Denmark elects: The political news from the final week of the election campaign
Danes go to the votes in just one day -- on November 1st -- to choose their government for the next four years, but the outcome of the election is becoming increasingly hard to predict. These are the political talking points from the final week of campaigning.
If you want to read about the first three weeks of campaigning since Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the election at the beginning of this month, click here first, then here. Then here.
An opinion piece published by newspaper Dagbladet Information elicited a furious response from Pernille Skipper, the former political leader with the Red Green Alliance.
Information’s columnist Lasse Ellegaard wrote that the left-wing party was “cynical in its consistent choice of pretty young women as their public-facing leaders”.
In response, Skipper told Ellegaard to “piss off” (a rough translation from the Danish rend mig).
“That there, by chance, has been three women consecutively at the front for the Red Green Alliance is not a strategy or something we achieved because of our gender. If anything, it’s despite that,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
“Because far too many people, like you, still think that if it’s not a white middle-aged man in charge, then it’s not because of their abilities,” she wrote.
Ellegaard later apologised for the comment in an interview with TV2.
The Moderate party, led by former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, continues to poll around 10 percent.
This would give the party a far higher number of seats than it was expected to gain at the outset of the election campaign, and place Rasmussen in a potentially strong position to bargain with each of the two opposing ‘blocs’, to the extent that he could have the decisive say in who takes power after the election.
It’s not been all plain sailing for the Moderates this week. An interview with media Altinget about his party’s plan for pensions appeared to backfire on Rasmussen. The Moderates want to phase out the state folkepension and replace it with a contributions-based pension system in the long-term, according to their published manifesto.
After Rasmussen was pushed on the issue by Altinget, other parties lined up to criticise the policy. The Moderates said they were being misrepresented and that their plan would not take the state pension away from anyone who already receives it.
State pensions would not be affected for the first 20-30 years after the phased-in plan was adopted, Rasmussen told Altinget.
The Moderates meanwhile presented some climate policies, including a proposed average tax of 80 kroner per passenger on air travel.
The differentiated model proposed by the party would result in a higher average cost to air travellers than a 13 kroner tax proposed by the government.
Rasmussen’s former employers the Liberal (Venstre) Party have announced a policy to increase sentences for rape by a year.
As it stands, convicted rapists in Denmark who knew their victim stand to see two years and six months in prison if there are no further aggravating circumstances. The Liberals on Wednesday said this standard punishment should increase by a year.
“There is still too great a difference between crime and punishment, and we want to try to remedy that,” Liberal legal spokesman Preben Bang Henriksen told broadcaster DR.
Rapists in Denmark who didn’t know their victim receive a standard three-and-a-half-year sentence, while further aggravating circumstances can raise the jail time to eight years. The Liberal party also proposes adding another year for rapes committed by several people or shared on social media.
Social Democratic policies aimed at addressing Denmark’s social and health care labour shortage include making the country a more attractive place to work for foreign professionals, a government minister told The Local on Friday.
The objective of the government policy is to “strengthen recruitment within our public healthcare system, where there’s a huge challenge,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said at a press briefing.
“We would also, in a way, allow more people to come from outside to work as nurses or doctors in our healthcare system,” he said.
That came after the Social Democrats announced a major spending plan aimed at addressing a major labour shortage in public sector professions including health. The government wants to implement the plan if it remains in power after the election.
The government said it would set aside up to three billion kroner for potential health sector pay increases.
READ ALSO: What is in Danish government’s plan for public sector pay?
The Conservative party presented 17 new law and order proposals on Tuesday, including deportation of foreign nationals convicted of reckless driving.
The party also wants more power to legally dissolve criminal gangs and crack down further on gang members by removing their rights to benefits if they are given prison sentences.
Polls suggest the election could be one of the most unpredictable in years, with over a third of voters still unsure whether they want the blue (right-wing) or red (left-wing) bloc of parties to win.
With only a day left before the vote, it’s hard to see who will come out on top – and what the future government will look like.
En stor del af tvivlerne er desuden uafklarede i fht., hvilken blok de hælder til.
