News and comment from Denmark: Racism in the political debate
The shift to the right continues as the latest polls, taken from the 18th to the 22nd of April, show an increase for the Radikal Venstre and Dansk Folkeparti, mostly at the expense of the Social Democrat parties.
The poll also indicates voter satisfaction with the idea of a VKR government (both governing parties have already dismissed the notion). A VKR coalition would see a government formed between the existing governing conservative parties and the Radikal Venstre (generally regarded as being left of centre), which would actually move the power in the opposite direction to the national trend.
In the mean time, things have moved on. Dansk Folkeparti has refused to participate in any plan to give more money towards accommodating those children of immigrants who’s applications to enter Denmark have been turned down but who refuse to leave. This matter has become the current point of debate between the Radikal Venstre and Dansk Folkeparti which makes me wonder at why the two socialist parties and the two governing parties are largely silent in this matter. The ideological struggle in Danish politics seems to have been usurped by two women; Marianne Jelved and Pia Kjærsgaard… at least in the public arena.
What’s odd about this is not that two women should be so prominent, but rather that the third female leader in Danish politics (and who still controls the largest share in the polls) Helle Thorning Schmidt is largely absent. The virtual absence of any male leaders in this debate is also note worthy, especially since men head the government.
One of the more noticeable aspects of the current debate revolves around accusations of racism. Marianne Jelved, responding to DF’s refusal to back the idea of paying more money to improve the life of children stuck in Danish internment camps told the TV journalists that Pia Kjærsgaard’s motivation was simple racism. She even went so far as to accuse Kjærsgaard of not wanting to pay for the children because they had ‘brown skin’.
I’ve seen the same debate playing out in Belgium, Holland and the UK in recent months as well. Yesterday on Radio 4’s 'Any questions' programme, a labour politico referred to the BNP as ‘scum’.
For my own part, I am irritated with Jelved. It is of course in her best interests to portray her opponents in the worst possible light and that’s what she’s doing, but in so doing she is also ignoring the valid concerns of a large proportion of the electorate who surely feel that they must vote for the nationalists because no one else is undertaking to protect their best interests! The fact that so many people now feel they must vote for Pia Kjærsgaard is not a sign of rising racism (though I’m sure racism exists in all people to some extent or other) but rather that more and more people feel they cannot vote for politicians, like Jelved, who simply ignore their fears in favour of a personal political ideology and who call the electorate ‘racist’ for being concerned with the state Denmark is now in.
Its worth noting that in accusimg Kjærsgaard of racism, Jelved ignores the small detail that most of those children trapped in internment camps are only in that prediciment because the previous government, of which Jelved was a minister, didn't deal with the problem of so many immigrants coming into Denmark from Yugoslavia when they first arrived. Jelved would like to deflect attention from her share in the responsibility for these people and she's doing so in a display of moral idignantion that leaves her exposed as a hypocrite.
I personally will probably never vote for Dansk Folkeparti. I’d think I’d actually consider voting for the Radikal Venstre if some one other than Marianne Jelved headed it. As things stand as they are now though I’m mostly inclined to vote for the Prime Minister since he is just about the only politician who appears to have both feet on the ground and has reasonable approach to the problems we’re facing.
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