The Great Nordic Thread
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Poll
Question: Will Iceland and Norway ever join the EU?
#1
Iceland, but not Norway
 
#2
Norway, but not Iceland
 
#3
Both
 
#4
None of them
 
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Total Voters: 178

Author Topic: The Great Nordic Thread  (Read 201239 times)
politicus
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« Reply #575 on: August 11, 2015, 05:26:51 AM »
« edited: August 11, 2015, 05:53:06 AM by politicus »

Guđmundur Steingrímsson now proposes that both the chairmanship, organizational chairmanship and parliamentary leadership in BF should rotate between several persons.

It is an old idea among "alternative progressives" in Iceland. The old Women's List, the Movement/Citizens Movement and the Pirates have done this for the parliamentary leader, but doing it for all three leadership positions is crazy.

In other news GS old buddy and LG parliamentary leader Róbert Marshall calls Heiđa Kristín Helgadóttir "childlish" for believing that leadership affects a party's electoral  performance.. What an idiot.

GS and RM joined BF because they had no chance of being reelected for PP and SDA respectively and having these two clowns on board have basically sunk the party, but the old Best Party people are as guilty for allowing them to assume positions of leadership.
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politicus
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« Reply #576 on: August 12, 2015, 03:04:01 PM »
« Edited: August 12, 2015, 03:06:08 PM by politicus »

Russia now also claims the North Pole. The Russians have submitted a new claim overlapping with the Danish/Greenlandic and this time it does not only touch the pole, but continues on the Greenlandic side.

http://arcticjournal.com/opinion/1739/three-countries-one-pole

Unfortunately there are now zero chance of the North Pole becoming a nature sanctuary, as former Greenlandic PM Kuupik Kleist wanted (and Greenpeace has been arguing for years).

Well, the idea was already dead with the Siumut government in Nuuk and our current government, but as long as Denmark was the only country claiming the pole it might have been revived with a IA/Centre-Left combo in Nuuk and Copenhagen. Harper has hinted that Canada would also claim it, but so far the Canadians haven't.
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DavidB.
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« Reply #577 on: August 21, 2015, 01:12:57 PM »

Not a very smart thing to say: Denmark's new Foreign Affairs minister, Kristian Jensen (V), stated that Denmark should at some point join the eurozone. However, the blue bloc parties aren't exactly enthusiastic about this. The Conservatives are skeptical, while Liberal Alliance and DPP immediately rejected the idea. According to the article, the majority would be against this, and I think a referendum would be needed to introduce the euro.

Denmark, please be smarter than us...

Do any of the Danish posters know if this is just something only Jensen wants, or that this is really part of Venstre's program? I thought V had shifted toward some more eurosceptical positions.

http://finans.dk/finans/politik/ECE7950405/Udenrigsministeren-st%C3%A5r-fast-Danmark-skal-med-i-euroen/?ctxref=ext
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ingemann
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« Reply #578 on: August 21, 2015, 03:02:35 PM »

Not a very smart thing to say: Denmark's new Foreign Affairs minister, Kristian Jensen (V), stated that Denmark should at some point join the eurozone. However, the blue bloc parties aren't exactly enthusiastic about this. The Conservatives are skeptical, while Liberal Alliance and DPP immediately rejected the idea. According to the article, the majority would be against this, and I think a referendum would be needed to introduce the euro.

Denmark, please be smarter than us...

Do any of the Danish posters know if this is just something only Jensen wants, or that this is really part of Venstre's program? I thought V had shifted toward some more eurosceptical positions.

http://finans.dk/finans/politik/ECE7950405/Udenrigsministeren-st%C3%A5r-fast-Danmark-skal-med-i-euroen/?ctxref=ext

It's official Venstre position, it's also the position of SocDem, Social-Liberals and Conservative (through official in their EU program, they don't support it right now, but sometime in the future). SPP, DPP, Red-Green and LA are against. I think the Altenative is against.

It should be said except for maybe the Social-liberals, the parties who support Euro-membership don't want a referendum about it in the near future, including Kristian Jensen.