Blå blok: 35,3 %
Rød blok: 29,3 %
Uafklaret: 35,4 % https://t.co/H3heK0gHju
— Anna Midtgaard Christensen (@Annamidtgaard) October 30, 2022
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If you want to read about the first three weeks of campaigning since Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the election at the beginning of this month, click here first, then here. Then here.
An opinion piece published by newspaper Dagbladet Information elicited a furious response from Pernille Skipper, the former political leader with the Red Green Alliance.
Information’s columnist Lasse Ellegaard wrote that the left-wing party was “cynical in its consistent choice of pretty young women as their public-facing leaders”.
In response, Skipper told Ellegaard to “piss off” (a rough translation from the Danish rend mig).
“That there, by chance, has been three women consecutively at the front for the Red Green Alliance is not a strategy or something we achieved because of our gender. If anything, it’s despite that,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
“Because far too many people, like you, still think that if it’s not a white middle-aged man in charge, then it’s not because of their abilities,” she wrote.
Ellegaard later apologised for the comment in an interview with TV2.
The Moderate party, led by former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, continues to poll around 10 percent.
This would give the party a far higher number of seats than it was expected to gain at the outset of the election campaign, and place Rasmussen in a potentially strong position to bargain with each of the two opposing ‘blocs’, to the extent that he could have the decisive say in who takes power after the election.
It’s not been all plain sailing for the Moderates this week. An interview with media Altinget about his party’s plan for pensions appeared to backfire on Rasmussen. The Moderates want to phase out the state folkepension and replace it with a contributions-based pension system in the long-term, according to their published manifesto.
After Rasmussen was pushed on the issue by Altinget, other parties lined up to criticise the policy. The Moderates said they were being misrepresented and that their plan would not take the state pension away from anyone who already receives it.
State pensions would not be affected for the first 20-30 years after the phased-in plan was adopted, Rasmussen told Altinget.
The Moderates meanwhile presented some climate policies, including a proposed average tax of 80 kroner per passenger on air travel.
The differentiated model proposed by the party would result in a higher average cost to air travellers than a 13 kroner tax proposed by the government.
Rasmussen’s former employers the Liberal (Venstre) Party have announced a policy to increase sentences for rape by a year.
As it stands, convicted rapists in Denmark who knew their victim stand to see two years and six months in prison if there are no further aggravating circumstances. The Liberals on Wednesday said this standard punishment should increase by a year.
“There is still too great a difference between crime and punishment, and we want to try to remedy that,” Liberal legal spokesman Preben Bang Henriksen told broadcaster DR.
Rapists in Denmark who didn’t know their victim receive a standard three-and-a-half-year sentence, while further aggravating circumstances can raise the jail time to eight years. The Liberal party also proposes adding another year for rapes committed by several people or shared on social media.
Social Democratic policies aimed at addressing Denmark’s social and health care labour shortage include making the country a more attractive place to work for foreign professionals, a government minister told The Local on Friday.
The objective of the government policy is to “strengthen recruitment within our public healthcare system, where there’s a huge challenge,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said at a press briefing.
“We would also, in a way, allow more people to come from outside to work as nurses or doctors in our healthcare system,” he said.
That came after the Social Democrats announced a major spending plan aimed at addressing a major labour shortage in public sector professions including health. The government wants to implement the plan if it remains in power after the election.
The government said it would set aside up to three billion kroner for potential health sector pay increases.
READ ALSO: What is in Danish government’s plan for public sector pay?
The Conservative party presented 17 new law and order proposals on Tuesday, including deportation of foreign nationals convicted of reckless driving.
The party also wants more power to legally dissolve criminal gangs and crack down further on gang members by removing their rights to benefits if they are given prison sentences.
Polls suggest the election could be one of the most unpredictable in years, with over a third of voters still unsure whether they want the blue (right-wing) or red (left-wing) bloc of parties to win.
With only a day left before the vote, it’s hard to see who will come out on top – and what the future government will look like.
En stor del af tvivlerne er desuden uafklarede i fht., hvilken blok de hælder til.
— Anna Midtgaard Christensen (@Annamidtgaard) October 30, 2022
Blå blok: 35,3 %
Rød blok: 29,3 %
Uafklaret: 35,4 % https://t.co/H3heK0gHju
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