Far-right Danish party to be dissolved after 5 years in parliament
The far-right Danish political party Nye Borgerlige is to be dissolved, its leader Pernille Vermund said on Wednesday.
In a post on Facebook, Vermund said that she would recommend the party’s dissolution to its executive committee, and that the committee would follow that recommendation.
“When we founded Nye Borgerlige eight years ago, there were four right-wing parties. Today there are seven. And with two active seats in parliament, we risk not only working ourselves into the ground but also being the ones who could trip up [prevent, ed.] a right-wing majority and thereby a right-wing prime minister,” she wrote.
The party, which promotes libertarian, EU-sceptic and anti-immigration ideals, has appeared in freefall since the November 2022 general election, where it gained 3.7 percent of the vote.
In 2023, Vermund resigned as leader to be replaced by Lars Boje Mathiesen, who was subsequently removed from the position and excluded from the party after an apparent dispute over pay demands.
The leadership change resulted in MP Mikkel Bjørn, the leader of parliament’s citizenship committee, defecting to the national conservative Danish People’s Party, citing differences with Mathiesen. Leading members of the party’s youth group joined Bjørn in leaving in protest at Mathiesen’s leadership. Vermund then returned as leader.
Another senior party member, MP Mette Thiesen, quit the party days after the 2022 general election, and also eventually joined the Danish People’s Party.
Local politician Henriette Ergemann was chosen as new deputy leader under Mathiesen but was forced to step down after less than two weeks when media revealed she had espoused conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine on social media. Ergemann is no longer a member of the party.
The various fallouts reduced Nye Borgerlige from six to three members of parliament, with one of the remaining three, Peter Seier Christensen, on long-term sick leave.
Vermund said she would continue in Danish politics and encouraged existing members of Nye Borgerlige, including locally elected officials, to find new parties.
“I'm not done with politics, so it's certainly not unthinkable,” she told news wire Ritzau with regard to her own prospects of joining another party.
She is “yet to consider” which party that would be, she said.
Nye Borgerlige first entered parliament at the 2019 election after being founded by Vermund and Christensen in 2016.
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In a post on Facebook, Vermund said that she would recommend the party’s dissolution to its executive committee, and that the committee would follow that recommendation.
“When we founded Nye Borgerlige eight years ago, there were four right-wing parties. Today there are seven. And with two active seats in parliament, we risk not only working ourselves into the ground but also being the ones who could trip up [prevent, ed.] a right-wing majority and thereby a right-wing prime minister,” she wrote.
The party, which promotes libertarian, EU-sceptic and anti-immigration ideals, has appeared in freefall since the November 2022 general election, where it gained 3.7 percent of the vote.
In 2023, Vermund resigned as leader to be replaced by Lars Boje Mathiesen, who was subsequently removed from the position and excluded from the party after an apparent dispute over pay demands.
The leadership change resulted in MP Mikkel Bjørn, the leader of parliament’s citizenship committee, defecting to the national conservative Danish People’s Party, citing differences with Mathiesen. Leading members of the party’s youth group joined Bjørn in leaving in protest at Mathiesen’s leadership. Vermund then returned as leader.
Another senior party member, MP Mette Thiesen, quit the party days after the 2022 general election, and also eventually joined the Danish People’s Party.
Local politician Henriette Ergemann was chosen as new deputy leader under Mathiesen but was forced to step down after less than two weeks when media revealed she had espoused conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine on social media. Ergemann is no longer a member of the party.
The various fallouts reduced Nye Borgerlige from six to three members of parliament, with one of the remaining three, Peter Seier Christensen, on long-term sick leave.
Vermund said she would continue in Danish politics and encouraged existing members of Nye Borgerlige, including locally elected officials, to find new parties.
“I'm not done with politics, so it's certainly not unthinkable,” she told news wire Ritzau with regard to her own prospects of joining another party.
She is “yet to consider” which party that would be, she said.
Nye Borgerlige first entered parliament at the 2019 election after being founded by Vermund and Christensen in 2016.
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