Last Week in Denmark

Denmark’s Surprising Election Results LWID S4E16

• Season 4 • Episode 16

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Local vote shakes Denmark's political map. This week, Fionn and Golda, two internationals living in Denmark, break down a wild week in Danish local elections, from the collapse of the Social Democrats to surprise mayoral twists and a record rise in women leaders. They also look at what the results mean for internationals and why Denmark’s political landscape is entering a new phase of change. 

Topics:

(02:45) Danish election results

(04:32) Collapse of Danish Social Democrats

(08:30) SF take Copenhagen from Social Democrats

(10:12) Losers of the Danish election

(12:37) Mayoral twists in Denmark

(15:44) Record rise in women leaders in Denmark

(18:16) What the Danish election means for internationals

(23:06) Help improve life for internationals in Denmark https://dpmi.dk/ 


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Fionn: 

Hello, and welcome to the Last Week in Denmark podcast. Each week, two of our hosts talk through some of the top stories that happened last week in Denmark. We focus mostly on their impact on internationals living here. So if that sounds like you, or maybe you're thinking about moving here, or maybe you're just a Dane who likes to stay informed, well, then, welcome home. You are absolutely in the right place and we're so, so happy to have you. My name is Fionno Toole and I'm joined this week for episode 16 of season 4 by Goldifania. Most weeks we have a set three topics that we like to take one by one. But this week, given the election that we just had, we're going to be exploring some different stories from the local and regional elections throughout Denmark. Maybe some of the twists and turns that have happened in mayor formations or the communes formations, and of course, some of the big headlines that have even made international news as well. As before we get going, we'd love to ask one thing. If the conversation this week's, if it resonates with you, if it sparks some interest, we'd love if you could share this episode that could be by screenshotting it and posting it on social media. It could be sharing it directly through whatever podcast app you're using. But we're here to help internationals in Denmark stay informed and feel connected. So thank you so much for helping us reach more people who are just like you. Golda, how are you?

Golda: 

Hi, Fion. I'm fine today. It's been a really good, quiet Saturday, the way I like it. I'm actually in Copenhagen.

Fionn: 

Oh, very nice. So you're enjoying the cold weather and sudden snows we've gotten?

Golda: 

I didn't expect it to be this cold, to be honest. But, yeah, it's like, welcome home.

Fionn: 

I mean, my family flew in this weekend in a nice little surprise, which was great, but I felt kind of bad because, you know, we've had just weeks of a little bit cold, but bright, sunny, very picturesque autumn. And then, yeah, they were flying in and I was just texting pictures of the sleet and the slush and the snow. Can't always get it right.

Golda: 

How was your day?

Fionn: 

It was good. We. So my son recently turned seven, so big birthday. That was one of the reasons the family were kind of coming in was to celebrate him. So we actually took all of them to Tivoli and had a really nice lunch and then wandered around until it got increasingly a bit too dark and a bit too cold. So, yeah, I'M happy now to be inside and warming up again. But it was a lovely day, really lovely day.

Golda: 

Oh, that's so great to hear. Tivoli is so beautiful around this time of year.

Fionn: 

Yeah.

Golda: 

With all the lights to go.

Fionn: 

Oh, yeah, It's. It's really magical.

Golda: 

Yeah, exactly.

Fionn: 

Yeah. Well, speaking of magic, we're going to be talking about election results and we're going to be talking in about a couple of different, maybe, facets of how the local and regional elections went last week. I don't know. Have you been following this? Did you get a chance to vote yourself? How was that?

Golda: 

So, unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to vote this time. Since I am based in the uk, I kind of haven't been following as much, and I feel kind of ashamed to say that. But leading up to this episode, I've had a chance to kind of catch up and read up on a few things. So I hope to contribute to this conversation.

