Danish People's Party

Danish People's Party Dansk Folkeparti
Leader	Pia Kjærsgaard
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Christiansborg, 1240 København K
Youth wing	Youth of the Danish People's Party
Ideology	National conservatism,[1] Right-wing populism,[1] Euroscepticism
International affiliation	None
European affiliation	None
European Parliament Group	Europe of Freedom and Democracy
Official colours	Red, White
Parliament:	25 / 179
European Parliament:	2 / 13
Regions:[2]	19 / 205
Municipalities:[3]	186 / 2,468
Election symbol
O
Website
www.danskfolkeparti.dk
Politics of Denmark Political parties Elections

The Danish People's Party (Danish: Dansk Folkeparti, DF) is a right-wing, national conservative political party in Denmark, led by Pia Kjærsgaard. Since 2001 the party has supported a government consisting of the Liberal and Conservative parties. While not being a part of the cabinet, the Danish People's Party maintains a close cooperation with the government parties on most issues. In return for their parliamentary support, the party has required a legislative effort for a strict policy towards immigrants and potential refugees.^[4]

The party has been described as a right-wing populist party.^[1][5][6] It is generally more populist than traditionally right wing, being a strong proponent for some social programmes, such as pensions and other benefits for seniors.

In the 2007 parliamentary election, the party took 25 seats in the 179-member Folketinget (an increase of 1 seat), with 13.8% of the vote, remaining the third largest party in Denmark.

History

Foundation

The party was founded on 6 October 1995, after Pia Kjærsgaard, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, Poul Nødgaard and Ole Donner left the Progress Party.^[7] Its first national convention was held in Vissenbjerg on 1 June 1996, where Pia Kjærsgaard was unanimously elected as the party's chairman.^[8] The party was established in protest over the "anarchistic conditions" of the Progress Party, and its "all or nothing" policies. It was initially seen by many as a "clone" of the Progress Party, but this was soon proved false.^[7] In a short time, the party had around 6,500 members. In a struggle to be respected as a responsible party able to cooperate with others, the leadership of the party striked down criticism from its members by expulsions.^[4]

The formation of the party represented a new shift in the Nordic right-wing populist scene. The party was the first successful parliamentary party in the Nordic countries to be more related to the French Nouvelle Droite, rather than the previous "milder" Nordic form of right-wing populism. More specifically, the Danish People's Party represented a synthesis of three political currents; the Christian right related to the periodical Tidehverv, an intellectual right from the Danish Association (Den Danske Forening) and conservative populists from the Progress Party.^[9]

The party made its electoral debut in the 1998 Danish parliamentary election, winning 13 seats and 7.4% of the vote. The party was however left with no significance concerning the creation of a government, and was generally largely kept out in the cold, particularly as it was considered to not be stuerent (i.e. not acceptable).^[4]

Conservative-Liberal coalition, 2001-present

Poster by the party for the 2007 election. It referred to the controversy the year before, and depicted a hand-drawn image of Islamic prophet Muhammad with caption "Freedom of speech is Danish, censorship is not", and "We defend Danish values".^[10][11][12]

In the 2001 election, the party won 12% of the vote and 22 seats in parliament. It became the third largest party in the parliament and came in a key position, as they would have a parliamentary majority together with the Conservative People's Party and Venstre. Eventually, it gave its parliamentary support for a Conservative-Liberal coalition government, headed by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in exchange for the implementation of some of their key demands, first and foremost stricter policies on immigration.^[4] For the 2005 election the party further increased their vote, and won 13.2% of the vote and 24 seats.^[4] By young first-time voters the party showed even more popular, receiving one fifth of their votes.^[13] The party was able to continue to support the government, and developed a political width, as it made welfare policies its core issue, together with immigration policies.^[4]

In 2006, the party's popularity rose dramatically in opinion polls following the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, at the expense of the Social Democrats. The average of all monthly national polls showed the Danish People's Party to gain seven seats in parliament from January to February, while the Social Democrats would lose equally many.^[14] This effect, however, somewhat waned with the falling media attention to the cartoons controversy.

In the 2007 parliamentary election, the Danish People's Party won 13.9 % and 25 seats, and could again continue to support the Conservative-Liberal government. Thus, in every election since its founding the party has had a steady growth, although the growth rate has stagnated somewhat in recent years. Parties in the political centre, particularly the newly founded New Alliance had sought to become the kingmaker and be able to isolate the immigration policies of the DPP, but eventually failed.^[4]

In the 2009 elections for the European Parliament the prime candidate for the party, Morten Messerschmidt, won his seat in a landslide with 284,500 personal votes (most votes for any single candidate by any party); thus giving the party a second seat (which went to Anna Rosbach Andersen).^[15] The party made a breakthrough from its previous results in Euopean elections, more than doubling its vote to 15.3%, and receiving 2 MEPs.

