The electoral calendar is particularly busy on the international scene these days: presidential in Brazil, new ballot in Israel, not to mention the mid-term elections in the United States, in a week, etc. In the midst of these crucial votes, which can change the political balance of large regions of the world, why should we be interested in the Danish legislative elections? These are also early elections, which took place on Tuesday, November 1st.
>> Denmark: the outgoing left wins in the snatch in the legislative elections
Normally, the vote was scheduled in nine months. And that’s the first point. A rather incredible scenario, reminiscent of Borgen, this television series on Danish politics, rich in corridor maneuvers. The outgoing government has fallen, because of a dark history of minks. Denmark has many farms of this animal whose fur is marketed. The country is even the world’s largest exporter. Annual revenue: 500 million euros. But two years ago, in the midst of a pandemic, the Prime Minister decided to slaughter all the mink in the country. The government fears that a mutation of the virus will spread to humans. 17 million animals are euthanized. Except that several months later, it turns out that this decision was unjustified and even illegal. Result: the Prime Minister, the social democrat Mette Frederiksen, is dropped by an allied party. Hence these early elections.
This outgoing Prime Minister narrowly won. His camp obtained the majority, with a single seat in advance in Parliament. From now on, it reaches out to the centrist parties, to widen its majority. No major differences, for example on the question of immigration: all these parties are in favor of the very restrictive policy implemented so far.
What is interesting is that the electoral campaign was permeated by the health crisis or rather by its consequences. One of the major topics of debate: the health system, and staff shortages in public hospitals. 5,000 positions are unfilled, as many nurses and doctors quit after the Covid wave. This is the emergency. In short, from minks to hospitals, in 2022, the health crisis is still disrupting political life. Like a kind of long Covid, which reaches our democracies.