Margrethe Vestager explains the fundamentals of Social Liberal politics
Ask any member of The Danish Social Liberal Party (B) any question, and chances are that the answer will include the buzz words of democracy or political project. The party's cornerstones are economic responsibility, social responsibility, and cross-parliamentary co-operation. That means negociation as a solution for everything. So the party doesn’t really like the notion of splits.
I had the opportunity to take the time of the party leader and chair person of the parliamentary group, Ms. Margrethe Vestager, in her busy schedule. You see, the party is constantly confronted with not having had any political influence in the past seven years. And these past weeks there have been stories in the Danish media about individual splits within the party, caused by this frustration.
Although traditions demand the party’s participation in any government, they have been kept out of influence from the coalition of The Conservatives (C) and The Liberal Party of Denmark (V) in three consecutive periods of government, since these parties choose to assure their majority in passing most bills from the very Right, The Danish People’s Party (O). The Cliff Notes to Danish Politics below will guide you roughly through the political scene in Denmark:
http://paradoxicalnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/cliff-notes-to-danish-politics.html
Ms. Margrethe Vestager finds this undermining of the Danish democracy, in her own words:
“Danish politics changed in 2001. We got a completely fixed blue block. It is a good, political children’s lesson that center parties influence the forming of government, whether it be The Liberals or The Social Democrats to take the post of prime minister. Most people have decoded that The Liberals and The Conservatives are very fond of the co-operation with The Danish People’s Party. This is democratic flicker. They use this clique to keep out other parties from influence.”
Paradoxical, since major players in Danish politics normally fight each other to seem very ‘center’-like, and you hardly can get any closer to the actual center of Danish politics than with The Danish Social Liberal Party. Therefore the party now points to Ms. Helle Thorning-Schmidt from The Social Democrats (S) for prime minister, planning to work with both sides of the Danish parliament. To change the democratic climate.
In 2007 a new (then) center party saw the light of day. Two members from The Danish Social Liberal Party broke out together with one member from The Conservatives and formed the party of New Alliance (Y). After a confusing transitional period and breaking up again, the remaining two members from The Danish Social Liberal Party reformed the party, now called Liberal Alliance (Y).
I therefore asked Ms. Vestager if this was a symptom of the lacking political influence and the frustration of The Social Liberals mixed with the success of the so-called blue block. If this blue block had actually managed to split up the The Social Liberals?
“No. In the beginning there was confusion about the political project of New Alliance. Later it turned out that they had a different political project on the agenda – now they even call themselves Liberal Alliance. If the political project binds members together, the party won’t split,” was the response of Ms. Vestager.
“But they do point to Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V) for prime minister?”
“Yes, but they will have to make account for that themselves,” Ms. Vestager declined commenting any further.
So now we have about two handfuls of very diverse parties in Denmark, alongside with the individuals who have broken out of one party or another. Several have not even found other parties to join or formed their own parties as yet in order to get a political platform to speak from to voice their opinions. Truly democratic flicker.
Although traditions demand the party’s participation in any government, they have been kept out of influence from the coalition of The Conservatives (C) and The Liberal Party of Denmark (V) in three consecutive periods of government, since these parties choose to assure their majority in passing most bills from the very Right, The Danish People’s Party (O). The Cliff Notes to Danish Politics below will guide you roughly through the political scene in Denmark:
http://paradoxicalnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/cliff-notes-to-danish-politics.html
Ms. Margrethe Vestager finds this undermining of the Danish democracy, in her own words:
“Danish politics changed in 2001. We got a completely fixed blue block. It is a good, political children’s lesson that center parties influence the forming of government, whether it be The Liberals or The Social Democrats to take the post of prime minister. Most people have decoded that The Liberals and The Conservatives are very fond of the co-operation with The Danish People’s Party. This is democratic flicker. They use this clique to keep out other parties from influence.”
Paradoxical, since major players in Danish politics normally fight each other to seem very ‘center’-like, and you hardly can get any closer to the actual center of Danish politics than with The Danish Social Liberal Party. Therefore the party now points to Ms. Helle Thorning-Schmidt from The Social Democrats (S) for prime minister, planning to work with both sides of the Danish parliament. To change the democratic climate.
In 2007 a new (then) center party saw the light of day. Two members from The Danish Social Liberal Party broke out together with one member from The Conservatives and formed the party of New Alliance (Y). After a confusing transitional period and breaking up again, the remaining two members from The Danish Social Liberal Party reformed the party, now called Liberal Alliance (Y).
I therefore asked Ms. Vestager if this was a symptom of the lacking political influence and the frustration of The Social Liberals mixed with the success of the so-called blue block. If this blue block had actually managed to split up the The Social Liberals?
“No. In the beginning there was confusion about the political project of New Alliance. Later it turned out that they had a different political project on the agenda – now they even call themselves Liberal Alliance. If the political project binds members together, the party won’t split,” was the response of Ms. Vestager.
“But they do point to Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen (V) for prime minister?”
“Yes, but they will have to make account for that themselves,” Ms. Vestager declined commenting any further.
So now we have about two handfuls of very diverse parties in Denmark, alongside with the individuals who have broken out of one party or another. Several have not even found other parties to join or formed their own parties as yet in order to get a political platform to speak from to voice their opinions. Truly democratic flicker.