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What are the big issues in Danish politics this autumn?

Denmark’s politicians are back debating and voting on bills in parliament from Tuesday, following the annual official reopening of parliament. Bad polls, international labour and the Quran burning law are among the issues and conflicts facing the coalition government and opposition parties this autumn.

Published: 3 October 2023 17:10 CEST

What are the big issues in Danish politics this autumn?

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (right hand side) and Queen Margrethe and Crown Prince Frederik (top centre) can be seen during the opening of parliament on October 3rd 2023. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

Poor government polling

The government has not fared well in the popularity stakes since it came to office at the end of last year in an unusual coalition constellation involving the two traditional rivals from the centre-left and centre-right, the Social Democrats and the Liberals, and the newly-formed centrist Moderate Party.

The three parties, particularly the two legacy ones have a challenge on hand keeping core voters happy on one side, and compromising on policy to make the coalition work on the other.

For their part, they have argued that a coalition across the centre of politics will bring stability and stop the extremes of the political spectrum from influencing government.

Recent poll results, though, show they are bleeding support. The Social Democrats are suffering the most, with opinion polls putting them down by 7.1 percent on their result at the election last November. The Liberals are down by 4.6 percent and the Moderates by 2 percent.

During the summer, leadership figures from the three parties toured Denmark in a bid to boost connection and support among the public, but instead faced criticism and protests in several places.

Discord over foreign labour

There is strong evidence of disagreement between the coalition parties over hiring from abroad in response to a longstanding labour shortage.

The Social Democratic employment minister, Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen, said last month that she is not in favour of easing immigration rules to make it easier for companies to recruit foreign labour. That came despite calls from elsewhere in the government to do so.

While Halsboe-Jørgensen said she was against allowing more foreign labour in Denmark, saying it could have a negative impact on society, the leaders of both the Liberals and Moderates have advocated more foreign labour.

Moderate leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen wants work permit rules to be made far simpler and linked to labour market agreements, and has suggested Denmark could make individual deals with non-EU countries on labour, citing Kenya as an example of a potential partner.

The leader of the Liberal party, Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, also wants international labour to help ease the shortage of workers and argued that policy leans too much on a fear of being seen as soft on immigration.

With only the Social Democrats clinging to the established hard line on immigration over the labour shortage, it is unclear how the coalition will iron out its differences on this area and come up with a viable solution to a shortage which has seen businesses repeatedly call for government action.

Voting on the Quran burning law

With parliament now back in the chamber, the government’s proposal to change the law to make it illegal to burn the Quran in public will be debated and voted upon.

The proposal was made by the government this summer after repeated Quran burnings in Copenhagen damaged relations with Muslim majority countries.

The government has said it solely wants to restrict Quran burnings at embassies, arguing they risk damaging Denmark’s international standing as well as threaten security, but the move faces criticism in parliament, with opponents saying it is the beginning of a ‘slippery slope’ to further free speech curbs.

On Monday, legal spokesperson Steffen Larsen of the opposition Liberal Alliance party challenged the government not to instruct its lawmakers how to vote on the bill (the equivalent of “whipping” in British politics). Larsen told news wire Ritzau he wants “clear demonstration of who is for and who is against this law”.

The move would potentially raise the chances of the bill failing if there are any members of government parties prepared to vote against their own bill.

What is going on with the Conservatives?

The Conservative party, one of the more influential opposition parties is in a muddled state with some doubt about the future of its leader Søren Pape Poulsen.

Poulsen is struggling to hold on to the support of local party figures including municipal councillors and committee chairpersons, newspaper Politiken reported in September after it conducted a survey.

Some 50 of the 143 local Conservative leaders who responded to the anonymous survey said Poulsen was no longer the right leader for the party.

The Conservatives have seen their poll numbers tank from a strong position at the beginning of last year, precipitated in part by Poulsen’s ill-fated decision to run as a candidate for prime minister in the general election.

Poulsen maintains he is still the right person for the job but has conceded in interviews that the last year was a difficult one.

Broadcaster DR writes that there are internal concerns in the Conservatives that he cannot lead the party to a comeback because he is so closely associated with the failed election campaign.

Whether he holds on to his job could depend on the party’s polls in the coming months, but also whether a potential replacement emerges with strong enough backing, according to DR.

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INTERVIEW: 'A lot of people think Brexit is done, but it's not for Brits in Europe'

In the early days of 2021, after the United Kingdom had left the EU and completed the final stage of Brexit, many British citizens returned to their home countries in Europe only to face a grilling at the border.

Though the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) technically guaranteed their right to live and work in the countries they’d settled in before Brexit, there was widespread confusion about these fundamental rights and many were treated like new arrivals.

Over time, the chaos at the airports subsided as border officials and airlines were given clearer guidance on the treatment of Brits. But three years later, a number of Brits who live on the continent still face problems when it comes to proving their post-Brexit rights.

This was the reason campaign group British in Europe decided to set up their new EU-funded ICE project. Starting this year in March, it aims to build valuable connections between UK citizens abroad and mentor the next generation of civil rights advocates around the continent. The acronym stands for ‘Inform, Empower, Connect’ and the project’s organisers describe it as “the first project of its kind”.

“It’s a completely innovative project – especially the fact that it’s across so many countries,” Jane Golding, chair of British in Europe and one of the project’s founders, told The Local.

