The Danish Political Landscape


During this year, I'm living with a girl from Denmark, and this experience is being truly priceless.

Considering the goal of this blog, it's almost an obligation to include here something about the danish politics, which recently suffered some important changes.

By Susanne Nørregård Christensen, BA in History and Philosophy

"The political system in Denmark is characterized by a parliament with a lot of different political parties. Though there are two parties, namely the Social Democrats and the liberal party, Venstre, that are by far the most dominant and largest ones, it is very common in Denmark that a government is made up by two or more parties. Between 2001 and 2011 the Danish government consisted of the Liberal party and The Conservatives but as the government had the majority of votes along with the nationalistic party, Dansk Folkeparti, the major and important reforms was in this period, in large number exclusively agreed on between the three parties.

The 15^th of September 2011, a more left wing government came to power and Denmark got its first female prime minister (Helle Thorning-Schmidt). Two years earlier, the Social Democrats and the Socialist Peoples Party had made a common visionary document as an alternative to the Right-wing government, but as the results of the two parties was modest at the elections, it was the radical socialist party, Enhedslisten, along with the liberal party, Radikale Venstre, that secured the shift of power. As a consequence, the Social Democrats and the Socialist Peoples Party felt it necessary to include the liberal party Radikale Venstre in the government while the more radical socialist party became a declared 'supporter' as it can secure the majority of votes between the four parties.

This means that Danish political situation at the moment is characterized by a very complicated situation where two parties, that are both more or less left-wing and popular social democratic along with a very market liberal party, has to share the power. Between the three political parties in the government and the 'supporter' party there is a line of ideological questions that divides them, for instants how big a role should the state play? And how to deal with the immigrants and refugees in the country? The latter question is generally considered to be what made the left-wing lose the power in 2001 and made Dansk Folkeparty a very powerful party the following 10 years and it is therefore a very sensitive subject among the socialist parties.

On the one hand some of the social reforms that the Social Democrats and the Socialist Peoples Party proclaimed in their program is can in theory be carried out with the votes and influence of the socialists, Enhedslisten, but as the liberals (Radikale Venstre) has proven to have a lot of power in the government, it is far from all the original plans that the new government can agree on. On the other hand other, reforms that are more market oriented is to be agreed on with the opposition which of course produces other conflicts with the socialist party in the government itself, the Socialist Peoples Party, and it's cooperator, Enhedslisten."