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Pro-Palestinian Copenhagen rally attracts a thousand demonstrators

Around a thousand people attended a pro-Palestinian rally in Copenhagen Saturday to protest the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip in response to last week's bloody attack on Israel by Hamas.

Published: 15 October 2023 10:38 CEST
Pro-Palestinian Copenhagen rally attracts a thousand demonstrators
Pro-Palestinian protestors in Copenhagen on Saturday, October 14. Photo: Rasmus Flindt Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix.

The rally, one of several planned across Denmark, took place under tight police surveillance.The demonstrations were taking place on the eighth day of a conflict that has left thousands dead and seen 150 Israelis taken hostage.

Marchers converged at Norrebro in western Copenhagen, many carrying flags and banners with slogans such as “A genocide is unfurling” and “Stop killing innocent Palestinian children”.

Other banners read “Long live Palestine” or denounced the United States and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

One marcher, who gave his name as Abdelaziz, said it would be “naive” to think such actions could stop Israel. “We are doing this to appeal to other countries and call on them to contribute to respect for international human rights and not lie, not hide what is happening,” he added.

Another participant who gave her name as Lena, 17, said: “People must speak up more about what is happening in Gaza at the moment as millions of civilians are being killed and it’s not acceptable.”

Queen Margrethe and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen attended a memorial service at the Copenhagen Synagogue Saturday for the victims of last weekend’s
attack by Hamas on Israel.

In a poll by Denmark’s Voxmeter institute published Friday by the Ritzau news agency 20 percent or respondents said they thought believe Palestinians had the right to use attacks like the one carried out last weekend to defend their cause. But 41 percent of respondents disagreed.

Following the attack by Hamas militants, during which they killed more than 1,300 people, Israel has imposed a siege on the Gaza Strip.

Health officials in Gaza say more than 2,200 people have been killed. As on  the Israeli side, most of them were civilians.

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POLITICS

Denmark’s Social Democrats overtaken by left-wing ally in new poll

The Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti, SF) has become the party with the most support in Denmark for the first time in a new opinion poll.

Published: 24 June 2024 13:10 CEST
Denmark’s Social Democrats overtaken by left-wing ally in new poll

A new poll from Voxmeter places SF as Denmark’s largest party, should it be replicated in an election vote, with an 18.8 percent share of the vote.

The Social Democrats, traditionally the largest party on the left, received 18.4 percent in the poll. That represents a large drop in support compared to the 2022 general election, when the Social Democrats gained 27.5 percent and went into coalition government with two parties on the right of centre.

The poll result for SF gives it a share 8.3 percent larger than it gained in 2022 and continues the centre-left group’s recent success after becoming the largest Danish party in the EU parliament in the EU elections this month.

Speaking on EU election night, SF leader Pia Olsen Dyhr said the party’s excellent result could be used as a “catalyst” for a new political landscape in Denmark.

The EU election result can fuel further gains for SF when the next general election comes around, Dyhr said in the midst of her party’s celebrations.

“There’s an alternative to this government. There’s an alternative that wants [more] welfare and [to do more for] the climate and we are willing to deliver this in the EU parliament,” she told broadcaster DR.

“It gives us a tailwind and enthusiasm for the party and it means people will be even more ready for local elections next year and the general election further ahead,” she said.

READ ALSO: ANALYSIS: Is left-wing party’s EU election win good news for foreigners in Denmark?

Another notable observation from the poll is that is the worst for the Social Democrats since the 2022 election and since Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen became the party’s leader in 2015.

In 2013, when former leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt was prime minister, the party’s polls dropped as low as 15.8 percent, but they recovered after Frederiksen took over to win the 2019 election.

The other two parties in the coalition government – the Moderates and Liberals (Venstre) – are also struggling in opinion polls.

The new poll gives the Liberals 9.7 percent – compared to 14.7 percent at the EU election and 23.5 percent in 2019.

For the Moderates, the 6.5 percent polling is better than the 5.9 percent achieved by the party in the EU election, but less than the 9.3 percent it gained in 2023.

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