Fionn: 

I'm sure you will. No worries there. But, yeah, I'm a real dork. I love voting and so I always really enjoy getting the chance. The thing that struck me this time, so I'm based in Copenhagen, or Greater Copenhagen, and one of the things, of course, we were voting for are comunas, but we were also voting on the region, and the former Capital Region and Shaland have been merged into one East Denmark region. And so we were voting and I think the ballot paper had 19 different parties or lists and 420 candidates. It was literally longer than my arm, so that was definitely novel. Trying to fold that and fit it into the box at the end was a bit of a struggle, but I don't know. I always think it's really fun to participate in democracy. It was a really interesting election. I thought, if you're listening to this and maybe you weren't following things so closely, or maybe you're following things in your own local commune, but didn't really see the national picture so much. It was, you could say, probably a consequential election, which definitely had some winners and some losers to it. That probably sounds obvious. Every election does. But one of the big takeaways of the election overall was a big collapse in the Social Democrat Party. So they still received 23% of the vote, and that was the highest out of any party. But it was quite a big drop of about 5% in the overall vote share. And they lost around 156 seats on comunas and 18 mayor positions. Kind of coupled with that two parties of the right or center right Venstra and the Conservatives, they didn't have maybe quite as dramatic drops. They lost a bit of vote share. They actually gained in the mayors. But you could say three of the more classic kind of parties of power in Denmark or centre parties lost out and a lot of the winners were a little bit more parties to either the left or the right. So that was kind of one takeaway that I really saw with this was. I don't know if you would use the term polarisation, but something of the same thing we've seen in a lot of other countries and maybe you see it as well in the uk, where the electorate generally gets pushed a little bit more towards the wings or towards the extremes.

Golda: 

I think it's absolutely shocking to find out that in the past century that Social Democrats have actually always had a dominance in Copenhagen. Megan, that's a fun fact that I actually really didn't know. And then to see how, you know, their percentages have gone down, it really does send a message to the current government. Right. And I read that, meh, our current minister was saying that this, this was a larger loss than she expected and expressing some reflection on how it's becoming, quote, unquote, increasingly hard to be the main Danish people's party, which is inclusive to all Danes. And when I read that, I. I don't know how to like, interpret that. So what do you feel about her saying that their party is like the inclusive to all Danes?

Fionn: 

Yeah, I think you can chop that up two ways, maybe. So if you look at the. The parties that there are in Denmark and there's quite a few, if you compare to some other democracies, you used to have two really, what they call broad tent parties, parties that attracted a lot of people from a lot of different ways of life. And one of those was the Social Democrats and the other was Venster or the Liberal Party. And in the last number of years, Venster has kind of had two parties split off from it, Maratne and Denmark's Democratne. And so they've kind of lost a little bit of that broad tent, you could say. And the Social Democrats are really still the only party now that maybe has a bit of that appeal. So from one hand I can kind of view it through that lens, but I think one of the reasons why potentially a lot of voters have left the Social Democrats is based on the issue of immigration. And a lot of Social Democrat traditional voters we've seen have moved to the right and are now intending to vote for Dan's Clock Party. But many of them have also moved to the left. Now, how much of that is solely based on immigration? How much of it is based on people feeling that the economy isn't being managed well, or there's been too many tax cuts versus, you know, welfare, these types of things. Not going to be able to fully parse that out right now. But I do think there is a feeling certainly with some that Social Democrats have taken this hard line stance on immigration and we talked about it so many times on this podcast that. Well, has that disarmed the issue and disarmed the more right wing parties on that? I don't think it now officially has. If anything, I think it's more given space for that to become the norm. But I think maybe there are voters who are really more on the left side of things and are turned off by it and are now finding more of a home in sf, for example, which had a great election, taking Copenhagen from the Social Democrats.

Golda: 

Yeah, SF and Inhelch. Listen, and I think you're right in the final statement about the fact that voters, voters are saying that they are moving a bit to the left. One thing that we hear a lot about in Denmark right now is more focus on climate and sustainability, but as you said, like also a more inclusive rhetoric towards migrants and international residents. Whereas in there have been some quotes from herself where it hasn't been as favorable. And then also people are just kind of tired. You know, there's shortage of housing and students can't really afford to rent. The health care pressures right now, there's so much that is going on. And I think that this vote just shows that people feel that they haven't been handling it the right way.

Fionn: 

Exactly. And I think if you look at overall, I mean we mentioned SF as being one of the winners of this election. They took Copenhagen, they picked up two more mayors and they had a big increase in their vote share. On the other hand, you have Liberal alliance had a huge increase like relatively in their vote share, which was. It was the biggest increase out of any party. But Danskwell Party, they've had a big positive shift in their number of seats. And Denmark's Democratne, who might share that space with Dansk Vailparty, this was their first election and it was a great first election for them taking their first mayorship. Although there has been almost breaking to the time we're recording this development there, which maybe we'll touch on in a little bit. And when you look then at who the losers of this election were, I mean the Social Democrats, of course, but Moderatna, who are also kind of a new party with one of their first local elections here, but in a party in government. And they really struggled to get started. They got 1.3% of the vote. Right. So I think there is a general dissatisfaction and I think that played out in this election and I think it's going to be really interesting to see how that plays out in obviously next year's national elections as well.

