The results of yesterday's local elections in Denmark are in.
The Red-Green alliance, a well-meaning demsoc party that is the furthest left you get in Danish politics, became the largest party in the city of Copenhagen and on the island of Bornholm. This is the first time the party becomes the largest in a municipality. However their support support for a leftist mayor could not be found in either of the two municipalities but the Red-Greens were part of the coalitions behind a succdem lord mayor in Copenhagen and a conservative mayor in Bornholm. In Copenhagen they managed to get two out of six alderman positions instead of the one they currently have for their support and in Bornholm they got the post of vice mayor the construction of a new city hall stopped and the municipal budget reopened.
The good result for the Red-Greens was offset by the collapse of the green Alternative party which has been destroyed by internal infighting.
The succdems did poorly although not catastrophically. Loosing the position of largest party in their traditional stronghold of Copenhagen was a humiliation for them and might spark internal criticism of the "anti-elitist" and "anti-city" rhetoric they have been using for the last few years. Their bad results are likely influenced by increasing criticism of the during succdem government who has gotten themselves into a public scandal due to culling all minks in the country last year without a legal basis as well as the destruction of evidence incriminating them in the case.
On the far right the fascist with a succdem vibe Danish People's Party had a catastrophic election, losing more than half of their votes. A lot of those were picked up by the fascist with a libertarian vibe New Right party but in total the far right got fewer votes than last time.
The Liberal Party, that traditionally is the largest party on the right wing did poorly last time but managed to prevent further losses. Meanwhile the conservative party, helped by the crisis of the fascists as well as the liberals had a good election although losing control of their traditional stronghold of Frederiksberg in Copenhagen.
As is tradition, I’ll just come out and ask the question that’s on everybody’s minds. Is this good or bad for the current anti-imperialist trend?
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The right did better, which sucks, but it doesn't matter so much when they did it at the expense of the succdems.
Honestly, the performance by the Social Democrats has been fucking terrible. Their absolute embarasment has only been slightly alleviated by the fact that the right also had a horrible election in general. As a broad coalition, the right did pretty badly, even if the conservative party seems to be doing exceptionally well. Also, the conservative party losing Frederiksberg will be the funniest thing to happen for a while. Losing their stranglehold on that county for the last 112 years will most likely just make them worse, but it's funny to see them seethe.
It is slightly good. The Red-Greens will gain more influence and become more confident from this and although they are annoyingly liberal at times they are the least horrible option in Danish electoral politics.
The post-election agreements dividing posts in Copenhagen and Frederiksberg should also serve as a reminder to the left. The succdems could never dream of being the junior partners in a coalition with the left, they will rather side with the right than letting a leftist be in charge.
One can hope the election leads to a more confident, less illusioned left.
Overall the succdems and the far right did poorly. An optimistic interpretation of this could be a declining interest in racism among voters. However although they cannibalised their votes from the Danish People's Party the fascist New Right went from having a single councillor in a single municipality to having a significant presence in local politics. They will feel emboldened by this.
I see, but not really what I was asking for. Are there any implications for foreign policy? NATO?
It's local elections so not really. All it does for that is giving slightly better vibes.