Danish Local Elections November 16th 2021

[Jens]

The Danish local elections will take place in November 2021. Denmark is divided into 98 municipalities and 5 regions. The municipalities and regions controls about 2/3 of the public budgets and thus play a very important role in Danish society and politics. Especially the municipalities and their organization, KL, caries a lot of weight.
Last local elections were a success for Socialdemokratiet, who controls 47 of the municipalities and 4 of the 5 regions. Of the major cities most are under the control of Socialdemokratiet, only a few in Jutland is controlled by Venstre and Konservative control some rich suburbs around Copenhagen.
Under normal circumstances, the governing party would be expected to lose quite a few municipalities, but given the Covid-19 popularity of the government and the current chaos of Venstre, that probably will not be the case.
Here is my take on who is the favorite to gain or keep power in the municipalities and regions. It is based on my quite extensive knowledge of local Danish politics, having been a member of the regional council in the Capital Region the last 7 years, chairing one of the committees and working a lot with the municipalities (primarily in Eastern Denmark but I also have good connections in Western Denmark). I represent SF, the Green Socialist Party, by the way.

[Jens]

The Capital Region
Copenhagen - Safe A
For a short while it looked like Copenhagen might be interesting after long time Lord Mayor, Frank Jensen, was forced to resign because of a MeToo scandal. Left wing Enhedslisten, second largest party in Cph was quick to find a Lord Mayor candidate in former MP Line Barfod, who might have been a serious Lord Mayor candidate under different circumstances in the most leftwing major city in Denmark. But Socialdemokratiet recruited the current chairman of the regional council in the Capital Region, Sophie Hæstorp, and that made the city safe A. Hæstorp is a former MP and has chaired the Capital Region since 2014. Not without issue, including a rather problematic IT-system, but she has a profile perfect for Cph, living in hip Vesterbro for many years, is fairly young (46 years) and a single mom and has a strong green profile.
There is no threat from the rightwing parties that only holds 13 of the 55 mandates. The lead for Venstre, Cecilia Lonning is a stable and decent person, but no lijsttrekker, the same goes for Jakob Næsager from Konservative. Liberal Alliance broke completely apart (their lead was elected to parliament and is their national leader today. His substitute changed parties to Konservative and the other cllr returned to Venstre, her old party) they are now running former Minister for Transport Ole Birk Olesen, who has never been involved in local politics before and was a rather rightwing minister with little love for cycling, the primary means of transportation in Cph. The lead candidate for Dansk Folkeparti, Finn Rudaizky, who beat long time lead C.C. Ebbesen, is rather old, so old that he was smuggled to Sweden during WWII (he is Jewish), so not really a person, the young inhabitants of Cph can relate to.
The rest of the center and left poses no real risk for Hæstorp either. SF’s Sisse Marie Welling has been a reliable Mayor for Health, but few knows her and the same goes for Mia Nyegaard, from Radikale Venstre, who is Mayor for Social Affairs.
What might be a little bit interesting is who is going to sweep up the votes from Alternativet, who gained more than 10 % of the votes last election, but has collapsed during the period. Both SF, Enhedslisten and Socialdemokratiet would like to take a slice of that. Cph is also one of the few places, where Frie Grønne might have a chance to gain a councilor.

Albertslund - Safe A
There is little doubt that Steen Christiansen (A) will hold on to the mayoralty after the election in this quite leftwing suburb dominated by social housing.

Allerød – Tossup
This rich exurb north of Copenhagen is always fun to watch. The majority is heavily to the right, but Konservative and Venstre does not cooperate very well. Last election, current Venstre mayor Karsten Langerich managed to come to an agreement with most of the parties, but Konservative left because the leftwing parties would not accept that former mayor Erik Lund became chairman of one of the committees. Back in 2013 Lund was toppled in a coup by John Køhler from Venstre, who then was toppled by a new alliance, where another conservative, Jørgen Johansen became mayor, because a member of Socialdemokratiet, Lea Herdal (who jumped from SF just before the election) voted for the alternative conservative candidate (Herdal later changed party to Alternativet).
There is a good chance that Langerich will struggle to keep his coalition, but this is Allerød, so nothing is decided before the fat lady sings.