Golda: 

I'm just looking at the numbers here. Liberal allianz went from nine to 100 local councillors. Yeah, like that's a lot. That's a huge.

Fionn: 

You have to be thinking they're, they're popping the champagne there, not only because they're liberals, but because of those numbers. Yeah.

Golda: 

And I think, you know, congratulations to them.

Fionn: 

Yeah, well done them. And I think they, you know, whether you like them or don't like them, whatever, I think they ran a very effective campaign. One thing that we've touched on is the kind of Social Democrats losing in Copenhagen. And we promise we're not going to just spend the whole podcast talking about this, but that really was a collapse. I mean, they went down to eight seats on the council, but they also ended up basically in a position where no one wanted to play ball with them. And I think that's one of the interesting things for me with kind of the way this local politics in Denmark works. Nobody really gets an outright majority and there are so many different parties. So of course they, they form pre election pacts and voting groups. But I think there is kind of a balancing force then because after the election they kind of need to build coalitions with other parties who will help them. And so you see, for example, in Copenhagen, SF basically got the mayor's position, the lord mayor's position, with the support of every party except the Social Democrats and the very small Free Greens. And so there has to be kind of a moderating then I guess in anyone's overlying position. If angels listen, for example, they got the most votes. They didn't get the mayorship partly because others didn't. Maybe the parties on the right didn't. They thought they were maybe too extreme or they didn't think they could work together with them the way they could with sf. But I think, you know, with all of that, it is a huge collapse. One of the lead candidate in Copenhagen was Pernila Rosenkratz Tigel, who has been really a kind of face at that election. She was obviously going for the lord mayor's position. She didn't get it. And she was or chose the mayoral position of mayor for Employment, Integration and Business because Copenhagen has these kind of sub mayors and then a lord mayor on top. But actually as of today, she has resigned from that as well and is resigning fully from politics. So.

Golda: 

Wow.

Fionn: 

Yeah, I think this was. I don't know necessarily if it was a landslide election, but I think it's a negative landslide in one way for the Social Democracy Democrats. There have definitely been a lot of twists and turns with some of this forming of these coalitions. So not only in Copenhagen, where everybody basically froze out the Social Democrats and decided we're not going to include them in negotiations, I mentioned earlier that Denmark's Democrat had had a great kind of first election and got their first mayorship. And that was in Rinkupinskijan on Wednesday. The kind of mayoral candidate for Democrats, Democratne Madsvou, was elected and now suddenly he's not going to be the mayor anymore. Have you heard about this? No.

Golda: 

Yeah, I really haven't.

Fionn: 

This is where I start to feel like I'm watching an episode of Game of Thrones or Succession or something, which is not something I would normally associate with local politics. But effectively there was a kind of agreement put in place. And then since then and over the last few days, there has been a bit of a, I guess, backroom talks between some of the other parties. And now it won't be him. It will be Leonard Quist, I believe, from the Conservative Party, who basically the parties kind of got together and decided to go around what they had agreed before. And that's not even the most dramatic one in Middelfart, the Social Democrats incumbent mayor, he expected basically to be able to take a third term of office. But then one of the Social Democrats jumped over to Venstra and tipped the majority in the city council.

Golda: 

That's wild. Yeah.

Fionn: 

So many curveballs I have heard. I don't know if this is the case. So this, you know, buyer beware warning on this. I have heard that there was potentially an expectation from this Social Democrat that she would then be kind of tipped for the mayor's position. But that again, hasn't been the case. So now the another candidate basically has come in and taken instead. And so you have a candidate who got far fewer, you know, personal votes than the kind of incumbent Social Democratic mayor, but will be the New Herald candidate after a lot of back and forth and people defecting after they've been elected. So I think that's pretty wild. Did you know that the last week in Denmark newsletter is available in eight languages. Hey there. This is Fjon from the Last Week in Denmark podcast. And every week you guys are tuning in to hear me and my fellow co hosts talk about the top news of the week in English. But let's be real, we're all internationals. So not only are you speaking English every day, you're probably also speaking a bit of Danish, but you've probably also got your own native language as well, like the multilingual master you are. So why not treat yourself to the luxury of being able to read Danish news each week in your own native language? So head on over to last weekdk.substack.com that's last weekdk.substock.com and sign up for our newsletter delivered to you every single Sunday.

