, rather than making a blue prime minister likely. Reforms The crisis in the healthcare system was the big issue of the election campaign. It cries out for comprehensive reforms. Significant and lasting changes in the organization and financing of the healthcare system are demanding to ensure. Reforms of the tax system, labor market and education system to adapt the development of the welfare state will demand a lot from Danish politicians. Immigration policy, climate policy and the view on the pension system are also breaking the blocks. One might think that the wings have gained too much influence in a highly fragmented party system. This increases the understanding that bringing politics closer to the center is something both red-Frederiksen and traditionally blue-Løkke will try. Something needs to be rebuilt. The blocks must be moved. But the user manual is not included.
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A political Legoland – Speech
