Today I sit alone in rainy-Copenhagen, still suffering from the cold that SHALL NOT PASS. Emily is off to Toronto and I, for better or worse, am left here alone with my thoughts.
Where to start! I'll start with yesterday's Danish election.
For me - and perhaps many of you USAmericans - foreign elections present a somewhat strange concept of how elections work, how citizens vote, and how folks are elected.
This is my simple - and probably flawed (likely flat-out wrong) - explanation of how the Danish system works. I'll try to simplify this by starting at the a-prime-minister-is-elected point.
Once appointed / elected, a PM has the position for a maximum of four years. At any point prior, the PM can call for a general election. There are many many many many many many many *somewhat* major parties here. They range all over the place, but generally speaking they split up into two distinct blocs or coalitions. Right. Left.
Voters can vote for party or individual. Final party percentages determine the number of votes for PM, and thus the need for a coalition / bloc to elect the PM that those *winners* prefer.
Our current PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt's party actually scored the most votes in yesterday's general election. The Danskfolkeparti finished second. They are sadly part of the bloc / coalition that will elect the next PM.
To familiarize you with the Danskfolkeparti, I'll give you this from their wiki
The party holds that Denmark is not naturally a country of immigration. The party also does not accept a multi-ethnic transformation of Denmark,[43] and rejects multiculturalism.[23] Former party leader Pia Kjærsgaard stated she did "not want Denmark as a multiethnic, multicultural society",[44] and that a multiethnic Denmark would be a "national disaster".[45] The party seek to drastically reduce non-Western immigration, oppose islamisation, and favour cultural assimilation of immigrants. In 2010, the party proposed to put a complete stop to all immigration from non-Western countries, a continuation of a proposal the month before to toughen the 24-year rule.[46] They do, however, make the distinction between immigrants, those who intend to stay in Denmark permanently, and refugees, those that will only be in Denmark for the duration of the conflict, but ultimately intend to return home. The party has stated that it is more than happy to help those in need, but have a moral responsibility to the people of Denmark to keep Denmark Danish.[47]
So yes, a horribly racist, frighteningly nationalist organization grabbed 21.1% of the vote. You might say, what was voter turnout? Maybe this was based on some sort of get-out-the-vote activity? I mean for us lazy USAmericans, in 2012, only 55% of voters came out to vote. Here, in Denmark, we generally approach the 90%.
I get that it's easy to grab Danes on the idea of Danish-nationalism. Immigration is an issue. It's also easy to grab old people on this sort of nonsense - in 2014 approximately 18% of the population was over 65.
Here's the thing that I don't get. Most of the *right* aspects of Danish politics - reduced taxes, less social programs, more room for corporations, more flexibility, more money - they don't apply to the f$%^parti.
This is a party that has sold voters on tons of social stuff, as long as that social stuff doesn't apply to africans and easternblockers and asians and anyone else neither *Danish* nor *Western*.
I've been here for 2 and a half years and this concept of Danish-ness is still ridiculous. I don't know what makes a *Dane*. I don't know what makes a *Westerner*. I'm stupid. I'm an American. I don't even know what makes an *American*. Such is my stupidity.
But, for the Danish *right* to pull this sort of eff-all-nonsense into their voting bloc just to pad their stats for the sake of electing a PM!? Bah. It's garbage. Total garbage.
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