Golda: 

It definitely is. And it seems like the results of this election was unexpected to to quite, quite a lot of people then. But on another note, there is actually another historical milestone that caught my eye, especially as a woman. For the first time, women now make up a majority of the regional representatives, which is 50.75% and these councils are what will over oversee healthcare, hospitals and like regional development. And at a municipality level, women now hold 24 mayor positions, which is actually another Danish record. I think this is amazing also because personally I just believe with more women in regional leadership, I think there would be more emphasis on healthcare quality, family services, education and community welfare programs. Not to say that mental health don't focus on this, but I think even in a country like Denmark where equality is kind of healed, we still see that women leave workforce more often, especially when they form families or having to, you know, still balance the choice between having career and a family, it's still quite not as favorable even here in Denmark. So for all the women listening hoping for better futures, I think we are actually seeing positive results in that sense.

Fionn: 

I fully agree, although I can't speak as a woman listening, but I fully agree with the sentiment and I think maybe particularly with the region. You mentioned healthcare and I am not going to mansplain to you or any of our listeners, but often so much of healthcare or health decisions are based on a male anatomy. I mean there's so many studies, right, of humans that have been just based on on men and haven't included women. And women's healthcare is often not necessarily neglected, but it kind of takes second string to broader things or yeah, it doesn't always get the focus that it deserves considering it is 50% plus whatever of our population. And obviously given that the Region is what shapes health service delivery. I think that's just a really, really positive development. Absolutely. So that's really good to hear. I still think 24, was it 24 mayor positions were women. That's out of 98. Right. So there's still way to go. But you know, progress doesn't always happen in one giant leap. So yeah, I think it's really, really welcome news. I think that reminds me, but brings me to the other thing I thought was really, really interesting about this election. For me, having lived in Denmark for close to seven years now, I've been through a few elections. Some that I could vote in like this, some that I couldn't, like national elections. But this was the first election that I really saw internationals having not clearly not the most focus, but much more focus, I think, both positively and negatively from a lot of the parties or in a lot of the media in a way that I haven't necessarily seen before, if I think of the negative. I guess you have heard of some of the Dansk Fog Party, wonderful ideas about restricting the rights to vote for internationals and of course their remigration plans, which caused a lot of hubbub and consternation over the last few weeks.

Golda: 

Ye actually have heard talks of that. I've seen a few news clips here and there on LinkedIn especially.

Fionn: 

Yeah. And so if you haven't been listening to this podcast or watching the news, I think a few months ago Tanfo Party were highlighting the fact that there are so many internationals in Denmark and therefore internationals have a lot of power. Right. When it comes to voting. Or that's as they see it and as they saw it. Well, no one should be deciding about Denmark except for Danish people. And they kind of proposed restricting the voting rights in municipal elections to only Danish citizens. And obviously there's many problems with that, including it would be legal under EU law. But more recently, Morten Messerschmitt had a long form interview in the weekend of Isen where he floated these re migration plans, which got a lot of attention. I think on the flip side, one thing I found really interesting and we talked about it on the podcast, was the Billund Internationalist. So a party of four representatives who stood, none were elected. But I think they kind of, regardless of that, did a fantastic job of highlighting how internationals in Denmark don't feel like they get the representation that they deserve, frankly. And you know, their kind of stated aim from the start was not necessarily to get elected, but to spark that conversation. And they did in a way that I haven't seen. I mean, it was the front page of Julen's Posten, I think during last week, or maybe it was just the week before. And that's definitely not coverage that I've seen. And then I think one of the most interesting maybe is there was, I think an event in Copenhagen which was organized by Nico Blo Silvestri, who was a candidate for Mataratna in Copenhagen and an international obviously. And he was kind of discussing opportunities and challenges that face internationals and expats in Denmark and kind of spinning out of that. Now Madaratna, basically they have an existing think tank called the Politismuhlstel and they launched dpm, the Politismuhlstel International so specifically focused on bringing together internationals living in Denmark to discuss politics openly and constructively. And obviously this is kind of set up by a political party, but the think tank is meant to be non partisan, so completely independent of it and yeah, backed by it, I guess you could say. But whatever your political stance, if you would vote for them or not or you know, wouldn't give them the time of day. I think it's really interesting to see Lars Luke, you know, the very senior member of the Danish government on Instagram launching this, talking about how internationals enrich Denmark. And you know, we want to give them a voice in a way that they don't have in being underrepresented in politics today. I don't know. Do you think that's a good development? Is that a big development? Am I reading too much into this?

