Danish Elections and Politics

[Diouf]

The government has made a deal with Liberal Alliance, Conservatives and DPP to cut the state education grants in higher education.
The most significant change is to cut the number of months where you can receive state grants. Currently you can get grants for studying for 12 months more than the length of standard education, so typically six years of grants for a five year university education. On one hand it allows you to change study after a year and still have enough grants for all of the education. But on the other hand it allows, or even encourges, students to take a slower route through their eduction, and not taking the normal amount of courses in some semesters to spread out the education to six years. These extra 12 months are now cut, so you can only get grants for the normal length of the education you choose (max five years). Students with disabilities and lone parents will still be able to get the extra 12 months of education grants. The change will enter into force in the summer of 2025.

[Diouf]

Vanopslagh opens for government with the Social Liberals

In an interview with Politiken, the Liberal Alliance leader Alex Vanopslagh opens for a government with the Social Liberals. When pushed on alternatives to the current government, and whether a pure Blue Bloc government would be remotely feasible, he said that "There could be the option of a centre-right government with Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates, Social Liberals and Liberal Alliance, and then supported by the necessary seats by perhaps Denmark Democrats or DPP. I'm not saying this would be easy to pull off, but it's not an impossible task". He then went on to say that he has an excellent cooperation with the Social Liberal leader Martin Lidegaard, and that he believes that their two parties could do something great in terms of economic reforms, and that the Social Liberals would be allowed to "step on it" in terms of climate policies.

Lidegaard's response has been positive. He has said he does not rule out any scenario and hope to continue the excellent cooperation with LA. He states that the parties does not agree on everything, but on a lot, especially in terms of retirement options, international labour, entrepreneurship and less bureaucracy in the public sector.

[Diouf]

Vanopslagh opens for government with the Social Liberals

In an interview with Politiken, the Liberal Alliance leader Alex Vanopslagh opens for a government with the Social Liberals. When pushed on alternatives to the current government, and whether a pure Blue Bloc government would be remotely feasible, he said that "There could be the option of a centre-right government with Liberals, Conservatives, Moderates, Social Liberals and Liberal Alliance, and then supported by the necessary seats by perhaps Denmark Democrats or DPP. I'm not saying this would be easy to pull off, but it's not an impossible task". He then went on to say that he has an excellent cooperation with the Social Liberal leader Martin Lidegaard, and that he believes that their two parties could do something great in terms of economic reforms, and that the Social Liberals would be allowed to "step on it" in terms of climate policies.

Lidegaard's response has been positive. He has said he does not rule out any scenario and hope to continue the excellent cooperation with LA. He states that the parties does not agree on everything, but on a lot, especially in terms of retirement options, international labour, entrepreneurship and less bureaucracy in the public sector.

It would be interesting to see DD and DF in the same governing majority as RV. The former of course would find much in common on climate and the latter surely sees completely eye to eye on immigration and retirement with RV…

But seriously, it’s bonkers enough that it could actually happen, especially as RV currently lacks  any real purpose given they refused to go into government but back it on almost everything anyways.

None of the parties to the right of the proposed, possible government with the Social Liberals are rejecting the idea.

Pernille Vermund, New Right, is open to supporting the Social Liberals or Moderates in a future government, focusing on shared distribution policies. She does, however, highlight disagreement on immigration policies.  The Danish People's Party, Morten Messerschmidt, suggests potential support for a center-right government with the Social Liberals in an 'emergency' situation. Danmarksdemokraterne does not rule out the Social Liberals becoming a supporting party, emphasizing the primary condition of having a center-right prime minister.

https://nyheder.tv2.dk/politik/2024-01-07-blaa-partier-aabner-for-alliance-med-de-radikale

[Diouf]

With the announcement of Charles Michel' decision to leave as European Council President earlier than expected, the speculations regaring a potential international top job for Mette Frederiksen are already surfacing again.


https://nyheder.tv2.dk/udland/2024-01-07-mette-frederiksen-kan-komme-i-spil-til-eu-topjob-efter-exit-i-utide

[Diouf]

New Right to disband

Party leader Pernille Vermund has just announced on X that New Right will disband. She cites the need for a more coherent right wing bloc with fewer parties, as well as the intense work needed to keep a party running with a parliamentary group of two.

https://twitter.com/PernilleVermund/status/1745010988489888105?t=dWEtCrf7vnQLFTQ...

