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Danish Election 2015- How would you vote?

Who would you vote for in the Danish general election of 2015?

  • Social Liberal

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Socialist People's Party

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Liberal Alliance

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Alternative

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    13
What's the possibility of Venstre and the Social Democrats working together to prevent the DPP from being apart of government?

Hmm always a possibility. While it has never happened in recent memory it is always possible. I would suspect more that some of the smaller parties on the right, might be able to be moved.. would not take much. The Liberal Alliance could do it.

It all really depends on what kind of deal Venstre and the Peoples Party figure out.

There will be 2 main sticking points as I see it. 1.) EU. Venstre is pro, Peoples Party is against. 2.) Immigration.. Venstre is for tighting an already nutso system but in no way are they willing to go as far as the Peoples Party wants.. which is basically to kick all non Christians and whites out of the country.

Now remember, it is not only Venstre and the Peoples Party you have to get into line with.. it is also the old Conservative Party and the new Liberal Alliance. So there will be a lot of compromising going as usual. One might mean that even though the Peoples Party will be the biggest party, the requirement for any cooperation will be that the Venstre leader becomes Prime Minister.

Oh and as it looks now.. the majority will be razor thin. You need 90 mandates to have a majority.. the blue block aka right.. will have 90 to 92.

But we should know the final result in about 30 min or so I guess. One thing we Danes are good at, and that is holding elections. 85.8% turnout.. that at least can make me proud :)
 
Results are in..,... need 90 seats to have a majority.

Biggest party is the Social Democrats with 47 seats.

Biggest party on the right is the Peoples Party with 37 seats.

The Red block (Left) have about 85 seats.
The Blue block (right) have about 90 seats.

North Atlantic seats still to be given out I suspect, but usually they lean mostly read with 1 or 2 going to the blue block.

The present Prime Minister is stepping down as party leader of the Social Democrats according to reports.. and of course the post of Prime Minister.

The horse trading for who gets what and how has begun behind the scenes, where as the main people are getting drunk.

Looking at the areas of Denmark who voted what is kinda interesting. The south of Jutland went racist. The west of Jutland remained loyal to their farmer roots aka Venstre. Northern Jutland stayed red, as did Fyn. Western Zealand also went racist and the rest of Zealand went mostly red, with the exception of the traditional rich area north of Copenhagen.. aka the Whiskey Belt.

At least it did not go down to the Faroe islands mandates.. that would have been interesting.. nationalist who want independence.

This is a disaster for Denmark on so many levels. Best to hope for now, is that the Peoples Party dont get into government but stay as a backing party like they did before. Worst case, they get into government and being black, jewish and muslim will suddenly become a crime.
 
Final result in

Red block 89 mandates/seats
Blue block 90 mandates/seats.

All it takes now is one person saying "hell no" and switching sides and everything goes tits up. Would not be the first time it has happened.
 
Wrong. You can vote either for the party and then your vote goes to the person the party decides, usually the nr 1 on the list, till that person is voted and then it goes to the next one and so on. Or you vote personally, but setting an X by a candidates name and then your vote goes to that person.

That is how I though it worked, turns out it is much more convoluted.
 
In the Netherlands every party files a list of candidates with the election authority. The positions on the list are decided by the parties itself. For example, the party who won the last election will be list number 1, their party leader will be number 1 on that list and the rest of the candidates take the rest of the places on the list. Normally every party has so many prospective members that a good deal will not be elected because normally you can vote for each candidate. If that candidate has so many votes that she qualifies for a place in parliament, then someone else of the party will not be allowed in our version of the house of representatives.

Say party 1 has won 20 seats, then if no-one has enough preferential votes to win their seat outright, the party leader and the 19 people who are on the list on place 2 through 20 will have won a seat. But if say number 23 on the list is so popular that he/she has enough preferential votes to win a seat, then the last one on the list to normally get a seat will lose out because the party has a maximum of 20 seats to fill.