Ballerup – Safe A
Jesper Würtzen will stay mayor in this social democratic suburban paradise.

Bornholm – Likely A
Long time social democratic mayor Winni Grosbøll retired at the start of the year and Thomas Thors, who was mayor from 2003 to 2005 took over again. Grosbøll was extremely popular but wanted to do something other than being mayor, became CEO of Friluftsrådet and moved in with her boyfriend in Cph (across the street from me :-D ). Thors has just been elected as the lead for the election, and will probably keep the power (but has a history of losing the mayoralty in spectacular fashion)

Brøndby – Safe A
Kent Magelund will stay as mayor. Socialdemokratiet might lose their majority, but the red parties will continue to have a massive majority in this southern suburb dominated by social housing.

Dragør – Tossup
This is one to watch. Dragør is a very well of municipality on the southern tip of Amager consisting of three small towns. For many years the municipality was run by a local list, but when the list failed to keep the economy under control, the mayoralty has changed hands numerous times. Current mayor Eik Bistrup announced earlier this year that he is not running for reelection, but is becoming chairman of Krifa, the Christian labour “union”. Helle Barth will take over ultimo May. The former social democratic mayor Allan Holst died of cancer in 2020, so Socialdemokratiet has to find another candidate for mayor. The local list Liste T also want the mayoralty, so this one is going to be a show.

Egedal – Likely V
Rich ex-urb should reelect Karsten Søndergaard and Venstre, but a new local list, Ny Egedal, might change that. Composed of former councilors from Radikale Venstre, Venstre and Dansk Folkeparti, the list has been quite keen on cooperating with the left side of the council and is in an electoral alliance with SF and Enhedslisten, that might tip the scale towards a mayor from Socialdemokratiet, but it is still more likely that the mayor will continue to be Søndergaard and not Vicky Holst Rasmussen

Fredensborg – Likely A
Thomas Lykke Pedersen will probably stay as mayor in this northern ex-urb, but if Venstre managed to sway those pesky Radikale, this might change. It’s quite unlikely, but it is Radikale 😉

Frederiksberg – Lean C
Frederiksberg has been ruled by Konservative for the last 100+ years. Traditionally a very well-off and conservative enclave in Copenhagen (unlike Valby and Vanløse/Brønshøj, Frederiksberg wasn’t incorporated into Cph in 1901) the municipality has become younger and younger and increasingly populated by families. Families that do like the green and lush neighbourhoods, but who ain’t solid conservative. Last election was decided by less that 200 votes, Konservative kept the power but decided to exchange the older (and rather boring) Jørgen Glenthøj with Simon Aggesen, a younger and more relatable lead candidate. He is in his early 30’ties, has 2 small kinds and is a barrister. Perfect fit for the well-off urban young families at Frederiksberg. But then things started to unravel. First, Aggesen managed to get his hands on a huge flat (460 m2) back in 2016. He bought it unlisted because he helped finding another flat for the renter (a rather colourful former socialite called Marquis Marcel de Sade). The owner of the flat, the Bibel Society, then sold it to him for a measly 9,5 mio DKkr about half the average price per square meter in Frederiksberg at that time (Aggesens claim is that the state of the flat justified the extremely low price). Soon after Aggesen splits the flat in two and in 2018 sells one part for 14,5 mio. DKkr and in 2020 sells the rest of the flat for 11 mio. DKkr. Net profit excluding expenses for renovation ect about 11 mio DKkr. Not bad in 4 years…At the same time he was raging against evil American companies buying up rental estates in Frederiksberg and raising the rent. Needless to say, Flatgate (not a real name) hasn’t helped Konservative. Aggesen also managed to make a somewhat inappropriate Aprils Fools joke about Covid-19, but the most recent problem is not caused by Aggesen himself, but by Enhedslisten rotation principle/term limite. Because that meant that former MP and chief ideologue Pelle Dragsted couldn’t stand for relection last time and now is free to run for local election in Frederiksberg. Dragsted might bring some of the about 30 % predominantly young non-voters to the booths and will probably give Enhedslisten an excellent election next time (to the frustration of SF and Alternativet)