Policies

Core issues

Immigration

The party hold that Denmark is not naturally a country of immigration, and has never been so. The party does also not accept a multi-ethnic "transformation" of Denmark,^[16] and opposes multiculturalism.^[4]

• To drastically reduce immigration.
• To oppose islamisation and favour cultural assimilation of immigrants

Other domestic

• To improve conditions for the elderly and disabled
• Stricter punishments for crimes such as rape, violence, sexual abuse, reckless driving and cruelty to animals
• Improved animal welfare
• Grants for specific research into terrorism, Islamism and cold-war history
• Increased defense spending
• To maintain the monarchy and the current Danish constitution
• To abolish the blasphemy clause and 'hate speech' clause in the Danish criminal code

Foreign

• To oppose a reduction of Denmark's sovereignty by the EU
• To maintain the Danish krone and not implement the Euro
• Opposition to Turkish EU Membership
• Support of Israel in its conflict with Hamas
• International recognition of Taiwan and support of Taiwan in its disputes with China
• Support of a free Tibet
• Support of the US-led 'War on Terrorism'
• Harsher criticism of, and support for sanctions against, totalitarian regimes and dictatorships (especially communist and Islamist regimes)

Results

Cooperation with the Conservative-Liberal coalition government resulted in the implementation of some of their key demands, such as strong immigration restriction policies, which have resulted in what have been described as Europe's strictest immigration laws.^[17] The new government enacted rules that prevented Danish citizens and others from bringing a foreign spouse into the country unless both partners were aged 24 or over, passed a solvency test showing the Dane had not claimed social security for 12 months and could lodge a bond of 60,011 kroner (about 10,100 USD). One declared aim of this was to fight arranged marriages. These new rules had the effect that while about 8,151 family reunification permits were granted in 2002, the number had fallen to 3,525 by 2005. Some social benefits for refugees were also cut by 30-40% during their first seven years in the country, ordinary unemployment benefits being replaced by a reduced start-up aid. Whereas the government coalition's declared aim with this was to improve integration by inciting people to work, immigration spokesman Søren Krarup of the Danish People's Party has expressed his content in that the start-up aid has decreased the number of economic refugees greatly, showing them that "one does not find gold in the streets in Denmark".^[18]

The DPP supported the coalition government in deploying Danish military forces to Iraq.

In March 2007, DPP representatives (such as Peter Skaarup) proposed that forced 'chemical castration' should be used on sexual offenders.

Critique

The changes to Denmark's immigration laws drew some criticism from the former social democratic government of Sweden, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner. In a response to the criticism from the Swedish government Pia Kjaersgaard said: "If they want to turn Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö into a Scandinavian Beirut, with clan wars, honour killings and gang rapes, let them do it. We can always put a barrier on the Øresund Bridge."^[17]

The popularity of DPP

Since its founding, the party has gained electoral support in every election. While opposition to mass immigration and Islamification is central to the aims of the party, other issues are thought to have added to the popularity of the party:

• Ideological Novelty: The DPP combines support of the welfare state, and particularly benefits for pensioners, with strongly conservative policies on immigration and law and order. As such it is distinctive from the mainstream parties and offers policies which appeal across the traditional right-left dividing line. Polls have shown that a great deal of the party's voters are former Social Democrats, concerned with the decline of the welfare state. An analysis by the trade union SiD after the 2001 election stated that among unskilled workers aged under 40, 30% voted for DPP and only 25% for the Social Democrats.^[19]
• Euroscepticism: In Denmark, only two parties have been against all new EU treaties throughout their existence. Those parties are DPP and the left-wing Enhedslisten. Whereas most politicians favour a more dominant EU, public opinion is broadly skeptical and in favour of the nation state keeping its powers. Referendums brought the rejection of the Maastricht treaty and the Euro. The DPP has managed to harness this scepticism more effectively than the left-wingers.
• Outspokenness (populism): Some analysts believe that Pia Kjærsgaard, a former domestic nurse, appeals well to the 'common man' because she is different from the traditional political class of economists and academics. In combination with her critical stance towards non-Western immigration and Islam, this has given her strong support among workers and lower middle class voters. Danish political commentators generally acknowledge that Pia Kjærsgaard and her party maintain clear and direct stances on the most central political issues of the party , and have been able to set the agenda more than the size of the party would make one expect.

An interesting feature, compared to other Danish parties, is that the Danish People's Party is usually underrepresented by about 1-1.5 % in opinion polls. Election researchers have suggested that the party's voters may be less interested in politics, and therefore declining to talk to pollsters, or that voters are reluctant to reveal non-politically-correct opinions to pollsters.^[20]

Results

Parliamentary elections

European Parliament elections

See also

• Politics of Denmark

References

Further reading

• Rydgren, Jens (May 2004). "Explaining the Emergence of Radical Right-Wing Populist Parties: The Case of Denmark". West European Politics 27 (3): 474–502. doi:10.1080/0140238042000228103. 

External links

• (Danish) Dansk Folkeparti - Official site
• Politics

Political parties in Denmark Bracketed numbers indicate numbers of seats in the respective parliaments. Folketinget Venstre (47) · Social Democrats (45) · Danish People's Party (24) · Socialist People's Party (23) · Conservative People's Party (17) · Danish Social Liberal Party (9) · Red-Green Alliance (4) · Liberal Alliance (3)  · Siumut (Greenland) (1) · Inuit Ataqatigiit (Greenland) (1) · Union Party (Faroe Islands) (1) · Republican Party (Faroe Islands) (1) · Christian Democrats (1) · Fokus (1) · Independents (1) European Parliament Social Democrats (4) · Venstre (3) · Socialist People's Party (2)  · Danish People's Party (2) · Conservative People's Party (1) · People's Movement against the EU (1) Politics of Denmark · Portal:Politics · List of political parties by country