But if this party becomes part of the coalition government then 1 or more will become members of government, they will then no longer be part of the house of representatives because you cannot be both in government and a MP. So they will vacate their seats and say 8 MP's of that party will become part of the government, then their seats will be filled by the numbers 20 to 27 on their original list.

A lot of political parties have list-pushers, purely put on the list of electable figures to incite people to vote for them (like former party leaders, musicians, actors, writers, etc.) to push the vote for their party but those people will never win enough (and do not really want to be) sitting in parliament.

And every party constructs it's list of candidates in the same way.

So Rutte and the cabinet minsters are not MPs, the government is entirely separate? Does the government still physically sit in parliament?
 
That is how I though it worked, turns out it is much more convoluted.

Not really. It is pretty simple.

Each party can put up as many candidates in a district as they want. They can rank these candidates as they want.

The voters can vote either on the party or the candidate. The party votes are given out by the party to the candidates based on how they are ranked.

Remember we use the D'Hondt method for most votes (135 seats) and Sainte-Laguë method for the remaining seats. Both methods are similar.. just difference maths, but the principles are the same. Threshold is 2%.

It is a quite fair system when it comes down to things. But in the end you as a voter, have a voting paper (yes we still use pen and paper), with all the candidates in your area and in some areas this is almost a meter long paper :) You can put your X (has to be an X) on either a name or the party. Pretty easy if you ask me.
 
People also have to remember one thing about Danish politics. It aint as split on right and left as American or UK politics... Almost ALL major legislation is bi-partisan, meaning in the last Social Democrat government, the various budgets and stuff were passed not only with the Social Democrats and their supporters on the left, but also with Venstre and the right wing.. usually minus the Peoples Party. Compromise is the key factor of running Denmark.
 
So Rutte and the cabinet minsters are not MPs, the government is entirely separate? Does the government still physically sit in parliament?

you are right, none of they are not mp's. They are often found in parliament but have no permanent seat in parliament.

Our congress/house of commons looks like this

Tweede_kamer10.jpg

In the benches number one, is the box for the cabinet ministers if they are needed for a debate or if they are there to present a plan or have been called up to answer questions

at number 2 is the chairwoman of the house of commons, she used to be an MP but he/she is elected by the MP's to be chairperson. The chairperson is no longer an MP and cannot vote.

at number three is the place where an MP can ask questions are present the opinion of his/her party

number four is the place where MP's/party commons leaders can ask their questions from the MP at position number three or debate things with the cabinet minister who is sitting/standing in the box with the number one

like this media_xl_2273161.jpg

at the positions 5 are the 150 members of parliament/house of commons. Normally that is only full during voting or contentious debates. A lot of discussions are done at commission meetings (which are open to public) where the cabinet minister is debating issues with the party representatives who specialize in that subject.

Where it says 6 is the place where the public can come and view the debates.

When the commons wants to debate for example, crime and justice related issues, all cabinet ministers or under secretaries of that department, will be sitting in box 1. But normally, if they do not have any business with parliament, the cabinet ministers are not in the commons. Their duty is leading the country, not sitting in parliament and acting like politicians.
 
I would've much rather preferred that it would've come down to the Faeroese separatists. An independent Faroe Islands would be a much better end to the election than the DPP being given a chance at prime minister.

With Helle Thorning-Schmidt stepping down as leader of the Social Democrats and Thulesen Dahl ruling out going into government at all, (probably so that they can keep their populist appeal) that leaves Rasmussen as the only viable candidate for PM, despite the fact that his party came in third in popular vote and in seats... what a mess.
 
I elect this danish:

danish-braid-cut2.jpg


But only because your damn system sounds complicated as hell.
 
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I elect this danish:

danish-braid-cut2.jpg


But only because your damn system sounds complicated as hell.

Actually it's pretty simple.
It's representative democracy, so you use give your mandate to a candidate to act on your behalf.
If you can't find someone you're willing to vote for personally, you vote for the party instead, and a candidate is chosen for you.
In a historical view, the rest is just an arbitrary set of rules to establish how votes translate into MP seats.