Frederikssund – Tossup
This one is going to be really interesting. Sitting mayor from Venstre John Schmidt Andersen won convincingly in 2017 but just after the election it was revealed that the new city Vinge was severely over budget and that external investors wasn’t as interested as Schmidt Andersen had claimed. It cost the municipality over 100 mio. DKkr to cover the deficit and it was necessary to cut down on a lot of other things to find the means to cover the deficit. Schmidt Andersen is not going to have a good election and Socialdemokratiet is eying a chance to regain the mayoralty they lost in 2013.

Furesø – Likely A
Much has to go wrong, if Ole Bondo Christensen loses this one. On pure demographics he shouldn’t be safe at all in this well-off northern suburb/ex-urb municipality, but they like him so Socialdemokratiet will probably stay in power.

Gentofte – Safe C
Even though the longest sitting mayor (since 1990), Hans Toft, has stepped down, the new mayor, former handball star Michael Finger, will keep the power. Konservative might lose a mandate or two, but there is no chance that they will lose the mayoralty in this extremely rich northern Cph. suburb.

Gladsaxe – Safe A
There is little to no chance that Trine Græse will lose this. She might not be as popular as her predecessor, Karin Holst, but there is no real opposition.

Glostrup – Tossup
This is going to be interesting. Longtime Venstre Mayor John Engelhardt retires after a very strange 4 years. To give a bit of backstory, Engelhardt came to power back in 2010, when no. 4 on the SF list, Charlotte Brandstrup (personal vote a whopping 94) jumped ship and voted for him (for some money heavy positions, including deputy mayor) The former mayor from Socialdemokratiet, Søren Enemark, made some illegal inquiries into the personal information of Brandstrup and ended up serving 30 days for that…
Engelhardt did a good job and was rewarded with rightwing majorities in 2013 and 2017, but in 2018 no. 2 on the Venstre list, Lars Thomsen was kicked out of the party, decided to form his own local list and allied himself with the leftwing parties. Not something that brings joy to a mayor. Venstre is running a quite young candidate for mayor, 27 years old Piet Papageorge and Socialdemokratiet has another quite young candidate for mayor, Kasper Damsgaard (33 years). Damsgaard is probably the favorite in this traditional leftwing suburb, but Venstre and Konservative might have a chance.

Gribskov – Tossup
There is no job guarantee as mayor of Gribskov. Every election since 2007 has meant a new man in charge. Currently is it Anders Gerner Frost from the local list, nytgribskov (sic – what’s with the lower-case letters...) People has been changing parties left and right in this period and especially Socialdemokratiet have had lots of internal strife. So if Gribskov stays on track and changes mayor again, it will probably mean a return of former Venstre mayor, Kim Valentin.

Halsnæs – Likely A
Given the bad national trends for Venstre and similar really good ones for Socialdemokratiet, Steffen Jensen will probably stay mayor. He and A is doing a decent job.

Helsingør – Lean C
This one is going to be close. Konservative has held the mayoralty for 24 out of the last 28 years in this traditionally social democratic city, that has moved to the right since the shipyard closed. Benedikte Kjær has been the mayor for the last 8 years and she is going to have to fight for the post. Socialdemokratiet really wants to recapture Helsingør that along with Esbjerg, was one of the two great losses of the 90’ties. But lead candidate Claus Christoffersen is probably going to need a strong showing from the smaller leftwing parties and also persuade Radikale to take the position from Kjær. On a sidenote, Kjær has had a beef with the editor of one of the major tabloid newspapers, Ekstrabladet, because of the papers rather unpleasant coverage of her pregnancies (she is in her 40’ties and has had two donor pregnancies – the “fun” thing is that the editor, Poul Madsen, just became a father and is in his 50’ties but you know, different standards for men and women…)

Herlev – Safe A
His Majesty, the Beloved and Benevolent Emperor, Thomas Gyldal (A), first of the name, will continue to rule in the peaceful fiefdom of Herlev.