So what you see is KJ paying lip service to his party and government official position. Also it was the Conservatives who have shifted toward a more Euro-sceptical position, through there's voices in Venstre who want the same, but Venstre are also home to the most rights most fanatic pro-Europeans, so I don't think we will see any significant shift.
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politicus
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« Reply #579 on: August 23, 2015, 11:57:38 AM »

With incumbent Olafur Ragnar Grimsson contemplating running for a sixth term a new poll shows 58% of Icelanders backing a constitutional limit on how many terms a President is allowed to sit. 17% against and 25% undecided. Only PP voters are against it. Women and university graduates are most in favour of a term limit.

Of those who want a ban 45% prefer 2 terms max, 37% three terms max, while 18% wants to set the limit higher (4 or 5).
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« Reply #580 on: August 25, 2015, 11:27:24 AM »

The budget talks are about to start soon. The last days have been dominated by some strategic statements by the DPP and the Social Democrats. The DPP stated that they could easily imagine making agreements with the Social Democrats and other "red bloc" parties without participation of the government; for example on the issue of unemployment benefits and lower ferry prices to small islands. However, the new Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen stated that they she would not participate in a "economic footnote policy", a reference to the footnote foreign policy in the 80s when an alternative parliamentary majority forced the government to adopt specific national positions on nuclear and arms control issues. She said that if the DPP thinks they can see more economic similarities with the Social Democrats than the Liberals, then the DPP should probably reconsider who they want to be prime minister.
The Social Democrats understandably would not want the DPP to be able to play the role as right wing on immigration while getting their left wing policies through on economy. They hope that the DPP's expensive welfare promises can not be carried through. However, if/when the DPP present concrete proposals, that the Social Democrats have formerly stated their support for, then it might be difficult for the Social Democrats to actually reject these proposals.
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« Reply #581 on: August 25, 2015, 11:48:13 AM »

Gallup for Berlingske have polled about the government after the first two months.



The first question asks who have been the most visible ministers (pick up to 5). Minister of Integration Inger Střjberg is the clear number one as her proposal to re-introduce lower benefits for refugees have been widely discussed in the media. Minister of Justice Sřren Pind has received quite a lot of attention after calling for tougher sentences on rape and violence, and harshly attacking "anti-capitalist protests" in Copenhagen, which destroyed banks and other businesses. Minister of Defence Carl Holst would probably have liked to avoid much of his attention; most of it was about him receiving a big "sign-off fee" from his job as leader of Region Southern Denmark. After some days of heavy media pressure, he gave back half of it. Then follows the three generally most important ministers; PM, foreign and finance.

The second question, to the left, is satisfaction with the job of the government. It is using the Danish grading scale; 12, 10, 7, 4, 02, 00 (failed), -3 (basically not showing up). DPP voters grade it a bit below average and significantly less than the three other blue bloc parties; probably due to disappointment with the DPP not being in the government and because the general sense of anti-politics, and thereby anti-government, is bigger in that party.

The third question, to the right, is about prefered PM. 37% prefer Social Democrat leader Mette Frederiksen, 28 % prefer current PM Lars Lřkke Rasmussen, 21% think they're equally good, and 14% don't know.

The last question is a rating of each minister. Carl Holst is obviously in the bottom, but not that much difference between the others. Lars Christian Lilleholt and Jřrn Nedergaard Larsen are also near the bottom, but probably because they are unknown. Střjberg and Pind are high in the list here as well; they probably score very high among blue bloc voters, but especially Střjberg will also get a lot of very negative scores by many left wing voters. Bertel Haarder and Kristian Jensen are probably not that popular among blue voters, but are not really unpopular among red voters. Haarder is considered as an old statesman, and has been minister of many different things; many guessed that he would be the new Speaker of Parliament.
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politicus
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« Reply #582 on: August 25, 2015, 01:35:58 PM »