When elected, the MP gets legal immunity and is by bound by nothing but his/her own conscience.
This is because the mandate belongs to a direct representative of the people, and as such may not be pressured into anything. Even by the party. Or the voters for that matter.
Pretty basic stuff really.
 
I would've much rather preferred that it would've come down to the Faeroese separatists. An independent Faroe Islands would be a much better end to the election than the DPP being given a chance at prime minister.

With Helle Thorning-Schmidt stepping down as leader of the Social Democrats and Thulesen Dahl ruling out going into government at all, (probably so that they can keep their populist appeal) that leaves Rasmussen as the only viable candidate for PM, despite the fact that his party came in third in popular vote and in seats... what a mess.

It is not a mess, it is quite normal. Denmark has not had a majority government in decades as far as I remember.

Now before the election it was a given that Rasmussen was the leader of the opposition and the blue block. That Dahl happened to gain more seats (3 more) does not change that because lets be frank.. it is most likely a fluke. Chances are they will lose many of those gained seats next election as they usually do. The Peoples Party voters are not exactly the most loyal out there. Many of those votes are most likely protests votes against the Venstre leader himself, and I suspect that for the next election in 4 years, there might be a new leader of the party... at least I hope so.

Now Dahl does not want to be in government for a simple reason. The future elections. 2nd tier parties in Danish coalition governments tend to lose seats at the next election. The Socialist Peoples party went into coalition government after the 2011 election and lost a lot of votes due to it, despite leaving the coalition government over a year ago. Many voters returned to their roots in the Communist party or the new Alternative party (which frankly smells a lot like the Socialist Peoples party), which this election both became bigger than the Socialist Peoples party for the first time I believe. So if Dahl went into coalition with Rasmussen, then he would have to compromise a lot, which would piss off the base and make them flee to other parties.. most likely Venstre ironically.

No instead he could become the main backer of a Rasmussen lead minority government with only Venstre in government.. he has done it before. It will be weak, very weak, but its parliamentary basis will be the right wing blue block.

Other than that Rasmussen would have to negotiate with all parties on every piece of legislation, which is what most Danish governments have done for the last 30+ years. So it opens up a freedom for Rasmussen to say talk EU with everyone else but the communists and the Peoples Party but include them in say social legislation or financial legislation. It could easily be that next years budget could be Venstre, Conservatives, Social Democrats, Radical Liberals for example, totally excluding the Peoples party.. probably wont but it could.

So this is about as close to a true democracy you can get if you think about it. Parties negotiate across political divides on all issues to reach a compromise that can be accepted.
 
No that is the Social Democrats. They might (god I hope not) become the biggest party on the right... still 49% of the votes to be counted and the gab is getting smaller.



Well lets see. I am ashamed of my country that so many people have voted for those nationalist racist pigs, but just because they become the largest party on the right does not mean that the people on the right will work with them. There is a lot of political angling going on tonight and tomorrow. Lets put it this way, no one on the left want the Peoples Party in government and the right side parties are not exactly thrilled either.

And the reality here is that many of the new votes going to the Peoples Party are more likely protest votes against the Ventres (The Liberal Party) leader and former Prime Minster. He is an ass, a drunk and frankly he and his cronies have ruined the party. We shall see.

So presumably an EU referendum would be a condition for any kind of coalition agreement? or is it not as much of a Sine Qua Non for them as it would be for UKIP?
 
So presumably an EU referendum would be a condition for any kind of coalition agreement? or is it not as much of a Sine Qua Non for them as it would be for UKIP?

Nope. We have had our EU referendums long ago (as did the British but hey!).

As far as I understand it the Peoples Party want the following.

1) He wants to split the refugee and immigration debate in two whatever that means since his party is the one that put them in one basket in the first place and make it harder to get asylum in Denmark... which could be a problem. It is pretty hard already. I am hoping that what will come out of it, is a system where people from war torn countries are given asylum and all others are not or something similar. And when the war is over, then they are kicked out.. it is especially the last part that pisses me off as we STILL have a lot of Bosnians in Denmark, and Lebanese. Those wars ended decades ago, so they have no reason to stay.