Hillerød – Likely A
Former MP Kirsten Jensen became mayor last election after 4 years of unsuccessful Konservative rule. Venstre who lost out in the negotiation process last time even if they were the largest party, would love to take the mayoralty, but Jensen looks like the strongest card currently.

Hvidovre – Safe A
Helle Adelsborg will keep the mayoralty in yet another quite social democratic suburb.

Høje-Taastrup – Safe C
Nobody can touch Michael Ziegler. Safe Konservative.

Hørsholm – Safe C
Nothing will change in Hørsholm and they prefer it that way!

Ishøj – Safe A
Socialdemokratiet will keep this southern suburb dominated by social housing, but the prelude to the election has been fun. Long time mayor Ole Bjørstorp got dumped by the party as lead candidate after he tried to isolate his designated successor chair of the group, Merete Amdisen, and decided later to leave Socialdemokratiet and form his own list Ishøjlisten with 2 other former socialdemocrats. Amdisen is now the lead candidate for Socialdemokratiet and given that Ishøj, dominated by social housing as the suburb is, is heavily leftwing, it is very unlikely that Bjørstorp can form an alternative majority.

Lyngby-Taarbæk – Safe C
Sofia Osmani will keep this. Konservative won handily last time on their opposition to the building of a light rail line running through the suburbs. Everybody but the voters in Lyngby knows that the light rail is coming but Konservative will get reelected again on “resisting” the light rail…

Rudersdal – Safe V
Jens Ive is going to get reelected on his local popularity. Not even the major heart attack he had a few years ago will stop him – and the voters in one of the richest municipalities like him and Venstre.

Rødovre – Safe A
Socialdemokratiet got rid of Erik Nielsen, who had a few “mishaps” like using a municipal car for personal transport, and replaced him with Britt Jensen, who is a perfect match for this suburb packed with civil servants that like the Social Democratic welfare state.

Tårnby – Safe A
Tårnby has been hard hit with Covid-19, not the disease itself but the downturn in aviation. Cph Airport is in Tårnby and a significant part of the population works at the airport. Allan Andersen has done a good job at fighting for the airport combined with finding new work opportunities for those who lost their jobs.

Vallensbæk – Safe C
At some point Konservative might lose control of this sliver of well-off suburb pinned between social democratic social housing, but right now are they doing a good job and Henrik Rasmussen will for sure keep his majority.

[Jens]

Region Sjælland
Faxe – Likely V
It looks like Ole Vive will keep this. He is well liked, doing a decent job and Socialdemokratiet has had some nasty internal fighting.

Greve – Safe V
Venstre will keep this rich southern suburb/ex-urb.

Guldborgsund – Tossup
My home island is definitely one to watch. Currently held by the local list Nyt Guldborgsund, the mayor John Brædder have had some missteps. Latest the municipality lost a case about some huge summer houses at Marielyst, a mayor summer house area. The district plan didn’t really leave room for these very large houses, but the mayor and the administration ignored it and probably counted on making it a fait accompli – but Planklagenævnet (The Planning Board of Appeal) were having none of it and declared the summer houses illegal! Brædder really wants to be business friendly, but the summer house cases and others like that has damaged his reputation. The main challenger is the new lead for Socialdemokratiet, Simon Hansen (34), who isn’t tained by former Social Democratic mishaps (The former SD mayor Kaj Petersen was famously filmed drunk out of his mind on an “study” trip). Rene Christensen from Dansk Folkeparti might surprise and win but given the downturn in Dansk Folkeparti’s fortune on a national level and issues with getting support from other parties, it seems unlikely.
Guldborgsund is one of the places where Rasmus Paludans extreme rightwing party Stram Kurs has a good change to win a mandate, if they run, Stubbekøbing and Gedser were some of Stram Kurs’ best result in the national elections in 2019 – if they don’t run, Nye Borgerlige will probably get at really good election here.