Guđmundur Steingrímsson and Róbert Marshall have both stepped down from their leadership posts in Bright Future, thereby fulfilling the demands of Heiđa Kristín Helgadóttir for "considering" taking over. She has now taken her substitute seat in the Althing, but is not an official leader candidate yet - and can wait to the congress on September 5 to declare, if she choose to. Surprising that Steingrimursson went voluntarily, but he was under intense pressure and could probably see the writing on the wall.
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politicus
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« Reply #583 on: August 25, 2015, 01:52:21 PM »

The Pirate Party now suggests that all fishing quotes in Iceland should go on auction to be purchased by the highest bidder - Icelandic or foreign. This is the most radical suggestion for a reform of the quota system and a direct challenge to the fishing matadors that finance IP. In addition the Pirates want non-motorized boats to be able to fish as much as they like. They also want all fishing resources recognized as public property, which can never be sold or given away for more than a year.

IP has refused any reform of the fishing quota system, even though all other parties want changes, even their coalition partners in PP. Public ownership of natural resources was one of the key elements n the constitutional proposal agreed on in the 2011 referendum, and it seems the Pirates are the only ones willing to go all the way now.

This defines the Pirates as the most anti-IP party which will in itself attract some voter groups. Also the first time the Pirates have taken a stand on a major socio-economic issue, so a big step towards being a serious party.

It seems Big Fishing is losing influence in IP. A recent attempt to force IP leader Bjarni Benediktsson to block Icelandic support of EU sanctions against Russia in order to prevent a coming Russian boycott of Icelandic fishing exports failed despite support from the IP right wing.

(Icelandic fish exporters has made a fortune on the Russian market after Norway was shut out for supporting the sanctions)

Lots of crazy outbursts from the right wingers on this subject btw Professor in political science and Conservative heavyweight Hannes Holmstein actually claimed that since Iceland has always put exporting fish above anything else it would be a breach of national traditions to do so now. He mentioned they did not boycott Mussolini over Abyssinia and forbid translations of several German books critical of the Nazis in the 30s.

So basically: We didn't boycott Mussolini and we sucked up to Hitler, so why boycott Puttin?
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politicus
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« Reply #584 on: August 27, 2015, 01:24:15 PM »
« Edited: August 31, 2015, 05:54:58 PM by politicus »

Heiđa Kristín Helgadóttir has declined to run for the chairmanship of Bright Future. She has instead thrown her support behind MP Brynhildur Pétursdóttir. MP Óttarr Proppé has also announced his candidature, as well as the Deputy Mayor of Hafnarfjörđur (one of the municipalities where BF is allied with IP) Guđlaug Kristjánsdóttir. GK represents the right wing, which is committed to transforming the party into a genuine liberal party. Pétursdóttir is to the left of Óttarr Proppé. So a clear left-centre-right choice.

EDIT: Pétursdóttir has still not announced her candidature, so maybe she won't run at all.
....

Proppe is one the few remaining former punk rockers in BF, so maybe he can reinvigorate that touch of craziness that made the Best Party attractive:





Although he looks almost noble these days:

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politicus
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« Reply #585 on: August 31, 2015, 01:04:17 PM »

Iceland goes against the trend in Europe regarding Syrian refugees. There is a growing pressure from the opposition, municipalities, citizen groups and IP/PP backbenchers on the government to take more refugees than the 50 Iceland has promised to take in 2015-16.

IP MP Elín Hirst suggests Iceland takes 500 a year and says the current level is "an embarresment." 

SDA left wing leader Sigríđur Ingibjörg Ingadóttir has proposed a new refugee policy, which is so far supported by all of SDA, the Pirates and BF. She wants to take 500 refugees 2015-17 (100/200/200), primarily exposed groups such as gays and single women with children. A long term refugee policy calibrated after economy and population size shall then be decided in 2018.

Minister of Social Affairs Eygló Harđardóttir from PP says refugees will be a long term economic and social gain for Iceland.

More than 20 000 Icelanders have offered to donate clothes, toys, furniture, money for airline tickets and offered accommodation to refugees and to teach them Icelandic. A facebook group suggesting Iceland should take 5 000 refugees (3 x Sweden proportionally) right away has 8 000 members.