Golda: 

No, I think it's actually great. I did read that last Lurker has even taken some distance from his own parties and some of the stuff that they have said regarding international. I think there's a focus on strengthening Denmark's relationships globally. Cross border and I think Latz Luger, I may be wrong, but recognize that that means also having a favorable environment in Denmark for internationals to come. Right. Because that's the best way to also interact with them. And I think him being a part of that launch also signals that this is something that he's quite committed to. My question to you because I actually haven't heard about this would be for the listeners and myself. Where can we read more about this? How can one potentially. Jo, is there any, any guidance on. On that front?

Fionn: 

Yeah, well, I think you just, just read my mind because that's exactly what I wanted to share. So you can check out DPMI dk. It's DPMI DK where you can actually sign up and join and their own why join section. They basically say that by sharing your perspectives and experiences, you can help improve life in Denmark for internationals. Whether you plan to stay long term or here for just a few years, your voice matters and can help the policies of tomorrow. And yeah, I think that is super. People can join or not as they like, but I would certainly encourage people to check it out because I think the very nature of this podcast, I think aligns with a lot of those similar ideals. And if we want to talk about internationals not feeling represented or maybe not being listened to by the political establishment, whether that's at a local or national level, well, here is a chance maybe to at least try influence that conversation and shape policies in the future that are more not necessarily pro international. I mean you would hope so, but maybe shaped with internationals in mind in a way that they aren't today. So I think that's a very good takeaway as a listener. I know I'm going to check this out and see. Maybe it's great, maybe it's not, but I think it's a really interesting development. I always think that, yeah, more kind of proactive steps to get people to kind of come in in a grassroots way are really super.

Golda: 

Yeah, I 100% agree and I think this is a really good spot to also close the episode because I think it's an action step for the listeners to take away of how as internationals you can actually become involved in even the smallest way. You don't necessarily have to run for local elections or become a politician, but you can just share some of your thoughts and opinions to influence policy. For me personally, just looking at the results, it just shows that these elections, although it was local elections, were really just signaling something on a national front, which is that there is shifting identities and frustrations across Danish society. And as an international, the biggest takeaway is probably that Denmark's political landscape is entering a period of change, which is both exciting but also quite challenging. But I am hopeful, as I always am. I personally think internationals contribute way more to the society than maybe is always acknowledged. So yeah. Do you have any closing statements?

Fionn: 

To be honest, I don't think I have any that would be as eloquent as that. Or put as succinctly, frankly as that. I fully agree with everything you just said. I think it is, yeah, maybe pointing to a bit more of a turbulent time in Danish politics, at least compared to existing norms. Right. When you have hundred year old strongholds in multiple parts of the country, not only Copenhagen being overturned, I think that's a really interesting time. Yeah, we always, we spent the last few weeks on this podcast parroting, you know, go vote, go vote. And I think, yeah, if we can shift that to get involved and use your voice, that's now is a very good time to be using that to shape the future of Danish politics.

Golda: 

Yeah. Thank you so much, Fion. I learned so much today.

Fionn: 

You know, we always do a bit of research for the topics we're going to talk about and it was really interesting this week, I thought, because even as I was looking at some of the election results, there was some of this back and forth cloak and dagger politics in middle fat and ring cupping scare and Pernilla Rosenkunstiegel resigning. So it was kind of down to the wire with some of the developments. So that was also felt like I learned a lot. But it's been an absolute pleasure as always having a chat with you. Thank you to our listeners and to our whole podcast crew behind the scenes, our editor and podcast manager, and all the people who make this happen. We'll be back next week with another episode of Last Week in Denmark. Have a great week.

Golda: 

Foreign. Hey, this is Kalpita and Goulda, co hosts of the Last Week in Denmark podcast. Did you know Last Week in Denmark offer sponsored content in the newsletter? Our reporters are producing original articles and content tailored for internationals in Denmark. So if you have a business our readers should know about, let us write about it. Get in touch with us at reporter Wid DK. You can also reach out to us on LinkedIn and Instagram at last weekindenmark.



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LWID

Host
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Fionn O'Toole

Guest
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Golda Fania

Guest