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Danish government loses majority as MP defects to right-wing party

Member of parliament Mads Fuglede on Tuesday announced a switch from the Liberal (Venstre) party to the national conservative Denmark Democrats, leaving the coalition government without a clear majority to pass domestic policy.

Published: 19 March 2024 16:46 CET
Danish government loses majority as MP defects to right-wing party
Danmarksdemokraternes pressemøde tirsdag den 19. marts 2024. Danmarksdemokraterne styrkes med V-profilen Mads Fuglede og løsgænger Kim Edberg.

Fuglede’s decision to switch parties means that the coalition government currently does not have a majority to guarantee it can pass domestic policy.

The now ex-Liberal MP announced in a statement posted on Facebook on Tuesday that he was switching to the Denmark Democrats, a party further to the right led by another former Liberal politician, the former immigration minister Inger Støjberg.

Fuglede said that he was against the centre-right Liberal party’s involvement in the coalition government alongside its traditional rivals the Social Democrats.

He also said that he was against the proposed tax on agricultural CO2 emissions, which is backed by the Liberals, a historically pro-agriculture party, as part of the coalition. The Denmark Democrats have been the most vocal opponents of the proposed CO2 tax.

“I was very much against participation in the government and many of the decisions that arose from it. I totally disagree with the latest decision to impose a CO2 tax on agriculture. And that decision will hit harder in West Jutland than anywhere else, which is why I am switching to the Denmark Democrats,” he wrote in the post, referencing the regional constituency which elected him to parliament in 2019.

Fuglede, a former Liberal defence spokesperson, has been considered one of the party’s more right-leaning MPs, notably on refugee policy. His new party leader, Støjberg, made her name as an immigration hardliner when she was a Liberal minister.

When the Liberals were in opposition in 2022, Fuglede spoke in favour of British nationals in Denmark whose ongoing residency rights were under threat as a result of administrative problems in relation to post-Brexit registrations.

The leader of the Liberal party and Deputy Prime Minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said he did not believe Fuglede’s defection put the government under existential threat.

“I think we now need some ice in our veins. First and foremost, we have the backing – in the event of a vote of no confidence – from the North Atlantic mandates,” he said in comments to newswire Ritzau.

The North Atlantic mandates are the four parliamentary seats filled by representatives elected in Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Each of the four representatives are aligned with coalition parties but they do not generally vote on Danish domestic issues.

Another member of parliament, Kim Edberg, a former member of the far-right Nye Borgerlige, also announced on Tuesday that he had joined the Denmark Democrats. The party’s number of lawmakers thereby increased from 14 to 16.

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DANISH TRADITIONS

What has Denmark got planned for the 175th anniversary of its constitution?

Denmark celebrates the 175th anniversary of its Constitution on June 5th. Here's what the country has planned.

Published: 24 May 2024 12:36 CEST
What has Denmark got planned for the 175th anniversary of its constitution?

What’s the background to the Danish Constitution? 

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Denmark (Danmarks Riges Grundlov) was signed by King Frederick VII on June 5th 1849 and marked the end of the absolute hereditary monarchy under which Denmark had been ruled since 1661.

After it was signed Frederick VII reportedly declared, with wonderful Danish bathos, “that was nice, now I can sleep in late in the mornings”. 

Before 1661, Denmark had in theory been an elective monarchy, with the new king elected by the country’s nobility. In practice, the crown was normally inherited, but the nobility could and frequently did, use the election process to demand concessions.   

The shift to a constitutional monarchy was put in motion by Frederick VII’s father, Christian VIII, as a way of protecting the monarchy from the wave of revolutions then sweeping Europe. 

In March 1848, following Christian’s death and Frederick’s coronation, there was a march on Christiansborg Palace led by the National Liberals, Denmark’s first political party, demanding a constitutional monarchy.

Frederick agreed to their demands and included many of the party’s leaders in a new cabinet, which appointed a Constitutional Assembly to work on the country’s first constitution, which was signed that June.

Under the constituion, Danes gained freedom of association, freedom of belief, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and property rights. 

Only men over 30 who owned their own home initially had the right to vote – about 15 percent of the population. Women did not get the right to vote until 1915 and 18-year-olds had to wait until 1974. 

Why is this year’s celebration special? 

The 50th, 100th and 150th anniversaries of the Constution were all major national events in Denmark, with the 150th in 1999 featured a Children’s Parliament Day when 178 pupils from 60 primary schools met at the main hall in the Christiansborg parliament and had to agree on on ministers, discuss and vote through nine laws, which were passed to the then Social Democrat Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen.

The 200th anniversary in 2049 will also presumably be a very big deal.

But the 175th anniversary is nonetheless more significant than a normal year, and there’s quite a bit planned. 

What’s happening in parliament for the celebrations in 2024? 

King Frederik X and Queen Mary will attend celebrations at the parliament in Christiansborg, starting with a church service at 8am at the The Holmen Church just across the canal from the parliament. 

When the service is finished at 9.40am, the Royal Couple and others attending the service will cross over to the parliament where an event will be held at the Landstingsalen, where the Landstinget, Denmark’s upper house of parliament, used to hold its debates until it was abolished in 1953. 

At the event, the Speaker of the Parliament, Søren Gade, will give a speech, as will Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the President of the Supreme Court, Jens Peter Christensen, with the three representing the executive, legislative and judicial functions of the state.  

Both the church service and the event at the Landstinget will be broadcast on Folketinget TV.

Between 11.15am and 12am, there will be reception in the Samtaleværelset (the conversation room), and the Vandrehallen (the walking hall). 

What’s happening outside parliament? 

Podcast

The parliament has produced a six-part podcast together with the Royal Family, which will run through the history of the Constitution. You can find that here.  

Singing

On June 1st, the Saturday before Constution Day, there will be an evening of Fællessang, or group singing, broadcast from 8pm on DR1, with people in Denmark encouraged to join in at home. The event will be led by the singer Katrine Muff and the television host Johannes Langkilde. 

The event will feature many of the most-loved songs by N. F. S. Grundtvig, who was a prominent member of the assembly which drew up the constitution in 1848. 

Grundtvig, a priest, song-writer and politician – also established Denmark’s system of free schools. 

Ultraforslag

In an update on the Children’s Parliament from 1999, DR Ultra, the public broadcaster’s channel for young people, has been working with schools on a digital platform where they can propose changes to the law in Denmark, and then vote on the proposals which have been made. One of the proposals with the most votes will then be presented to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. 

Anyone under 18 can vote, and according to DR, “one of the proposals with the most votes will be presented to the Prime Minister”.

This seems to give the channel some leeway to select which proposal will be put forward, as, predictably, many of the most popular proposals at the moment involve reinstating “Great Prayer Day” or Store bededag as a public holiday. 

Currently, however, a proposal to allow students to “come to school later” appears to have the edge. 

Celebrations at DR Byen

Denmark’s public broadcaster DR will also hold a celebration at the DR Byen, its headquarters in Ørestad, on Constitution Day itself, working together with the parliament. The event will feature speeches, music and debate panels, between 9am and 7pm. 

According to DR, Denmark’s Education Minister Mattias Tesfaye will be present, as will Emma Holten, the Danish-Swedish human rights activist and celebrity debater, and Knud Romer, the novelist and advertising executive.

There will be an event featuring Børste, the hedgehog that is the star of one of the channel’s most popular children’s cartoons, there will be democratic children’s theatre, the presentation of an award for ‘The New Voice of the Year’, or Årets Nye Stemme, and even more group singing. 

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