[Diouf]

New Right to disband

Party leader Pernille Vermund has just announced on X that New Right will disband. She cites the need for a more coherent right wing bloc with fewer parties, as well as the intense work needed to keep a party running with a parliamentary group of two.

Is this because DF shifted to the economic right and LA to the cultural right and there isn’t a niche left?

The increased competition for right wing votes has hurt them, but I wouldn't say that there isn't a niche left. Even in this semi-collapsed state, the party has polled mostly just above the 2% threshold in recent months. Their internal troubles is the primary cause, and as a quite new party it hasn't had the robustness to handle these type of crises. Their most prominent figure Pernille Vermund checked out mentally last year, and the only one who could replace her, Lars Boje Mathiesen, was of course removed from the position as leader and excluded from the party.

The Liberal Alliance moving somewhat right on cultural issues happened already in 2019 when Alex Vanopslagh became leader, and Simon-Emil Ammitzbøll-Bille left the party. In the spring of 2022, the New Right polled at around 8%. Then in June 2022, Inger Støjberg founded Denmark Democrats and New Right immediatedly was closed to halved, dropping down to around 4-5 % in polls. During the campaign in November 2022, they faded a bit further while both Liberal Alliance and Denmark Democrats had good campaigns, so it ended with only 3.7% at the election. For them it was not optimal that DPP survived, and Messerschmidt's party has been able to take some of the departing New Right MPs (and probably some voters as well). But I'm not sure many voters has recognized any significant DPP move to the right economically. Messerschmidt has signalled he might not completely rule out political deals with lower taxes for top earners if the party got enough concessions on other issues, but most of their political signalling is still about increased welfare spending and better conditions for the elderly.

There is already some speculation about where the party's two MPs could go. Kim Edberg Andersen is a former DPPer, and could likely go there, as his sthick is mostly the anti-elite and immigrationsceptic lines. Vermund herself has clearly moderated a bit in recent months, and does not have a good relationship with Messerschmidt and Kjærsgaard, so it's hard to see her go there. Denmark Democrats could be the most likely option for her, if she even wants to continue for long in parliament. She has a good relationship with Inger Støjberg, and their policies are not far from what Vermund has moved towards. Vermund would probably still prefer a more clear rightwing economic policy, but Denmark Democrats are still moderatedly centre-right on this topic, so she could probably live with this.

[Diouf]

All three New Right MPs have now officially left the party, which means it's currently not eligible to run for upcoming elections. There is still some speculation about where they will go. Peter Seier is still severely ill, so he might not decide to join another party and it's doubtful whether he will return to parliament. If he does, he is moderate enough to fit it with several of the centre-right parties. But since his replacement MP would be Henriette Ergemann, the conspiracy theorist and former short time deputy leader of the party under Lars Boje, he is not resigning his seat. Kim Edberg is a former DPPer and it still sounds like the most likely spot for him to end up, but he seems very open to many parties. In an interview today he said "As a political person, I have a quite broad base of views. So I can see myself in anything from the Social Democrats to Liberal Alliance". I still think Pernille Vermund is most likely to join Denmark Democrats, but the political commentators sounds like Liberal Alliance could also be a quite likely option. Even though she has moderated a fair bit, I probably think Vanopslagh would be a bit more worried to lose more centrist voters with liberal values if Vermund joins. It's not that the party doesn't have some fairly tough immigration policies, but it's not something they focus a lot on.

