The election campaign in Denmark: Lars Løkke storms forward, and spy bomb pressures the government
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen launched the first shock in the election campaign when she announced the election on 5 October.
– The time has come to find a new form of government cooperation in Denmark, a more broadly composed government with parties from both sides of the political center, Frederiksen said at the time.
Frederiksen and the Social Democrats suddenly deviated from what has been their plan in recent years: a one-party government. Within a few hours, both of the two largest bourgeois parties, Venstre and Conservative People’s Party, had rejected Frederiksen’s push.
– Reinvented the center
However, it opened the scene for an old ring reef. Lars Løkke Rasmussen left the Liberal Party at New Year 2021. Then he started the Moderates – a party that had a stated desire for a “broadly composed government”. The party hovered for a long time around the blocking limit of 2 percent. Then came Frederiksen’s plan.
– He has reinvented the central position in Danish politics, says Danish TV2’s political editor Hans Redder.
Obviously, none of the voters like Løkke’s message. In the Voxmeter poll on October 2, the Moderates were at 2.2 percent. 16 days later: 9.2 percent turnout and 17 mandates.
With the immediate rise of the Moderates, an immediate question presented itself. Could the 58-year-old consider becoming prime minister for the third time if he was offered it?
– Yes. But I won’t be, said Lars Løkke Rasmussen at a meeting on Monday evening, according to the report TV2.
Downgrade to conservative
Another winner is the popular Inger Støjberg’s party Danmarksdemokraterne. She founded the party earlier this year after she had served the sentence she received in an impeachment case. Voxmeter gives the party 7.4 percent at the moment, but Redder believes that is very remarkable – especially since she has just been in shackles for two months and the party has put forward some policies.
Among the election campaign’s losers so far is the Conservative People’s Party. After many months high in the polls, Conservative leader Søren Pape Poulsen declared that he was a candidate for prime minister. Since then, scandals surrounding his ex-husband and unpopular proposals have sent the party down. Well, support is more than half, and Venstre’s Jakob Ellemann-Jensen is the clear candidate for prime minister on the bourgeois side.
However, Mette Frederiksen is still clearly the most popular prime ministerial candidate – and the “red” parties are close to a majority in the Folketing.
Barrier border drama for DF
Several parties watch around the barricade line. The alternative, which survived by a narrow margin in 2019 and has experienced several splits since, has the opportunity to survive in the Folketing. Redder calls them the biggest joker of the election campaign.
– They have a real chance of survival now. I don’t think many would have predicted that one or two years ago, says the TV2 editor.
An Alternative Parliament will increase the possibility of Frederiksen retaining the majority.
The Danish People’s Party has long been in trouble. After the 2015 election, in which they became second largest, the wing party has experienced massive splits and lost voters to a number of parties. According to Voxmeter’s latest poll, the party has 1.8 percent, and thus falls out of the Folketing.
Spy bomb
As in Norway, welfare matters are always high on the agenda in Denmark, and health policy is set to become the most important issue. Climate issues are also discussed a lot among voters and politicians, and have a certain political explosiveness, writes DR. But the big surprise is a book from the permitted intelligence chief Lars Findsen.
«The spymaster – Memoirs from cell 18» was launched without warning on 13 October. There, Findsen presents his version of the case, which has led to him now being charged with leaking state secrets and confidential information to Danish media and private individuals. Exactly what he is accused of leaking is still not clear.
The intelligence chief claims, among other things, that the surveillance police (PET) tried to make an agreement with him before he was first questioned. He also makes accusations against the government: Findsen describes a meeting with Defense Minister Trine Bramsen shortly after he had been allowed in August 2020.
Verkebyll for the government
The meeting took place after the intelligence service’s supervisory body had criticized them because they believed Findsen had withheld information. According to Findsen, Bramsen must have been afraid that the inspection’s criticism could bring down the government.
– I agree that there is nothing to blame either FE (the intelligence service), your acquisition manager or you. But you have been with me for so many years that you know that I must have a majority behind me, Bramsen is said to have said according to the book.
Although it is finally part of the matter, it has also been part of the election campaign. A number of parties, including a united civil side, have asked that the government investigate its own role in the case. The prime minister first asked to leave the case to the judiciary, then she hinted that there could be an investigation.
However, the civic side demands that Frederiksen answer before the election whether Findsen was allowed for political reasons, writes Ritzau on Wednesday. The FE case is therefore likely to become a major obstacle for the government in the run-up to the election on 1 November.