Comment from Denmark

So I was watching a socio-political debate programme called 'Clement Direkte' on DR1 tonight. Hosted by a media cult celebrity called Clement Behrendt Kjærsgaard, I find 'Clement Direkte' to be one of the most curious debate shows on Danish TV since its host is a man gifted with unusual mannerisms and a cunning debatorial style that often leaves his guests at a loss for words. A few weeks ago I was well pleased to see him run rings around Mogens Lykketoft (an old puppet master of the Socialdemokraterne) though I don't have any great fondness for Kjærsgaard.

On tonight’s show he had two interesting guests. The first was Eva Smith, the Danish author of the recent EU report which criticised Denmark and which I wrote about here. Clement Kjærsgaard put the question to Smith as to what was so wrong with the current political climate to which Smith replied with the same tired old line that the socialist opposition has been repeating, mantra like, for the last few years. According to Smith, the problem in Denmark, with regards to immigration, lies in the 'tone' of the debate.

I sighed. I've heard this so many times that it’s become a direct provocation to my sensibilities. Thankfully, Clement Kjærsgaard is not as easy going on his guests as most Danish journalists are and so he asked Eva Smith for an example. Smith wasn't really able to accommodate such a simple request so Kjærsgaard basically provided one for her.

A recent study by a Danish newspaper called Ekstra Bladet asked Danes whether or not they'd be inclined to testify against either rockers or immigrants in a court of law. The background for this example lies in that in the last decade or so Denmark has witnessed many high profile crimes carried out by both those biker gangs who are referred to as rockers (mostly Hells Angels & Bandidos) and criminal immigrant gangs and with both groups there has been a noted lack of witnesses prepared to face the consequences of testifying. The most recent case was the murder in the streets of Copenhagen of a noted boxing champion who was stabbed to death.

Eva Smith identified the study by Ekstra Bladet as being an example of the 'tone' in the immigration debate here in Denmark. Why she asked were all immigrants being identified as a single unified group? If bus drivers were treated thus, she argued, then the bus drivers union would be up in arms. In essence her point was the oft repeated, and essentially true, argument that not all immigrants share a common identity and so they ought to be treated with more care so as not to insult so many innocent and law abiding people.

But then she made a comment that betrayed her bias. She told Clement Kjærsgaard that he couldn’t possibly understand because he belonged to the one group that had never experienced prejudism, the white male. With this observation Smith made it clear that in her worldview, there is apparently no need to search for any further cause of why Denmark, and Europe, is facing such a hard time with immigration, or any other issue you care to mention, for the blame rests safe and sound on the head and shoulders of Caucasian masculinity.

The irony, which no doubt escaped her entirely, was that Clement Kjærsgaard’s third guest was none other than Pia Kjærsgaard, (no relation of the host that I am aware of) the leader of the nationalist Danske Folkeparti and the favourite ‘figure of hatred’ for the socialist opposition. Here was the physical, female, embodiment of the ‘tone’ of the debate, sitting right beside Smith (who could not even bring herself to look at Pia Kjærsgaard) and proving the lie to Smith’s argument.

It’s an appalling set of affairs when a politician, in all seriousness, bases an argument against stereotyping by means of a stereotype. For all her self-righteous indignation and moral authority, Eva Smith proved herself to be not only a hypocrite but also a clumsy hypocrite to boot.

I would have liked to hear Smith defend her views, especially in regards to the sorry state of affairs that is Sweden, where the ‘tone’ of the debate mirrors that which Smith so ardently desires.