There is now significant doubt whether the party will actually agree to dissolve itself. For it to officially be dissolved, there needs to be two thirds of the party delegates voting to dissolve at two party congresses. DR has talked to 48 of the 56 local chapter leaders. 16 of them disagreed that the party should be dissolved, while 9 agreed. 23 hadn't made up their mind yet. So that doesn't point towards the necessary overwhelming majority for it to be dissolved.

A number of no-name local candidates have announced their candidature for new leader to keep the party alive. The Copenhagen local chapter leader, Nis Otto Kristensen, and regional councillor, Githa Nelander, have both said they will run. However, the focus is on two other names. Mostly on Martin Henriksen, who was a MP for DPP from 2005-2019. Henriksen ran against Messerschmidt as DPP leader in 2022, and left the party shortly after losing. Last year he joined New Right, and was supposed to be the party's lead candidate at the European elections, which they are now no longer eligible for. He says he is strongly considering a run, but hasn't made up his mind yet. Some more far-fetched speculation is whether Lars Boje Mathiesen could return as leader. He lead the party from 7 February - 9 March 2023 before being excluded from the party due to disagreements about his salary for the role. The big advantage for the party with his return is that he is a MP, and the party would therefore again be eligible, both for the European elections and the next parliamentary election. Also he is quite popular, receiving some great personal vote numbers, and being the MP with the most interactions on Facebook. He might have burned bridges with many in the party, but most of the high-ranking of them will leave or have left the party. And him it could be easier for him to take over the party than start from the bottom with a new project. But so far I haven't seen anything to suggesting this is about to happen.

[Diouf]

I still think Pernille Vermund is most likely to join Denmark Democrats, but the political commentators sounds like Liberal Alliance could also be a quite likely option. Even though she has moderated a fair bit, I probably think Vanopslagh would be a bit more worried to lose more centrist voters with liberal values if Vermund joins. It's not that the party doesn't have some fairly tough immigration policies, but it's not something they focus a lot on.

The rumours were right. Alex Vanopslagh has just announced that Pernille Vermund is joining Liberal Alliance. He says she is a great communicator with a big politicial knowledge, who will help make Denmark a more liberal country. He says that "2024 Pernille Vermund" is a great fit for Liberal Alliance, while 2015 or 2019 Pernille Vermund might not have been. He says that she has clearly moved her positions in recent years, away from non-negotiable demands and tough language. He says that through their conversations, he has been convinced that they share politicial visions, and that she is fully aware that she will have to work her way up.

I'm still a bit surprised that Vanopslagh finds it a risk worth taking. I see why Vermund finds it an attractive party, and one more likely to enter government than Denmark Democrats. But while Liberal Alliance has a quite tough immigration policy, it's vibe is still pretty much that of a very liberal, urban open-minded party, which attracts some voters who could as well be voting Social Liberals or Moderates. And Pernille Vermund just seems to break with that vibe a lot, especially for most of the population, who might not follow politics closely enough to have noted any moderation from her.
The top comment on X below Vanopslagh is from one of the party's famous backers, software entrepreneur Martin Thorborg, who writes "I'm honestly very disappointed about this". It's these kind of reactions the party should fear, and which Social Liberals and Moderates should spread throughout urban environments.

https://twitter.com/AlexVanopslagh/status/1747688009032503736

[Diouf]

Epinion has released a poll showing Pernille Vermund's approval rating according to party.
She had quite decent net approval among Denmark Democrats and DPP voters, while it was net negative for all other parties. Liberal Alliance was the closest of the other parties to a tie, but it still shows that a significant share of their voters are probably not currently seeing her as an asset.


https://twitter.com/christergaard/status/1747899402549612977

[Diouf]

