{"id":1232,"date":"2015-06-12T21:23:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T21:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1232"},"modified":"2015-06-12T21:25:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T21:25:46","slug":"something-is-brewing-in-the-state-of-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2015\/06\/12\/something-is-brewing-in-the-state-of-denmark\/","title":{"rendered":"Something is brewing in the state of Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201dLeft\u201d<\/a>

\u201dLeft\u201d and \u201dright\u201d! The parties SF and Venstre on typical election posters. (Photo by Bj\u00f8rn A. Bojesen.)<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re visiting Danmark<\/b> these days, you\u2019ll probably notice two things: 1. Vejret er dejligt<\/b> [vare-eth ar die-leet] (the weather is nice\/lovely). 2. Gaderne er fulde af valgplakater<\/b>. (The streets are full of election posters.)<\/p>\n

On May 27th<\/sup>, plakatoph\u00e6ngerne<\/b> (the poster \u201dhangers\u201d) hurried\u00a0to put up huge photos of politikere<\/b> (politicians) all over the country. Helle Thorning-Schmidt<\/b>, the Danish statsminister<\/b> (prime minister), had just announced the date for valget<\/b> [valyeth] (the election): 18. juni<\/b>. What\u2019s it all about?<\/p>\n

\u2022 in Denmark, each regering<\/b> (government) has a period of 4 years. Before that time is up, the PM has to udskrive valg<\/b> (call an election).<\/p>\n

\u2022 in folketingsvalget <\/b>(the general election), 179 people are elected to occupy the seats at Folketinget<\/b> (the Danish Parliament) in Copenhagen<\/p>\n

\u2022 stemmerne<\/b> (the votes) decide how much influence the various partier<\/b> (parties) will get, and who will be the next statsminister<\/b><\/p>\n

Traditionally, there are two political blokke<\/b> (\u201dblocks\u201d) in Denmark \u2013 r\u00f8d blok<\/b> (red block) is \u201dleft wing\u201d (a bit more socialist), while bl\u00e5 blok <\/b>(blue block) is \u201dright wing\u201d (a bit more conservative or liberal). The current \u201dred\u201d PM (from the party Socialdemokraterne<\/b>) is challenged by the \u201dblue\u201d Lars L\u00f8kke <\/b>(from the party Venstre<\/b>). (L\u00f8kke used to be PM, but he\u2019s also been accused of spending his party\u2019s money to buy things for himself, so he\u2019s a bit controversial!)<\/p>\n

On a Danish stemmeseddel<\/b> (ballot paper), each party has its own letter code. Here are the Danish parties, from venstre<\/b> (left) to h\u00f8jre <\/b>(right):<\/p>\n

R\u00d8D BLOK: Enhedslisten<\/b> (The Unity List; letter code \u00d8<\/b>), SF = Socialistisk Folkeparti <\/b>(Socialistic Popular Party; F<\/b>), Socialdemokraterne<\/b> (The Social Democrats; A<\/b>), Det Radikale Venstre <\/b>(The Radical Left; B<\/b>) \u2013 BL\u00c5 BLOK: Liberal Alliance <\/b>(Liberal Alliance; I<\/b>), Venstre<\/b> (Left; V<\/b>), Det Konservative Folkeparti <\/b>(The Conservative Popular Party; C<\/b>), Dansk Folkeparti<\/b> (Danish Popular Party; O<\/b>).<\/p>\n

\"Helle<\/a>

Helle Thorning-Schmidt (photo from Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC License)<\/p><\/div>\n

I won\u2019t bother you with all the details. \ud83d\ude42 It must suffice to say that Danish elections have often been a battle between Socialdemokraterne\u00a0<\/b>(the traditional party for workers) and Venstre<\/b> (the traditional party for farmers \u2013 confusing that a \u201dright wing\u201d party is called Left, don\u2019t you think?)<\/p>\n

\"Lars<\/a>

Lars L\u00f8kke (photo from Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC License)<\/p><\/div>\n

Whether or not you\u2019ve watched the Danish tv serial Borgen<\/b> (\u201dThe Fortress\u201d) \u2013 which is broadcast in the UK \u2013 you probably know that politikere<\/b> love talking\u2026 The \u201dtalk of the town\u201d in Denmark is often skat<\/b> (taxes), indvandring<\/b> (immigration) and how (not) to help de arbejdsl\u00f8se <\/b>(the unemployed). Dansk Folkeparti<\/b> has become popular among Danes who want less immigration. (Unfortunately, the debate has often been very ugly!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s valg<\/b> is quite exciting, as there is a brand new party on board \u2013 Alternativet<\/b> (The Alternative; letter code \u00c5<\/b>). I talked to Peter Christensen<\/b>, who\u2019s a party member:<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A poster for the new party Alternativet. The sign says: \u201d100 % renewable energy.\u201d (Disclaimer: This is not a political blog; Alternativet is covered more in depth because it is something new.)<\/p><\/div>\n

What is Alternativet?<\/i><\/p>\n

Alternativet<\/b> is a political movement where everything comes nedefra<\/b> (from the bottom). We forge our ideas and positions at politiske laboratorier<\/b> (political labs) where all kinds of people are invited to participate, all over the country. It\u2019s a bit like open-source software.<\/p>\n

Is it a \u201dleft wing\u201d or a \u201dright wing\u201d party?<\/i><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want to place ourselves in any \u201dblock\u201d. We\u2019re against that kind of static thinking. Alternativet is a dynamic party. We\u2019ll cooperate with those people who support our ideas.<\/p>\n

What does Alternativet want?<\/i><\/p>\n

Our three main goals are ecological, social and economic b\u00e6redygtighed<\/b> (sustainability).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

If you\u2019re visiting Danmark these days, you\u2019ll probably notice two things: 1. Vejret er dejligt [vare-eth ar die-leet] (the weather is nice\/lovely). 2. Gaderne er fulde af valgplakater. (The streets are full of election posters.) On May 27th, plakatoph\u00e6ngerne (the poster \u201dhangers\u201d) hurried\u00a0to put up huge photos of politikere (politicians) all over the country. Helle…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[362729,362722,362723,362724,362725,237979,3339,253022,362730,362728],"class_list":["post-1232","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alternativet","tag-borgen","tag-folketingsvalg","tag-general-election","tag-helle-thorning-schmidt","tag-lars-lokke","tag-party","tag-politicians","tag-socialdemokraterne","tag-venstre"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1239,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1232\/revisions\/1239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}