Holbæk – Safe A
The youngest mayor in Denmark, Christina Krzyrosiak Hansen (28 years) will stay on. She has done a good job cleaning up after messy Venstre mayoralty with huge deficits and in general people in Holbæk like her (dating charming SF MP Jacob Mark is just icing on the cake and a source of adorable Instagram stories 😉 )

Kalundborg – Lean V
This should have been an easy one for former KL chairman Martin Damm, but then Peter Jacobsen from Dansk Folkeparti announced that he wants to be mayor. Jacobsen was actually offered the position last election but turned it down because he didn’t want to be dependent on the leftwing. This time he has formed an electoral alliance with Liberal Alliance and Nye Borgerlige, who both support his candidacy. Gunvor Jensen from Socialdemokratiet might come out of all this as mayor, but my guess is that the results will show that Jacobsen doesn’t have enough support and then he will be richly rewarded for supporting Damm.

Køge – Safe A
Marie Stærke is too strong. Socialdemokratiet has this one in the pocket.

Lejre - Tossup
This one can go any which way. Socialdemokratiet has the mayoralty currently but SF held it from 2010 to 2016 and before that Venstre was in charge. The demographics are changing fast with the influx of young families from Cph, but with 3 parties with decent chances, it will probably come down to whoever is the smartest negotiator on election night.
  
Lolland – Likely A
Holger Schou Rasmussen is the favorite, the only reason it’s not safe, is that Lolland has had a tendency towards shenanigans during the negotiations after the election.

Næstved – Safe A
This old marked town within driving distance of Copenhagen is safe A. Rather working class/filled with craftmen and not really a place where Venstre has a chance. Not enough farmers.

Odsherred –Safe A
This one shouldn’t be a safe A, but Thomas Adelskov is well liked and a rather good negotiator – and Venstre, who under more normal circumstances should stand a chance has been hit by internal troubles with 2 councilors leaving the party in protest against the new lead candidate.  

Ringsted – Lean V
Ringsted used to be a swing municipality, changing mayors between Venstre and Socialdemokratiet nearly at every election, but since 2006 Venstre has had the power. Henrik Hvidesten is the favorite to stay as mayor, but anything can happen at a municipality with a very divided council. This one could be a steal for Konservative.

Roskilde – Safe A
Even though the major vote-getter Joy Mogensen decided to leave for at position as Minister for Cultural Affairs, Tomas Breddam will keep this. Socialdemokratiet might lose their sole majority at the council but the votes will go to SF and Enhedslisten, keeping this old cathedral town safe red.

Slagelse – Lean A
I could write a whole novel about the negotiations in Slagelse in 2017, but to sum it up, John Dyrby from Socialdemokratiet made a deal with Villum Christensen from Liberal Alliance, that they would split the term with Dyrby starting as mayor. The other supporting parties, SF and Enhedslisten were pretty clear on that they had no intentions on supporting Christensen when the two years was up and to the surprise of nobody, Dyrby is still mayor. Venstre has a new lead candidate, Knud Vincents, a classic Venstre farmer. It’s a good question how well he will appeal to the growing number of families moving to the municipality from Copenhagen.
How the negotiations will proceed this time is anybody’s guess, but Dyrby is slight favorite and will probably pull it off.

Solrød – Safe V
Has always been ruled by Venstre and so it shall continue.

Sorø – Safe C
Nobody can touch Gert Jørgensen. It might look close, but I’m sure that Konservative got this.