More foreign labour for the health and elderly sector

The government has made an agreement with SPP, Liberal Alliance, Conservatives and Social Liberals to make it easier to get foreign labour for the health and elderly sector. The deal introduces a number of initiatives including a shortcut authorization process for highly demanded healthcare professionals, add social and healthcare assistants to the list of jobs exempt from any salary demand for residence permits until 1000 new assistants have arrived, explore partnerships with India and Philippines to recruit health care personnel, make targeted health care langugage programs and remove the deadline for when to pass the program's exam and automatically recognizing the EU/EEA education of applicants from third countries

https://twitter.com/DRNyheder/status/1750111668334477668

[Diouf]

The New Right could perhaps soon become eligible again. The latest news is that MP Peter Seier Christensen, who has been sick with cancer for most of this term, wants the party to stay alive. Until recently, people assumed that he had agreed to Vermund's plan to dissolve the party. But there are now persistent rumours that he was actually thrown out of the party before Vermund and Kim Edberg left it. It now seems like Peter Seier's health is improving and that he wants to return to active duty in parliament, and to represent New Right, which would make it eligible for the next general election as well as the upcoming European elections.

Peter Seier is also a member of the New Right board. And DR reports that at yesterday's board meeting, where they were to plan the party's extraordinary congress, that a surrogate suddenly showed up with a mandate from Peter Seier to fight for the party to stay alive. The board called the extraordinary congress for early April.

It sounds like Peter Seier would like to keep the party alive but not lead it himself, with Martin Henriksen then the most likely candidate. And there seems to still be a lot of mistrust with former New Right leader, MP Lars Boje Mathiesen, so that Seier's willingness to represent the party and make it eligible would be preferred to Boje re-entering it.

[Diouf]

Result of the School elections today (ca. 15-16 year olds)

Liberal Alliance 30.15%
Social Democrats 15.99%
Liberals 9.81%
Social Liberals 8.72%
Conservatives 8.03%
Red-Green Alliance 6.97%
SPP 5.6%
DPP 5.18%
Moderates 4.69%
Denmark Democrats 3.06%
Alternative 1.8%

A dominant result for Liberal Alliance which also means that the combined traditional Blue Bloc parties carry the day with 56%. Liberal Alliance is even more dominant here than among young voters, where the most recent Epinion poll had them on 20.5% among 18-34 year-olds. Their popular young leader Alex Vanopslagh and messages of freedom, entrepreunership, personal responsibility are proving very popular among young voters.

Social Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives all hold up better than they do among 18-34 year old voters. Perhaps a combination of some more established organizational strength in these parties plus these young voters maybe more tend to follow their parents' vote, whereas they are a bit more independent a few years later.

Only a combined 14.37% for the three parties left of the Social Democrats, much worse than among 18-34 year's old. Not a good sign for these parties. The Alternative result in particular seems horrible with a generation that's supposed to care a lot about climate change. Probably they have very little organization.

Moderates and Denmark Democrats also a bit below what they get among young voters, so probably don't have a full blown youth organzation everywhere yet.

[Diouf]

More good news for Liberal Alliance as a new poll by Epinion for Altinget/DR has them as the second biggest party on 14.6% The party is now even clearer the favourite among 18-24 year old with 23.5% of the votes. They are also the biggest party among men with 19.8%, just ahead of the Social Democrats on 18.8%. Vanopslagh's approval rating is +6.

The Alternative here down at 1.8% so below the threshold, and at the level, where they might not even get a constituency seat in Copenhagen. Their leader Franciska Rosenkilde has been ill for several weeks, but she has not reported sick, so her back-up has not been called in and it doesn't seem like there is any temporary leader either. So the party is almost completely silent.

In the Altinget analysis, there are a few more details which are not published yet. Mette Frederiksen has improved her approval rate from -20 to -7 since the last poll, which might be why Social Democrats have gone from 19.6% to 21.6%. Perhaps because she received a lot of positive attention for the royal events and for presenting the government's new elderly policy.
Lars Løkke is at -13%, the Moderates are down to 5.5%.
Troels Lund Poulsen is at =, the Liberals are at 9.4%.
Messerschmidt is at -34, and DPP has barely picked up anything despite New Right no longer being on the ballot.