2) Reform the EU. They cant demand that Denmark leaves, because that would require a referendum, and that aint gonna happen. Basically he wants Denmark to ally it self with Cameron on this front. This could happen. Considering we already have a lot of exceptions, then I dunno what the heck they want to change other than point 3. Plus, like UKIP, the Peoples Party gets a lot of their funding from the EU because they are well represented in the EU parliament.. yea I know the hypocrisy.

3) He also wants to put in border checks again. They tried it during the last right wing government but got slapped over the wrist by the EU and had to take it back. How they will try to do it this time I have no idea, because it is unrealistic demand. I suspect they might try to wiggle it into the "EU reform" deal with the EU.

4) And the final part is the simple part because it is so vague... to secure the economic progress so that the welfare state will be secure in the future, with a special focus on the sick and elderly. Pretty much all parties can agree on that one.

These are the 4 "steadfast" principles that the Peoples Party want to be in a coalition government. Which means basically chances of one is slim, as the only one that they can agree on is point 4.
 
It is not a mess, it is quite normal. Denmark has not had a majority government in decades as far as I remember.

Now before the election it was a given that Rasmussen was the leader of the opposition and the blue block. That Dahl happened to gain more seats (3 more) does not change that because lets be frank.. it is most likely a fluke. Chances are they will lose many of those gained seats next election as they usually do. The Peoples Party voters are not exactly the most loyal out there. Many of those votes are most likely protests votes against the Venstre leader himself, and I suspect that for the next election in 4 years, there might be a new leader of the party... at least I hope so.

Now Dahl does not want to be in government for a simple reason. The future elections. 2nd tier parties in Danish coalition governments tend to lose seats at the next election. The Socialist Peoples party went into coalition government after the 2011 election and lost a lot of votes due to it, despite leaving the coalition government over a year ago. Many voters returned to their roots in the Communist party or the new Alternative party (which frankly smells a lot like the Socialist Peoples party), which this election both became bigger than the Socialist Peoples party for the first time I believe. So if Dahl went into coalition with Rasmussen, then he would have to compromise a lot, which would piss off the base and make them flee to other parties.. most likely Venstre ironically.

No instead he could become the main backer of a Rasmussen lead minority government with only Venstre in government.. he has done it before. It will be weak, very weak, but its parliamentary basis will be the right wing blue block.

Other than that Rasmussen would have to negotiate with all parties on every piece of legislation, which is what most Danish governments have done for the last 30+ years. So it opens up a freedom for Rasmussen to say talk EU with everyone else but the communists and the Peoples Party but include them in say social legislation or financial legislation. It could easily be that next years budget could be Venstre, Conservatives, Social Democrats, Radical Liberals for example, totally excluding the Peoples party.. probably wont but it could.

So this is about as close to a true democracy you can get if you think about it. Parties negotiate across political divides on all issues to reach a compromise that can be accepted.

Oh I don't object to the idea of the need for negotiations in parliamentary politics. It just seems bizarre to me that Rasmussen will most likely be taking the position of PM and be the one conducting the negotiations instead of Thorning-Schmidt, since her party was in first and increased its share of the vote, which is not something that happened in the election that actually resulted in her becoming Prime Minister. Meanwhile Venstre loses some of its share of the vote and falls from first to third, but will be tasked with forming government. It seems like who becomes PM is based heavily off of the blue bloc and the red bloc, which as you've explained, are definitely not absolute and parties seem to be willing to work with parties from other blocs. It doesn't really seem like the most democratic way to determine who becomes PM.

If DPP isn't going to take the responsibility of forming government, that seems like it could have good and bad results. Obviously it means that for now, Dahl won't become PM. But the appeal of the DPP is that it's an anti-establishment party, and if it's going to remain part of the anti-establishment, that gives it potential for even more growth. I really hope that its role as the largest right-wing party is temporary.

