The Danish nationalist party Danish People’s Party has risen to
popularity in the polls do disillusionment with the mainstream parties,
economic crisis, and concern over the rise of mass immigration in
Denmark.
Denmark’s ruling Social Democrats have for the first time
polled below the anti-immigrant populist Danish People’s party, in a
sign of just how much the country’s centre-left government is
struggling.
The Social Democrats, led by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt,
received just 17.2 per cent in the poll released on Wednesday by
Berlingske newspaper while the Danish People’s party took 17.4 per
cent.
The poll comes after a turbulent week for the minority coalition as a
move to cut the corporate tax rate from 25 to 22 per cent while
reforming the student grant system and other benefits has caused
disbelief among some centre-left politicians. Ms Thorning-Schmidt was
forced to deny reports of open dissent from some of her ministers to
the plans, but numerous lower-ranking Social Democrat officials have
hit out at the plans.
Government insiders, however, downplayed the significance and
reliability of the poll, noting that it followed other recent measures
that gave the coalition its highest ratings for a year with 47.8 per
cent of the vote.
Denmark’s government has lurched from crisis to crisis
since being elected in 2011 with many on the left criticising its
embrace of traditional rightwing measures such as a tax reform last
year that benefited some of the biggest earners at the expense of
pensions and unemployment benefits.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt is banking on the corporate tax cut to create
150,000 new jobs in the private sector by the end of the decade as
Denmark seeks to kick-start its slow recovery from the financial
crisis. Denmark was the Nordic country – aside from Iceland – hardest
hit by the effects of the credit crunch and there have been several bank failures in recent months amid high household indebtedness.
The Danish prime minister’s strategy is to hope that the economy
recovers strongly by the next elections in 2015 but some economists are
sceptical that the rebound will be very strong.
The Danish central bank still has negative interest rates for bank
deposits, something the Bank of England is considering as well. But
private sector bank executives say there is little demand in the
economy for new loans and instead Danske Bank, the country’s largest
lender, has introduced fees for savings accounts to protect its
margins.
Political commentators say the danger for the Social Democrats – who
received a quarter of votes in the general election – is that the
Danish People’s party is now starting to attract centre-left voters,
not just because of its tough stance on immigration but also because of
the economy.
“It is one of the most sensational polls I have seen in a long time,” said Thomas Larsen, a commentator at Berlingske.
The Danish People’s party is one of a number of Nordic political
groups such as the True Finns that have been classified as far-right by
some, although others say only the Sweden Democrats
in the region is deserving of the tag, given its neo-Nazi roots. The
Danish People’s party helped support the last centre-right government
in return for a toughening of immigration policies.
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