Among voters of Blue Bloc parties (excluding Liberals), Alex Vanopslagh is the preferred PM on 29% with Inger Støjberg on 21%. Only 3% prefer Liberal leader Troels Lund Poulsen.

https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/meningsmaalinger
https://www.altinget.dk/artikel/aarets-foerste-meningsmaaling-vermund-har-styrket-la

[Diouf]

The independent ex-Moderate MP Mike Fonseca is now returning to parliament after his illness after the revelation of him being in a relationship with a 15-year old girl. This means his Moderate stand-in MP leaves parliament, and Fonseca returns as an Independent.

This means the parliamentary situation on Danish issues is now:

Governing majority - 88 seats
Social Democrats 50 seats
Liberals 23
Moderates 14
Jon Stephensen

Sympathetic towards the government (probably won't make it fall, but won't support it in all cases) - 8 seats
Social Liberals 7
Mike Fonseca

Opposition - 79
SPP 15
Liberal Alliance 15
Denmark Democrats 14
Conservatives 10
Red-Green Alliance 9
DPP 7
Alternative 5
Lars Boje Mathiesen
Theresa Scavenius
Kim Edberg Andersen
Peter Seier Christensen

So the government retains a slim 88-87 majority on Danish issues.

When looking in terms of the whole parliament, then the four North Atlantic seats support the government. The two Faroese MPs are quite safe with their parties being sister parties to Social Democrats and Liberals. The Greenlandic Siumut are probably also safe as a Social Democratic sister party, but they seem to have taken a more nationalistic turn, so if some big case regarding Greenland emerges, there might be some tentions. Finally IA is officially a sister party of SPP, but so far the mentions from Aaja Chemnitz has been that she supports the government, despite SPP being in opposition. So while the majority on Danish parliamentary issues is very narrow, there is a far way to the government losing a vote of no confidence.

The Conservative parliamentary group leader Mai Mercado has resigned her position. It sounds like the party's spokesperson on business, Mona Juul, is the favourite to take over the job. She is also increasingly rumoured as a likely leader when Søren Pape at some point finally resigns. So far, the thinking had been that it had to be one of the three most experienced and well-known MPs, Rasmus Jarlov, Mai Mercado or Mette Abildgaard, replacing Pape, but it seems like Juul is now becoming a strong candidate. Her business experience and her friendly, uniting style is regarded very well among signficant parts of the party.

[Diouf]

Important DPP player goes Moderate

Rene Christensen, who was a DPP MP from 2008-2022, has moved to the Moderates. He says that the DPP is "moving away from where the power lays". He laments the fact that the party has turned up the dial on the rhetoric: "Things are communicated on social media with a lot of edge. That isn't my style. It might work for some voters. But politics is not just about collecting voters. It's about getting influence. You do that by being close to the center of power". When asked whether the move to the Moderates isn't a big step, he says that his big focus is financial policies and rural areas, and that he believes in the party's policies on these areas. He said that he is "very liberal in regards to how people dress" and never agreed with the DPP move towards favouring an EU exit, and that the question was even discussed in the party before being announced.

Christensen was a key player nationally, particularly under Thulelsen Dahl's reign. He was financial spokesperson from 2013-22, i.e. Thulelsen Dahl's previous position where you represent the party in budget negotiations. He was even deputy leader under Morten Messerschmidt for some months in 2022 and 2023, but left the position quickly. Officially to focus on his new job outside parliament as head of the Danish Fish Farm Association, but it seems likely that the two had big disagreements about where the party should go. Locally, he has also been an important figure in Guldborgsund municipality, and was long seen as the party's best shot at getting a mayor. In 2017, the party peaked locally at 23.8% and 7 seats, with Christensen himself getting 6 457 votes out of the 36 044 votes cast. However, it wasn't enough for him to take the mayoralty from a popular local list mayor. In 2021 when the party's decline had well started, he still achieved an impressive 19.0% result for the DPP.

