The ministers of Denmark’s new blue-and-red government will be presented today after record-long negotiations. This time they come exceptionally from the left, center and right.
Karoliina KantolaYle reporter in Denmark
COPENHAGEN A whole 43 days. The formation of the Danish government took a record long time, but the end result was not ordinary either.
On Tuesday evening, still acting as prime minister Mette Frederiksen reported (you switch to another service), that the government negotiations have been completed. In addition to the Social Democrats, the government will include the center-right party Venstre and the new centrist Moderates (Moderaterne).
Unlike In Finland (you switch to another service)a government that crosses the left-right line in Denmark is very exceptional.
Danish politics has typically worked somewhat the same as in Sweden. In Denmark, there has been only one governing party for decades, which has supporting parties behind it – depending on the prime minister’s party, either on the left, i.e. the red bloc, or on the right, or the blue bloc.
Last time, a majority government that crossed the block line was established In Denmark (you switch to another service) almost 30 years ago. The Social Democrats and the centre-right Venstre were last in the same government more than 40 years ago.
Frederiksen of the Social Democrats began to hint even before the elections that the party has an open attitude towards a government that crosses bloc borders.
As the election campaign and especially the government negotiations progressed, there was also an echo from the right, especially by Jakob Ellemann-Jensen led by Venstre, which lost as many as 20 seats in the parliamentary elections. The party lost the votes of, among others, the former Venstre prime minister by Lars Løkke Rasmussen founded by Maltillis, which became the third largest party after the Social Democrats and Venstre.
Venstre (you switch to another service) and with certain reservations as well Moderate (you switch to another service) were finally ready, among other things, to ignore the corona-era mink scandal, i.e. the Prime Minister’s order to end all minks in the country, when some minks in some shelters had been diagnosed with corona cases.
In Denmark, the activities of politicians and authorities, which were later found to be illegal, have been settled for more than two years. The opposition in particular has demanded that Fredriksen’s role be clarified.
The entire organization of the elections this fall was partly connected to the mink scandal. According to the law, the prime minister could have organized an election by next summer, but a social liberal Radikale Venstre (you switch to another service) -party demanded early elections and threatened to withdraw its support from the government.
Getting to power and being in power requires compromises. In the new in the board composition (you move to another service) the social democrats have to make concessions on things that are important to them, such as pensions and taxation of the wealthy. For example, the conditions for early retirement will be tightened, and the income limit for the highest (15 percent) taxation will be raised.
Until now, the Danish social democrats have taken a more right-wing line than the Finnish and Swedish democrats, for example in immigration and some labor market matters.
The new government parties campaigned during the elections about the importance of climate issues and now promise to make Denmark climate neutral by 2045. However, other parties do not consider climate measures to be sufficient.
Among other reasons, all the parties of the red bloc left the government negotiations.
The new ministers will appear in front of the media today is thursday. According to media sources, the Social Democrats would receive the most important portfolios in the new government.
In addition to the climate crisis, the government’s desk has a pile of crises related to energy supply, war, labor shortages and the country’s internal security.
Loud criticism and challengers are expected from the opposition on the other side of the People’s Assembly hall. The former support parties of the Social Democrats now also sit there.