Icelandic Red Cross wants Iceland to take 1 600 a year, which would be proportional to Sweden.

IP leader and Minister of Finance Bjarni Benediktsson says that 1 600 are too many, since the situation is likely to continue for several years and there is little chance of repatriation, but he agrees Iceland should "do more".

Several of the biggest municipalities have offered to integrate more refugees. Among them Akureyri, Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörđur, Akranes and Garđabćr.

Of course all this will be a drop in the ocean because of Icelands size, but will safe a lucky few. Studies show that earlier refugees getting to Iceland have generally been very happy about it because of the living standard, lack of discrimination on the labour market and generally positive welcome they have gotten.

It is a bit nostalgic to see all this Icelandic enthusiasm for helping refugees since it is a reminder of how things once were in mainland Scandinavia - before integration problems, culture clashes and rising crime changed things. I hope for the Icelanders that their idea of targeting gays and single women will help them avoid this. It is in accordance with my thoughts that asylum in Europe should mainly be for vulnerable groups, that are in danger in the refugee camps rather than the strong and healthy, who have the money and stamina to reach Europe, but could handle being in the camps (of course refugees getting to Europe can be a ticket to safety for vulnerable family members, but it is still a dilemma that I think is usually ignored).

They are in the privileged position that they get to pick and choose all of their refugees.

Politically it will be interesting to see how the IP right wing and PP in Reykjavik reacts. The latter led a succesful Islamophobic campaign in the last municipal election. Generally it is the rural traditionalists in PP, who support more refugees (based on Christian ethics) rather than the more hard nosed urban/suburban PP. PM Sigmundur  Gunnlaugsson hails from suburbia, is a nationalist and has run on the risk of foreign criminals entering Iceland etc. So far he is silent about the refugee crisis.
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politicus
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« Reply #586 on: August 31, 2015, 08:17:52 PM »
« Edited: September 01, 2015, 03:37:52 AM by politicus »

A couple of months after the election there is still not much enthusiasm for LLR as Prime Minister among Danish voters. In a new Norstat poll he is just as far behind the new SD leader Mette Frederiksen as he was behind HTS. While almost a quarter of voters would like to see someone other than the two "bloc leaders" in charge.

Preferred PM:

Mette Frederiksen 35%
Lars Lřkke Rasmussen 26%
Another option (unspecified) 23%
Dunno 16%


Among those who would like a third option:

Kristian Thulesen Dahl (DF) 35%
Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen 13%
Anders Samuelsen (LA) 12%
Uffe Elbćk (ALT) 5%
Pia Olsen Dyhr (SF) 4%
Sřren Pape Poulsen (K) 3%
Morten Řstergaard (R) 3%
Dunno 26%
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Gunnar Larsson
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« Reply #587 on: September 01, 2015, 06:18:08 AM »

It is a bit nostalgic to see all this Icelandic enthusiasm for helping refugees since it is a reminder of how things once were in mainland Scandinavia - before integration problems, culture clashes and rising crime changed things. I hope for the Icelanders that their idea of targeting gays and single women will help them avoid this. It is in accordance with my thoughts that asylum in Europe should mainly be for vulnerable groups, that are in danger in the refugee camps rather than the strong and healthy, who have the money and stamina to reach Europe, but could handle being in the camps (of course refugees getting to Europe can be a ticket to safety for vulnerable family members, but it is still a dilemma that I think is usually ignored).

There is still enthusiasm for helping! And it is not like xenophobic attitudes were unknown, the only difference is that it is organised (not a small difference, but still).

Unfortunately I think it is highly likely that European countries change their policies in your direction, as that would mean being able to apply at an embassy or consulate in your country of residence, rather than spending huge money on getting to Europe by all possible means of transport.
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politicus
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« Reply #588 on: September 02, 2015, 02:48:30 AM »
« Edited: September 03, 2015, 08:03:37 PM by politicus »

Bright Future below the threshold again in a new Gallup poll before their congress. They get their worst result in a Gallup poll since right after the party was founded in 2012.