His move also caused the media to look a bit further into the way the 53-year old has handled the relationsship with his 30-year old girlfriend Cecilie Winther Kristensen. She worked for the married Christensen in parliament and in his role as deputy leader. And then when Christensen became head of the Fish Farm Association, she was shortly after hired as Head of Press in the Association.
Winther Kristensen has also been a candidate for DPP at several elections. In the 2022 general election, she received 331 personal votes in the Copenhagen Environs constituency. While it might not seem like a lot, it was it the constituency where party leader Morten Messerschmidt ran and received most of the party's votes. So she got more votes than all other DPP candidates, and is therefore first in line to replace Messerschmidt in parliament. She has announced that she has joined the Moderates himself.

Rene Christensen himself got a decent 4 143 personal votes in the 2022 general election. But the party only ended up with one seat in the large Zealand constituency. And party founder and long-time leader Pia Kjærsgaard beat him with 6 084 personal votes. The 76-year old Kjærsgaard seems in good health, but Christensen would be first in line to replace her. Kjærsgaard has just celebrated her being a MP for 40 years. She is the most experienced of all current MPs, and only 10 MPs in history have served for longer than her.

[Diouf]

Preferred PM, poll. Epinion for DR and Altinget.

Mette Frederiksen 19%
Alex Vanopslagh 10%
Lars Løkke Rasmussen 9%
Pia Olsen Dyhr 9%
Inger Støjberg 9%
Someone else 4%
Troels Lund Poulsen 4%
Pelle Dragsted 3%
Søren Pape Poulsen 3%
Morten Messerschmidt 2%
Franciska Rosenkilde 1%
Martin Lidegaard 1%
Don't know 28%


So no big appetite for Lund Poulsen as PM yet. Løkke continues to score quite high as competent and potential PM, even with his party fading somewhat. Vanopslagh the most popular alternative but only just, and certainly not with a lot of broad support yet. Another horrible poll for Pape, and it should be only a question of when he is replaced.

[Diouf]

The government will have to face its most divisive issue yet in the coming months as the negotiations about a carbon tax on the agricultural sector is about to start. The government's expert panel has proposed three different models for such a carbon tax, with the tax being 125 kr, 375 kr and 750 kr. per tonnes respectively in the three models.
The government is trying to defuse some of the political tensions around the issue by starting negotiations with interest groups, and hope a deal can be reached on a model there. And then such a deal with the interest groups would probably get quite broad support in parliament.

However, it already seems like there is quite a lot of distance between the interest groups and the parties in government. The Danish Society for Nature Conversation has already publicly recommended the most radical model with a 750 kr. tax. The deputy leader of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council today came out to say that the expert group was just a political contribution from one side, and that they had their own negotiations which could give some better (i.e. more lenient) models. They are both part of the negotiations along with the Danish Union of Metalworkers, the trade union in the food industry NNF, the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Association of Municipalities as well as the green think tank Concito.

Also the parties in government are already publicly disagreeing. The Moderates have said that the deal would have to live up to the ambitions stated in the government agreement, which most experts agree that only the 750 kr. model would do. Social Democrats are mostly staying quiet. The Liberals seem likely to face a significant backlash from their own mayors and members if they agree to a radical deal. The negotiations will be led by Liberal Minister of Economy Stephanie Lose, who is so far quite neutral in her answers. TV2 today asked 119 Liberal mayors and local association leaders. Of the 44 who answered, 32 said that all three models were too radical and would harm Danish agriculture so much that the party shouldn't agree a deal with any of them. Outside of government, the Denmark Democrats are fully against any carbon tax and have started campaigning heavily on it, while the usual Red Bloc parties are all pushing the Social Democrats to go for the most ambitious model, and are criticizing how slow progress on the climate issues are.

