Today’s news from Denmark:
The opposition has been split in half by the proposition by the Radikal Venstre of Marianne Jelved as a candidate for the job of Prime Minister after the next election. To say this has upset the Social Demokraterne is to put it mildly given they have long enjoyed pole position amongst the opposition parties.
Unfortunately for the social democrats, their newly appointed leader, Helle Thorning-Schmidt has not proven herself capable of maintaining her party’s political weight since her election to the post of chairperson. She’s been getting a lot of flak because of this. Today for example, Henning G. Jensen, SD mayor of Hjørring, referred to being an SD politician as ‘embarrassing’. Ha!. Really?
I can’t but help wonder why they are all so hard on poor Helle though. I don’t support her policies, but I don’t blame her for her nose-diving popularity either. What did they expect? Her party has not been united behind her at all and she is, in political experience, a mere novice besides the dinosaurs who run the other major parties. Marianne Jelved in particular has long been a ‘behind the throne’ element of successive SD led governments and her move towards regaining her lost power now hints at a possible desperation brought about by the shift to the right in Danish politics. Given the weakness of the social democrats and the apparently growing strength of the nationalist Dansk Folkeparti (whom Jelved apparently regards as being just one step short of the Nazi party) Jelved has no other credible option but to move herself to the right in order to counter Dansk Folkeparti It’s going to be interesting to see how the polls react. I personally can’t imagine a more depressing scenario than having Marianne Jelved in power!
JP: New political constellation forming.
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