The poll sets several other records:

- SDA gets their worst result in a Gallup poll in 17 years (= since the founding of the alliance)
- IP gets their worst result in a Gallup poll since autumn 2008 during the height of the crash.
- The Pirates are at their highest level ever in a Gallup poll.

The government is below a third and the Right Greens close to their election result on 1.7% after being almost forgotten, so a few anti-refugee votes. The Pirates have an absolute majority of 55.5% among Icelanders aged 18-29!

LG 11.8%   8
SDA 9.3%   6
Pirates 35.9% 26
BF 4.4% nil
PP 11.1% 8
IP 21.7% 15

Right Greens 1,5%
Solidarity 1,0%
Dawn 0,8%
Democracy Watch 0,6%
Liberals 0,6%
Citizens' Movement 0,6%
The Movement 0,6%
(rounding error 0.1%)


So:

Government 32.8
Pirates - SDA - LG 57.0%
Wasted votes 11.2%


Pirate attack continues

It is now only possibly to build an anti-Pirate coalition if all the other four parties team up in an establishment coalition ranging from the right wing of IP to the LG left wing, while the Pirates can form a majority with any of the other parties. This happens after IP and PP have launched a media offensive against the Pirates, which seems to backfire big time.

The Pirates are now ahead in all constituencies except Northwest, where PP is in front. So the Pirates even beats PP in their traditional heartland in the (mainly) rural Northeast and IP in the conservative rural South. Even so the Pirates are still strongest in the city and are polling at 42% in the two Reykjavik constituencies.



Age cohorts:

18-29 55.5%
30-39 43.4%
40-49 33.8%
50-59 29.7%
60+    21.7%


Constituencies:

Reykjavík 42%
South      37%
Southwest 35%
Northeast 29%
Northwest 20%


The Pirates polling at 20%+ among retired Icelanders is really crazy. They are increasingly a national party with broad support even in rural areas and among seniors.
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politicus
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« Reply #589 on: September 02, 2015, 07:00:55 PM »

SDAs executive committee has decided to call a leadership election to be held next autumn. In the meantime they will try to broaden the partys membership and "bring it back to the mass movement it was intended as" to quote party chairman Árni Páll Árnason and among other things go in dialogue with the unions and tenant associations, but SDA has basically no workers among either membership or elected officials, so I doubt they can convince union members to suddenly join a higher middle class party. Even BF probably has more manual workers among its supporters because of the Best Party legacy. The other four parties certainly have.

I think that the postponed leadership election is a risky strategy. A whole year with Árnason as leader on "borrowed time" will create a lot of instability and jockeying for position.
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politicus
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« Reply #590 on: September 04, 2015, 07:07:25 AM »
« Edited: September 04, 2015, 07:39:20 AM by politicus »

The Danish government has decided to try to deport Helle Thorning-Schmidt to Geneva .. I mean promote her as SG of the UNHCR. Given how serious the global refugee crisis is, I am not sure that would be a good idea.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/denmark-former-premier-thorning-schmidt-vies-for-unhcr-top-job
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DavidB.
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« Reply #591 on: September 04, 2015, 07:32:03 AM »

The Danish government has decided to try to deport Helle Thorninng-Schmidt to Geneva .. I mean promote her as SG of the UNHCR. Given how serious the global refugee crisis is, I am not sure that would be a good idea.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/denmark-former-premier-thorning-schmidt-vies-for-unhcr-top-job
I saw her as a plausible candidate to become Donald Tusk's successor in 2017. A social democrat from a country that hasn't been too polarizing during the crisis in Greece (only due to the fact that Denmark is not in the eurozone, of course), she might be seen as an acceptable candidate for both North and South, probably more than Mark Rutte, who has been even tougher on Greece than Merkel. This, however, seems like HTS wants to have a nice job out of the spotlights - at the same time, the job is much more serious than the average "lol UN" job.