[Diouf]

Conservative leader Søren Pape Poulsen has died from a brain hemorrhage, age 52

[Diouf]

Pape's funeral will be this Saturday from the Cathedral in Viborg, which he was next door neighbour to.
It seems more and more likely that his replacement will be the 56-year old Mona Juul. Political spokesperson Mette Abildgaard has said she isn't pursuing the role due to her having two small children at home. Former parliamentary group leader Mai Mercado recently quit that post, also due to family commitments. And Rasmus Jarlov has been on sick leave since 7 January.

So the three most obvious candidates all seem out of the picture, which very much leaves Mona Juul as the likely new leader of the party.

There has been no statements yet on how and when a new leader will be chosen. Høje Taastrup mayor Michael Ziegler will deputize as party leader until further notice.

[Diouf]

Former Head of Communications for the Conservatives, Benny Damsgaard, has written an analysis of the likely new Conservative leader Mona Juul:

He rightly argues that the party for several years focused a lot on Pape himself, when he was riding high in popularity polls. After the defeat in the 2022 general election, the party tried to broaden the responsibility, so key actors like Mette Abildgaard, Mai Mercado and Rasmus Jarlov got more attention. But now it looks like none of them will become leader, and the quite unknown Mona Juul will take over instead.

He says it's quite unclear what direction the party will take under Juul's leadership. She only joined the party in 2018, and doesn't have a long background in politics. She has been a partner and director in a advertising company. She was elected already in 2019 as a MP, and has mostly been active on business and climate. She has attacked the government for being to slow to act on climate issues, while critics said she has almost acted as the spokesperson for the Danish Chamber of Commerce in her business portfolio. She has barely spoken on issues like law and order, defence, immigration and religion. Damsgaard notes that particularly those former profiles on the party left, Per Stig Møller and Connie Hedegaard, has praised Juul highly, so they seem like they have an expectation that she will lead the party in their direction. He illustrates this by mentioning how Pape had pictures of Thatcher on his wall, while Juul has a big painting of a woman pleasing herself.

https://www.altinget.dk/artikel/benny-damsgaard-mona-juul-bliver-ny-leder-af-k-ingen-ved-dog-reelt-hvad-hun-vil-med-partiet

[Diouf]

Mona Juul today become the official leader of the Conservatives in parliament. The party announced its plan to have an extraordinary congress soon, where the whole party will chose their new leader. The whole board and parliamentary group supports Mona Juul, and it's seems unlikely there will be any serious opposition, if any at all.

https://twitter.com/noa_redington/status/1767876836912967957

[Diouf]

Fuglede also mentions the Quran law, the abolition of a holiday, and the party's support for a later abortions as issues where he disagreed with his party.

Updated parliamentary situation on domestic Danish issues below.
On confidence issues, the four North Atlantic seats should all back the government, so there's no trouble there. There probably won't be a confidence vote, but it would be nice, just to see how Fonseca and the Social Liberals will vote.

Governing majority - 87 seats
Social Democrats 50 seats
Liberals 22
Moderates 14
Jon Stephensen

Sympathetic towards the government (probably won't make it fall, but won't support it in all cases) - 8 seats
Social Liberals 7
Mike Fonseca

Opposition - 80
Denmark Democrats 16
SPP 15
Liberal Alliance 15
Conservatives 10
Red-Green Alliance 9
DPP 7
Alternative 5
Lars Boje Mathiesen
Theresa Scavenius
Peter Seier Christensen

[Diouf]

The government has agreed a new school reform with Liberal Alliance, Conservatives, Social Liberals and DPP.
The deal aims to decentralize some of the decision-making about the content of the education as the number of national learning goals are cut down from 1 081 to 215. The deal is also rolling back some of the elements of the quite disliked school reform of 2014. That previous reform introduced the so-called 'full-day school' with longer school days, where there were homework cafes etc in order to create a bigger equality by reducing the role of whether your parents could help you or not. Now school days for the youngest pupils are reduced in length, the hard target of 45 min movement a day is scrapped, the mandatory homework cafes are removed and the older pupils will be able to have more choice about selective courses or choosing junior apprenticeships at companies.

