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What is ex-Danish PM Rasmussen trying to achieve with new party on ballots?

A new party created by ex-Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has been approved to run in elections after meeting legal obligations. What is Rasmussen, a wily and experienced political strategist, trying to achieve with his new Moderate party?

Published: 15 September 2021 15:31 CEST
What is ex-Danish PM Rasmussen trying to achieve with new party on ballots?
The Moderate party can now run for election in Denmark, but founder and former PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen is still playing his cards close to his chest. Photo: Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix

The Moderates were set up by Rasmussen in May this year after the erstwhile prime minister left his traditional party, the Liberals, at the beginning of 2021.

Rasmussen’s new party on Wednesday gained the 20,182 so-called citizens’ nominations (vælgererkæringer) required to be rubber-stamped for inclusion on election ballots.

But the party has, at the time of writing, no published election platform and no candidates apart from Rasmussen himself.

“First and foremost, I’m grateful that so many Danes want to give this political project a chance,” Rasmussen told news wire Ritzau.

The former Liberal party leader described fulfilment of the electoral criteria a “milestone” for his new political project.

But he also refrains from calling the Moderates a fully-fledged “party”, for now at least.

OPINION: Why do the names of Danish political parties have to be so confusing?

Neither does he plan to reveal a party programme or list of Moderate candidates until after November’s upcoming municipal elections, even remaining elusive as to whether this will happen before or after the New Year.

“We are not a party. Neither did we become one today. We have now passed an important milestone. But when we form a party, and we will do so after the municipal elections, we will be authorised for elections,” he said to Ritzau.

He will not demand that candidates for the new party have political backgrounds, he said.

After leaving the Liberal party on January 1st, Rasmussen announced the formation of a “political network” that project evolved into the under-construction Moderates.

Rasmussen garnered 40,000 personal votes for the Liberals at 2019’s general election.

“I’m not going to state expectations. But our clear ambition is to get into parliament. Ultimately in a way in which forming a government will not be possible without us, without us having a decisive vote,” he said.

“The dream scenario is that what we define as blue [the alliance of parties on Denmark’s right wing, ed.] will not have a majority without looking towards us, and neither would there be a majority the other way around [for left wing parties],” he said.

The former PM also swerved questions as to whether he would back his successor as Liberal leader, Jakon Ellemann-Jensen, or his successor as prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, as candidate to lead a new government.

The Moderates will, according to earlier statements by Rasmussen, attempt to bridge the centre of Danish politics, keeping parties on the far right and left wings away from influence.

Should they attain any degree of success in that regard, the former government leader could return with a significant impact on front line politics in Denmark.

ANALYSIS: Why are Denmark’s politicians criticising university researchers?

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SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

EXPLAINED: How immigration speech has split Denmark’s Social Democrats

A speech about immigration and integration, given by a member of Denmark’s ruling Social Democrats in parliament, has caused an uproar among local party representatives but the party leadership, including Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, is sticking to its guns.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:03 CEST
EXPLAINED: How immigration speech has split Denmark’s Social Democrats

Internal dispute within Denmark’s Social Democrats has gained pace and drawn comments from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, after one of the party’s MPs recently made a divisive speech in parliament.

Frederik Vad, who is the immigration spokesperson with the party, the senior partner in the coalition government, said earlier this month during a speech in parliament that Denmark’s immigration debate had to make an “admission”.

“That is an admission that work, education, a house, participation in associations and a clean criminal record are not enough on their own if you are also using your position to undermine Danish society from within,” Vad said.

“A parallel society is no longer a housing area in [underprivileged area] Ishøj. A could alos be a table at the canteen in a state agency or a pharmacy in [affluent] North Zealand,” he said, using the term used to refer to areas of the country subject to special integration laws.

To qualify as ‘parallel societies’, housing areas must have a population of more than 1,000 people, of which more than half are of “non-Western” origin, and must fulfil two of four criteria. For areas with fewer than 50 percent ‘non-Western’ populations, another term – ‘vulnerable area’ – is used instead.

The comments have received criticism from local Social Democratic politicians, initially more junior politicians such as town councillors and later gaining momentum with some city mayors speaking out against Vad, as reported by broadcaster DR.

“Frederik Vad is stigmatising a large part of the population that consists of well-educated, well-integrated and active citizens who contribute to Denmark every single day,” Musa Kekec, a Social Democratic member of the municipal council in Ballerup, told DR.

“We do not appreciate it. It is creating a new myth that integration has failed and that it’s no longer good enough to get an education, speak Danish, contribute to society and have a job – more is required,” he said.

Kekec is one of 18 elected local Social Democratic officials to have sent a letter to the party leadership earlier this week, objecting to Vad’s position.

“It’s important for us to show that we disagree with the rhetoric and suspicion being spread on the part of Frederik Vad,” Kekec said.

The internal conflict over the issue between parliamentary and local Social Democratic politicians is unusual in a party known for a culture in which all members loyally stick to the course set out by party leadership.

Merete Amdisen, the mayor of Ishøj – the municipality singled out by Vad in his comments – was the first mayor to publicly reject them, but several others have since added their voices to the dissent.

“I think you should think very carefully when you speak about people who go to work every single day, look after their children, integrate themselves in society and take part in our associations, in fact do everything we want them to, and who we also happen to need on our labour market,” Gladsaxe mayor Trine Græse told DR.

“I was actually offended – not personally, because I’m not in the target group. But when I heard what he said, I thought ‘that’s not a nice thing for him to say’,” she said.

“Christiansborg politicians should use their powerful voices with consideration and respect for others. Generalisations and pointing the finger at citizens with a different ethnic background as potentially dangerous are the wrong way to go,” the mayor of Furesø, Ole Bondo Christensen said.

In comments earlier this week, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said there was “full support” for Vad from the party leadership.

“There is an ongoing immigration debate within the Social Democrats and in Denmark, but the Social Democrats stand firm on the immigration policy that is currently being pursued in Denmark,” the PM told DR.

“I do not see any stigmatising comments from Frederik. I think he does a good job of pointing out that — of course — you cannot speak generally about everyone. On the contrary, many [immigrants] are doing very well. But those who, for example, commit crime, violence, or are members of [Islamist organisation] Hizb ut-Tahrir, are against our democracy. That is a lack of integration and we must then be able to discuss it,” she said.

Vad has not presented any data to support the claim that people of non-Western immigrant backgrounds with high levels of education and employment are involved in activities of the kind described by Frederiksen.

The junior Social Democratic MP defended his comments by saying they were not a deviation from the existing party line.

“That line is that we have a few problems in some pockets of our society with some people who are educated, have a job and a clean criminal record, yet bring some values ​​with them to work which are problematic,” he said to DR.

“It makes me sad if there are people in the party who think I said something wrong. Personally, I don’t think I have. I made a nuanced statement,” he said.

“People who make an effort, work their socks off, and integrate [into society] with their children should receive nothing but respect and equality,” he said.

“But the people who insist on bringing a culture of honour to work, or who don’t think you need to subscribe to women’s freedom and equality to be part of this society, should see nothing but a hammer falling,” he said.

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