In the process of a major edit
COPENHAGEN
Sea level in Copenhagen. On the heels of the June 5 Danish national election, the capitol of the happiest nation in the world will now take that threat more seriously.
The headline on one of our online newspapers just wrote, translated, "Denmark has gone to the extreme left."
We have been right wing for the most since 2001
Denmark is a very small country. A couple of small New England states, if you don't count Greenland. And our population is only a bit over that of Los Angeles.
But it does make a difference in terms of many things domestically, and internationally in terms of the message we are sending, including to a Europe with racist nationalism on the rise.
In our last national election in 2015, the racist party (Dansk Folkeparti) won over 21% of the vote within our multiparty system, 2nd only to the Social-democrats Today, they went down with 8.7%, which is historical. Neither the Christian-democtratic nor the extreme right, aggressively racist Stram Kurs (Hard Line) parties got enough votes to be represented in parliament (Folketinget).
Social-democrats got the most votes: 25.9%. One of the center-right parties, Venstre, whose chairperson is the current PM, changed his party's direction just 2 weeks ago, away from an alliance with the racist party and towards the center. That political maneuver fomented some inside discontent. The lame duck PM, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, is attempting everything possible to enter into an alliance with the social-democrats, to form a government that would exclude the socialistic and environmentally concerned parties.
Based on what the coming PM, Mette Frederiksen, has said in the past, I doubt she will enter into such an alliance.
At 2 AM, when the final votes had been counted, she said that the people have spoken and they want a more left-wing, socialistic government that takes global warming seriously.
All this will be worked out in the next few days, before the new prime minister (and her cabinet) is officially decided upon after closed doors negotiations among the parties. They then have to go to the queen to get her consent, which is a vestigial formality.
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