Bringing together groups from 11 EU member states, the project aims to train up volunteers to understand both the Withdrawal Agreement and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as learning skills like advocacy and communication, using real-life civil rights cases that are referred to British in Europe.

“The ultimate goal is to amplify the messages across the wider group,” said Golding. “You start with the volunteers, they go back to their groups, then the people that we train, they go back and train people. Then they pass on that knowledge to the wider groups, on their Facebook accounts and through social media, and hopefully it all snowballs, not just in their countries but across the EU.”

‘Far-reaching repercussions’

So many years after Brexit, it’s hard to believe that there’s still a need for a project like ICE that empowers Brits to protect their rights. Indeed, the future of groups like British in Europe and regional groups like British in Germany and British in Spain felt uncertain just a year or two ago.

But Golding says there are still serious issues cropping up for Brits in several countries around Europe – they just have a different quality to the problems that arose at the start.

“In some ways it’s needed even more because as we predicted right at the beginning, at the first stage of implementation, you’ve got the more routine cases,” she explained.

“What we’re seeing now is not as many cases, but when the cases come up, they’re complex. They can have such far-reaching repercussions on people’s lives. And of course, memories start to fade. A lot of people think Brexit is already done, but it’s not.”

Volunteers in British in Europe ICE project

The volunteers of the British in Europe ICE project pose for a photo at the kick-off meeting in Brussels on May 21st, 2024. Photo courtesy of Jane Golding

Though the rights set out in the Withdrawal Agreement apply across the continent, different countries have taken different approaches to implementing them.

That means that while in Germany, for example, UK citizens simply had to declare that they lived in the country, people in neighbouring Denmark had to apply for their rights.

This led to a notorious situation in Denmark in which as many as 2,000 Brits were threatened with deportation after not applying in time or completing the right application process. According to Golding, this had a lot to do with the fact that people who arrived in 2020 weren’t given the same information as other UK migrants who arrived before.

In Sweden, meanwhile, the situation is still difficult for many Brits who lived there prior to Brexit.

“There have been issues with an anomalously high numbers of refusals compared to other countries, and they seem to be taking a very strict approach on late applications,” Golding explained.

Portugal has been another difficult case. Although the country opted for a declaratory system where Brits could simply exchange old residence documents for a new ID card after Brexit, reports suggest that the authorities have taken years to issue these cards, leaving many of the some 34,000 Brits in the country in limbo.

“While people are still waiting to have their status confirmed and have their card in their hand, it’s difficult to access a whole range of services, like health services, or applying for jobs or dealing with the authorities, or even going to the bank,” Golding said. “All of these problems just affect people’s lives.”

A French border guard checks a passport at the border

A French border guard checks a passport at the border. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

There are also concerns about the EU’s new exit and entry system (EES), due to come into force in October, which is based on biometric documentation.

“We still do not have clear data on how many people in declaratory countries like Germany, where it wasn’t compulsory to apply for the card, don’t actually have a card,” Golding said. “How is that going to play out if it’s a document-based digitalised system?”

A lack of support

In the immediate aftermath of Brexit, funding from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was still available to support NGOs in Europe helping Brits with their migration and civil rights issues. But that temporary funding soon expired, leaving groups like British in Europe largely on their own.

“The whole point is people’s lives change at very different paces,” Golding said. “And now this project is really going to start to pick up some of those cases and report on those issues, which is really crucial and exciting for the precedent that it sets, and it’s very clearly necessary still, because people don’t just sort their lives in the 18 months that the FCDO chose to supply that funding.”

This feeling of being left alone and increasingly isolated from the UK is one that many Brits in Europe have felt in the aftermath of Brexit. But the upcoming UK election on July 4th could be a game-changer.

This time, following a change in the law, Brits who have lived abroad for more than 15 years will be able to vote for the first time.

Polling station in the UK

A polling station in the UK. Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

When it comes to the election, the message from British in Europe is clear: “Make your voice count now, make your vote count, make sure you use it,” Golding said.

With the June 18th registration deadline fast approaching, BiE is advising UK citizens abroad to apply for a proxy vote as soon as possible, rather than relying on a postal vote from abroad. Since the 15-year rule was abolished on January 16th, more than 100,000 British citizens have registered to vote, according to official statistics. It is unclear how many were registered before the change in the law.

With an estimated 5.5 million Brits currently living abroad – 1.3 million of whom are in the EU – this could have a significant impact on the electoral landscape, Golding says. But most significantly, the change is creating a feeling of connection and belonging that wasn’t there before.

Nurturing this sense of belonging is one of the main goals of ICE.

With these bridges being built, British in Europe hopes to create a network of support that spans across borders.

“Now we’ve met. We’re going to meet,” said Golding. “We know we’re going to meet again in Berlin in October and then we’ll meet again in the new year in 2025 as well. It means a huge amount because even British in Europe, our steering team, we’ve only met physically three times.”

This opens up the possibility of people sharing their knowledge from country to country, Golding explained.

“There is crossover and the reassurance of having that EU wide view and knowing that you’re not alone and knowing that in this country, we managed to get this solution,” she said. “And then you can go back and say to the authorities in your country, well, in that country they did that – all of that helps. It’s really good.”

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