The deal also includes invesments in more physical books to cut down on the hours of screen time in classes as well as funds to improve the quality of worn-down schools. Understanding of technology is introduced as a new selective course for older pupils, and it will be a theme in other standard courses for younger pupils. School boards will get more power, more funds to get educated, and it will be possible for local companies and associations to have representatives on the board. School boards will  be able to introduce grades in 6th and 7th grade if they wish.
The number of exams are reduced from 8 to 6, there will be special investments to improve those with the biggest difficulties in Danish and Math, and all pupils will have five days of mini apprenticeships in local companies in 7, 8 or 9th grade.


https://twitter.com/AndersRegnar/status/1770098143037689868

[Diouf]

New Right had its extraordinary party congress yesterday. Since most of the people in favour of dissolving the party, had already left it, there was little appetite for the proposal to disband the party. 172 party delegates voted for the party to continue, 10 voted against and three blank.¨

Afterwards there was an election for new party leader. And the result was as clear. Martin Henriksen, who was a MP for DPP from 2005-2019, received 169 votes, while three voted for Daniel Fischer.
Henriksen lost the DPP leadership election to Morten Messerschmidt in January 2022, and left the party shortly after. He joined New Right in 2023, and was supposed to be their lead candidate for the EP elections. But after Vermund dissolved the parliamentary group, the party is no longer eligible to run in the EP elections. Instead Henriksen has focused on becoming the party's new leader.

For the New Right it remains crucial whether MP Peter Seier Christensen will return from his illness, and decide to represent the party in parliament. This would make the party eligible for the next general election, and therefore boost the attention the party would get. Otherwise, they will have to collect the slightly more than 20.000 signatures in order to become eligible. Seier Christensen has been ill for most of the term with cancer and stress, and hasn't made any public comments.

[Diouf]

New elderly care reform with more influence for citizens and relatives

The government has concluded a deal with Denmark Democrats, SPP, Liberal Alliance, Conservatives and Social Liberals to reform the elderly care structure. The key target in the agreed changes is to give the elderly and their relatives more self-determination about the care they receive. Currently most elderly care is awarded quite strictly according to different paragraphs; i.e. you get this amount of time for cleaning help, this amount of time for help with personal hygeine etc. In the new reform, the parties have agreed that it will change to a system of "united care", where the citizen will be awarded a package of a certain amount of time, and then the frontline employee, the citizen and the relative will together decide what the time is best spent on.

Citizens will be able to choose between municipal care and a private operator. But all operators must now have the ability to deliver all types of care. So whereas currently a citizen might have chosen a private operator for cleaning, and the municipal care for hygeine, it will now be one operator with responsibility for the whole package. This means the private operators can now go together in consorties where e.g. a private cleaning company and a private care giver join together with common care administrators.

The deal also adds a billion kr. to the eldery care a year. Some of the funds will be used for implementing more team-like structures in the municipal elderly care, so the elderly will have a set number of people delivering the care, and not potentialy many different persons.

The deal also means a reduction in the number of external oversights with the elderly care, as it's one of the things which have been frequently mentioned as increasing bureaucracy. Plus the fact that different oversight authorities can have opposite viewpoints; i.e. the fire authority wanting to remove furniture, while the elderly care authority wants homely and cozy environments for the citizens.

Finally, the deal aims to ensure more freedom in how elderly care centres are run. The deal includes better conditions for loans to those aiming to establish private elderly care centres. It also introduces a new possibility for municipalities to introduce locally governed eldery care centres, which, while owned by the municipality, are run by a board with representatives from relatives and local society.


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