Why do you think she wouldn't be fit for the job?
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politicus
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« Reply #592 on: September 04, 2015, 07:47:25 AM »

The Danish government has decided to try to deport Helle Thorninng-Schmidt to Geneva .. I mean promote her as SG of the UNHCR. Given how serious the global refugee crisis is, I am not sure that would be a good idea.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/denmark-former-premier-thorning-schmidt-vies-for-unhcr-top-job
I saw her as a plausible candidate to become Donald Tusk's successor in 2017. A social democrat from a country that hasn't been too polarizing during the crisis in Greece (only due to the fact that Denmark is not in the eurozone, of course), she might be seen as an acceptable candidate for both North and South, probably more than Mark Rutte, who has been even tougher on Greece than Merkel. This, however, seems like HTS wants to have a nice job out of the spotlights - at the same time, the job is much more serious than the average "lol UN" job.

Why do you think she wouldn't be fit for the job?

HTS was seen as too right wing and too much "Merkel's girl" in the EU context by many SDs in other countries - especially in Southern Europe - aka not a "real" SD, so they preferred using their sloth in the top leadership for Federica Mogherini (her being Italian was of course also crucial to Renzi).

Being Angela Merkel's favourite SD was somehow not a selling point for Hollande and Renzi. Wink

I think she has been fairly inept as a leader. You really need someone with strong leadership and coalition building abilities to head the UNHCR in this situation.
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DavidB.
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« Reply #593 on: September 04, 2015, 07:55:08 AM »

The Danish government has decided to try to deport Helle Thorninng-Schmidt to Geneva .. I mean promote her as SG of the UNHCR. Given how serious the global refugee crisis is, I am not sure that would be a good idea.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/denmark-former-premier-thorning-schmidt-vies-for-unhcr-top-job
I saw her as a plausible candidate to become Donald Tusk's successor in 2017. A social democrat from a country that hasn't been too polarizing during the crisis in Greece (only due to the fact that Denmark is not in the eurozone, of course), she might be seen as an acceptable candidate for both North and South, probably more than Mark Rutte, who has been even tougher on Greece than Merkel. This, however, seems like HTS wants to have a nice job out of the spotlights - at the same time, the job is much more serious than the average "lol UN" job.

Why do you think she wouldn't be fit for the job?

HTS was seen as too right wing and too much "Merkel's girl" in the EU context by many SDs in other countries - especially in Southern Europe - aka not a "real" SD, so they preferred using their sloth in the top leadership for Federica Mogherini (her being Italian was of course also crucial to Renzi).

Being Angela Merkel's favourite SD was somehow not a selling point for Hollande and Renzi. Wink

I think she has been fairly inept as a leader. You really need someone with strong leadership and coalition building abilities to head the UNHCR in this situation.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem has exactly the same profile as HTS, as a Northern European pro-austerity/pro-Germany social democrat (in name only, some would say), and somehow it didn't hinder him to be elected and re-elected as eurogroup president. HTS' losing to Mogherini doesn't necessarily mean that she can't get another EU top job. Your point regarding her ineptness seems fair - a Dane is better qualified to judge her than I.
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politicus
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« Reply #594 on: September 04, 2015, 08:59:52 AM »

The Danish government has decided to try to deport Helle Thorninng-Schmidt to Geneva .. I mean promote her as SG of the UNHCR. Given how serious the global refugee crisis is, I am not sure that would be a good idea.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-04/denmark-former-premier-thorning-schmidt-vies-for-unhcr-top-job
I saw her as a plausible candidate to become Donald Tusk's successor in 2017. A social democrat from a country that hasn't been too polarizing during the crisis in Greece (only due to the fact that Denmark is not in the eurozone, of course), she might be seen as an acceptable candidate for both North and South, probably more than Mark Rutte, who has been even tougher on Greece than Merkel. This, however, seems like HTS wants to have a nice job out of the spotlights - at the same time, the job is much more serious than the average "lol UN" job.

Why do you think she wouldn't be fit for the job?