The Socialist People's Party really seems like it's in trouble at this point. Most European multi-party democracies have two parties to the left of their social democratic parties: a green party and a hard-left socialist party. I'm not really sure why, but you guys have never really had a successful green party, so the Socialist People's Party has sort of filled that role: an environmentalist party in between the center-left and the hard-left. Meanwhile the Red-Greens occupy hard-left socialism. Now that the Alternative has filled the role of a green party, I don't really see a niche for the SPP in the political system.
 
Oh I don't object to the idea of the need for negotiations in parliamentary politics. It just seems bizarre to me that Rasmussen will most likely be taking the position of PM and be the one conducting the negotiations instead of Thorning-Schmidt, since her party was in first and increased its share of the vote, which is not something that happened in the election that actually resulted in her becoming Prime Minister.

Meanwhile Venstre loses some of its share of the vote and falls from first to third, but will be tasked with forming government. It seems like who becomes PM is based heavily off of the blue bloc and the red bloc, which as you've explained, are definitely not absolute and parties seem to be willing to work with parties from other blocs. It doesn't really seem like the most democratic way to determine who becomes PM.

Okay I understand what you are thinking, but it is not like that. Let me explain.. or at least try. The day after the election, the sitting Prime Minister goes to the Queen to resign.

Then every party leader goes to the Queen and recommends who should become "kongelig undersøger", which translated is royal investigator basically. What it means that this person is the one that gets the first shot at forming a government.

Now the whole right wing will recommend Rasmussen, because that was agreed to before the elections. The left will most likely also point at Rasmussen because the right won most seats. The the Queen summons the one party leader who most pointed too and asks him to form a government.

Remember, it is technically the Queen that appoints the Prime Minister.

If DPP isn't going to take the responsibility of forming government, that seems like it could have good and bad results. Obviously it means that for now, Dahl won't become PM. But the appeal of the DPP is that it's an anti-establishment party, and if it's going to remain part of the anti-establishment, that gives it potential for even more growth. I really hope that its role as the largest right-wing party is temporary.

No one wants the DPP to form a government.. they are simply too unstable as a party. The amount of internal problems, including the split from the Popular Party and all that is still fresh in the minds of many. Now they have gotten rid of many of the old racist farts that caused a lot of the problems, but still the aura of disorganisation is still there. Think the American Tea Party and how disorganized and full of crazies that is. That was the Popular/Peoples Party the first 30 years and it is only the last decade they have become somewhat stable, but every once in a while... And they are in no way ready for it.

The Socialist People's Party really seems like it's in trouble at this point. Most European multi-party democracies have two parties to the left of their social democratic parties: a green party and a hard-left socialist party. I'm not really sure why, but you guys have never really had a successful green party, so the Socialist People's Party has sort of filled that role: an environmentalist party in between the center-left and the hard-left. Meanwhile the Red-Greens occupy hard-left socialism. Now that the Alternative has filled the role of a green party, I don't really see a niche for the SPP in the political system.

The Alternative is a reaction to the Socialist Peoples Party becoming part of government 4 years ago.. well as I see it. The Socialist Peoples Party was a many old former communists that formed a party in an attempt to distance themselves from the Soviets. When the wall came down, they went from being fake communists to being the party of the greens.. hilarious change.. overnight. All the far left parties have been fighting over the "green" vote for years. The Socialist Peoples Party and the so called Red-Green Alliance..(basically the old communist party and an even more radical left party) were the parties of Green policy. Now we have one more, basically splitting the far left green vote even more.
 
Just an update for those who are interested. A week after the election, the new government is about to be announced. It looks like it will be a minority Venstre led government under Løkke Rasmussen.

Venstre is the 3rd biggest party after the election and only the 2nd biggest on the right wing... they were basically the big losers at the ballot box. It looks like the right wing parties will back Rasmussen as Prime Minister but every piece of legislation will have to be negotiated with all parties.. which is basically what normally happens anyways. The big winner of the election, the Danish Peoples Party cant form a government because the other right wing parties wont back it. The Danish Peoples Party demands to be part of the government have also been crazy to say the least.. including banning the English language at universities, where some courses are done in English. They had quite a few crazy demands, so I suspect that they were poison pills instead. The other right wing parties also said from the start that they would not join a government but would back a right wing government run by Rasmussen.

