The $64,000 question leading up to the June 5th Danish general election was if the Kongeriget Danmark (Kingdom of Denmark) would get back to maintaining an egalitarian society proud of it's safety net or continue down the anti-immigrant nativist influence that began in 2014 when the far right Danish People's Party (DPP) won the European Parliament election in Denmark by securing 27% vote. If that was a shock, it then won 21% of the vote in the 2015 general election, becoming the second largest party in the Folketing (Parliament for those struggling with Danish).
The results are in...I can confirm that the land of Lego has still somewhat upheld Europe's love affair with racism, thus giving the likes of Viktor Orbán some relief. The surge in 1939 types holding European governments to ransom is still alive in Denmark, albeit in bizarre circumstances. You'd think the far right made gains in the election, however, the two main parties both went to the polls on an anti immigrant platform as a means to snuff out extremists, which ended up working, but it just ensured that the main parties would continue a more acceptable form of racism, the incremental variety (change a law here and there to make life harder on foreigners without all the Nazi salute baggage).
Seeing as immigration was not a cause for contention, the election was a referendum on which party would maintain the cherished Danish welfare model. The Social Democrats squeaked home (taking 91 of 179 seats in Parliament), ensuring their leader Mette Frederiksen becomes the youngest Prime Minister in Danish history at 41. The center-right Liberal party (having led for 14 of the past 18 years) takes home 80 seats.
The second positive from the vote was the Danes support of climate change, 57% of voters want the new government to make this a priority. It's a rarity in Europe these days to have a positive election outcome without some caveat, and so Denmark sis its part to live up to this pattern. You could say: two out of three ain't bad. Denmark still leads the world in ensuring a safety net for all and is understand climate change is a reality, yet for all that they still condone passive aggressive racism, sounds very Scandinavian to me.
For now, I urge all my readers to place a total ban on playing with lego (if you're above the age of 10 this should be a given, apologies to adults with lego fetishes), until such time the Danes give the middle finger to racism. The ban also applies to pastries, so no apple danish for you with your morning coffee.
The results are in...I can confirm that the land of Lego has still somewhat upheld Europe's love affair with racism, thus giving the likes of Viktor Orbán some relief. The surge in 1939 types holding European governments to ransom is still alive in Denmark, albeit in bizarre circumstances. You'd think the far right made gains in the election, however, the two main parties both went to the polls on an anti immigrant platform as a means to snuff out extremists, which ended up working, but it just ensured that the main parties would continue a more acceptable form of racism, the incremental variety (change a law here and there to make life harder on foreigners without all the Nazi salute baggage).
Seeing as immigration was not a cause for contention, the election was a referendum on which party would maintain the cherished Danish welfare model. The Social Democrats squeaked home (taking 91 of 179 seats in Parliament), ensuring their leader Mette Frederiksen becomes the youngest Prime Minister in Danish history at 41. The center-right Liberal party (having led for 14 of the past 18 years) takes home 80 seats.
The second positive from the vote was the Danes support of climate change, 57% of voters want the new government to make this a priority. It's a rarity in Europe these days to have a positive election outcome without some caveat, and so Denmark sis its part to live up to this pattern. You could say: two out of three ain't bad. Denmark still leads the world in ensuring a safety net for all and is understand climate change is a reality, yet for all that they still condone passive aggressive racism, sounds very Scandinavian to me.
For now, I urge all my readers to place a total ban on playing with lego (if you're above the age of 10 this should be a given, apologies to adults with lego fetishes), until such time the Danes give the middle finger to racism. The ban also applies to pastries, so no apple danish for you with your morning coffee.