HTS was seen as too right wing and too much "Merkel's girl" in the EU context by many SDs in other countries - especially in Southern Europe - aka not a "real" SD, so they preferred using their sloth in the top leadership for Federica Mogherini (her being Italian was of course also crucial to Renzi).

Being Angela Merkel's favourite SD was somehow not a selling point for Hollande and Renzi. Wink

I think she has been fairly inept as a leader. You really need someone with strong leadership and coalition building abilities to head the UNHCR in this situation.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem has exactly the same profile as HTS, as a Northern European pro-austerity/pro-Germany social democrat (in name only, some would say), and somehow it didn't hinder him to be elected and re-elected as eurogroup president. HTS' losing to Mogherini doesn't necessarily mean that she can't get another EU top job. Your point regarding her ineptness seems fair - a Dane is better qualified to judge her than I.

The situation was that three top jobs were available and an SD could only get one of them given the centre-right dominance among the governments.

Barosso left as Chairman of the Commission, van Rompuy as President of the European Council and Catherine Ashton as High Representative. In the end Hollande and Renzi preferred to settle for replacing the High Representative (the least important of the three) instead of accepting HTS as the SD card, but sure, that does not block her in a future situation. But she would have been out of the spotlight for a long time in 2017. I think she missed her best chance.

HTS is at least very knowledgeable about EU related matters (which is what she has spent most of her adult life dealing with) and know the "EU-culture" from inside, so she would probably function better in that system. The UN is a whole different ball-game.
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« Reply #595 on: September 04, 2015, 10:39:24 AM »

I don't think she's a bad choice, but she's a weird choice, there're issues HTS believe in and have opinion about, this one is not one of them in my opinion. If she get this job, I would suspect that it's because there's a wish to make a omelet, where some quite precious eggs need to be broken. She do have a stubborness and pigheadedness, which make her excellent if you want to force something through against the general will of the people working in UNHCR.
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politicus
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« Reply #596 on: September 04, 2015, 10:56:40 AM »

She does have a stubborness and pigheadedness, which make her excellent if you want to force something through against the general will of the people working in UNHCR.

Can't really argue with you there Wink
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #597 on: September 04, 2015, 11:19:55 AM »

Well she has to do something while waiting for Ann Clwyd to retire in Cynon Valley doesn't she.
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Diouf
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« Reply #598 on: September 05, 2015, 05:07:50 AM »

The Liberal Danish government had its first defeat. The Minister of Integration wanted to restart the process of giving citizenship to 2750 people, who didn't fullfil the demands for citizenship but had been granted exemptions. The vast majority of these people had already been notified that their exemption had been accepted, but they had not yet been on an official citizenship law passed in parliament. However, the Minister Střjberg said "It is no secret that I and the Government believe that the rules have been too lax, and that too many people have been granted exemptions". The left wing parties were obviously against this, but they were joined by the Liberal Alliance in granting the exemptions ágain to everybody, but the 200 people whose exemption had been given after the election was called, and were therefore explictly conditioned exemptions. The Liberal Alliance argument was that it would create a further distrust in politicians if already granted exemptions were withdrawn, and that it was simply not a decent way of making politics.

It is by no means a huge defeat, but it neatly illustrates the current parliamentary situation. The Liberals might also see a tiny bit of positives in this; they have lost quite a few voters to the Liberal Alliance, and if they can use the "soft on immigration" argument against them, they might lure a few of them back. The Liberal Alliance was originally the New Alliance, a party with stances closer to those of the Social Liberals, and the leader and deputy leader are ex-Social Liberals, so early on, focus groups were telling the party that the soft immigration policy were holding some people back from voting on them. Therefore, they adapted a much tougher line on immigration, which this decision to overule the government might undermine somewhat.
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Gunnar Larsson
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« Reply #599 on: September 05, 2015, 08:30:26 AM »

The Finnish prime minister has promised to accommodate refugees in his home:
http://yle.fi/uutiset/pm_sipila_pledges_oulu_home_to_refugees/8282824
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