Personally I think it is the best solution. The new government will be the weakest in 40+ years no doubt about that, but I also suspect that most legislation will continue to be done with the Social Democrats and not with the Danish Peoples Party.. which has been the normal way of doing things for decades. The left are in no state at the moment for new elections so I suspect that they also will back for now the new government. The Social Democrats need a new leader and the Socialist Peoples Party needs a lot of soul searching as well. The Red-Green alliance also has it internal problems after the election smacking they got.

We shall see, it is not final yet but looks more and more like it will be the above.
 
Just an update for those who are interested. A week after the election, the new government is about to be announced. It looks like it will be a minority Venstre led government under Løkke Rasmussen.

Venstre is the 3rd biggest party after the election and only the 2nd biggest on the right wing... they were basically the big losers at the ballot box. It looks like the right wing parties will back Rasmussen as Prime Minister but every piece of legislation will have to be negotiated with all parties.. which is basically what normally happens anyways. The big winner of the election, the Danish Peoples Party cant form a government because the other right wing parties wont back it. The Danish Peoples Party demands to be part of the government have also been crazy to say the least.. including banning the English language at universities, where some courses are done in English. They had quite a few crazy demands, so I suspect that they were poison pills instead. The other right wing parties also said from the start that they would not join a government but would back a right wing government run by Rasmussen.

Personally I think it is the best solution. The new government will be the weakest in 40+ years no doubt about that, but I also suspect that most legislation will continue to be done with the Social Democrats and not with the Danish Peoples Party.. which has been the normal way of doing things for decades. The left are in no state at the moment for new elections so I suspect that they also will back for now the new government. The Social Democrats need a new leader and the Socialist Peoples Party needs a lot of soul searching as well. The Red-Green alliance also has it internal problems after the election smacking they got.

We shall see, it is not final yet but looks more and more like it will be the above.

All in all, I don't whether or not to be disappointed. I don't really like any of the big three parties (although I certainly dislike DPP more than the other two).

What do you mean with the Red-Green comment? They had their best results in history, and IMO, their gains were one of the few bright spots of this election. Their collective leadership strategy does seem like it would get in the way of becoming a feasible party though.
 
All in all, I don't whether or not to be disappointed. I don't really like any of the big three parties (although I certainly dislike DPP more than the other two).

Lots of people are disappointed with the DPP. I suspect they will flee the part at the next election because of this.

What do you mean with the Red-Green comment? They had their best results in history, and IMO, their gains were one of the few bright spots of this election. Their collective leadership strategy does seem like it would get in the way of becoming a feasible party though.

Well yea looking at the results.. dunno what I was thinking off. I dont like the party at all. They are just old school communists and their collective leadership is bull****. Had the election been in July, then they would have lost a lot of votes. One of their main people is a vote eater and she would not have been allowed to run for office any more due to an internal rule in the party.
 
Government announced. One interesting minister is the new employment minister.. he is the former head of the Employers union.. a quite controversial selection.

As a small but significantly important role as "the head of Parliament" has gone to the former DPP leader Pia Kæjrsgård.

How long this government lasts.. time will only tell, as they are only in power by 1 vote.
 
Lots of people are disappointed with the DPP. I suspect they will flee the part at the next election because of this.



Well yea looking at the results.. dunno what I was thinking off. I dont like the party at all. They are just old school communists and their collective leadership is bull****. Had the election been in July, then they would have lost a lot of votes. One of their main people is a vote eater and she would not have been allowed to run for office any more due to an internal rule in the party.

Well I'm sure we could debate the merits of the Red-Greens all day. :mrgreen: I'm not sure if you mentioned it, I might've missed it somewhere else in the thread. Who did you vote for in the election?
 
Well I'm sure we could debate the merits of the Red-Greens all day. :mrgreen: I'm not sure if you mentioned it, I might've missed it somewhere else in the thread. Who did you vote for in the election?

Am overseas, so cant vote.. yea it is stupid.
 
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