Stevns – Lean V
The demographics are changing fast in this lovely rural municipality with many young families moving from Cph to the small cities. Last time Venstre held onto the mayoralty despite a significant loss and the then mayor forming his own local list, Nyt Stevns shortly before the election. He decided to support the Venstre candidate Anette Mortensen anyways. A few things are in Mortensens favor. Incumbency might help her and Venstre and the challenges of the leftwing with a quite strong Enhedslisten. Speaking of Enhedslisten, the party just had a messy candidate election, which ended in a narrow loss for the current lead, Jan Jeppesen, who them subsequently left the party (and the council). Fun times!  

Vordingborg – Likely A
Michael Smed is doing a good job and combined with the general popularity of Socialdemokratiet there is little change, that Venstre will regain this one.  

[Jens]

Region Syddanmark
Odense – Safe A
Peter Rahbæk Juel is safe. Konservative and Venstre poses no real threat. Boring

Assens – Safe V
Søren Steen Andersen will probably cruise to an easy victory. The opposition is having a hard time finding a permanent challenger since Socialdemokratiet lost in 2013. They are on number 4 lead candidate since then, so this looks like a sure one for Venstre.

Billund – Safe V
Legoland will stay Venstre and keep on living off those nice bricks.

Nordfyns – Safe V
Morten Andersen might lose his majority but combined with the other rightwing parties he is safe.

Esbjerg – Lean V
This is a municipality that Socialdemokratiet really really really want to regain after it was lost in the Venstre surge in the 90’ties and they might have a chance now. Long time mayor Johnny Søtrup stepped down before last election and handed the reins to Jesper Frost Rasmussen. Frost Rasmussen managed to hang on to his majority but only just. Only one mandate (a local list) separated the rightwing from the leftwing parties.
Jakob Lykke, local union boss and former councilor is the new lead candidate for Socialdemokratiet and has a pretty decent chance. It will be interesting to see what kind of resources Socialdemokratiet is willing to put into this campaign to regain Esbjerg.

Fanø – Tossup
Mayor Sofie Valbjørn from Alternativet is not running for reelection, a fine symbol of the state Alternativet is in. Valbjørn became mayor because of the usual shenanigans in this well-off island suburb to Esbjerg. The council is a cluster of parties, 7 parties for 11 spots and it takes one to form an alliance. Konservative is probably favored given the national tendencies, but we’ll see. This could also be one of the few Venstre gains on what probably will be a terrible night for the party.

Fredericia – Likely A
The former mayor, Jacob Bjerregaard left the position last year to start as director for a Public Affairs bureau, but before he got the chance to start at his new job, the news broke that he was involved in some nasty corruption. Apparently, he ordered the administration to sell an extremely attractive building lot to him and his wife ahead of another bidder. Not a nice thing, and he lost the job at the PA bureau and is now facing corruption charges. How this will affect the current mayor, Steen Wrist, is to be seen. But Socialdemokratiet will probably loose its majority, but not the mayoralty.
Fredericia seems to collect on colourful mayors. Former mayor, Thomas Banke (Venstre) had a cocaine addiction and some issue with differentiate between his own money and the money of the municipality.

Faaborg-Midtfyn – Likely A
I’m fairly sure that the centre-left majority is there. Hans Stavnsager decided to make a coalition with Venstre and Dansk Folkeparti to have a broader majority and could do that because there wasn’t a rightwing majority. But Faaborg-Midtfyn has changed mayor at every election in its existence, so let’s see.

Haderslev – Lean A
Current mayor H.P. Geil (Venstre) is stepping down which opens the door for the popular lead candidate for Socialdemokratiet, Henrik Rønnow. The new lead for Venstre, Mads Skau is currently a regional councilor and will have quite the task to overcome bad national polling for Venstre and the fact that he hasn’t been part of local politics in Haderslev for 10 years.

Kerteminde – Lean C
I’m taking a chance here and calling it for Konservative. Last time around Konservative got a really good result, but lost the negotiations, where Venstre decided to support the candidate from Socialdemokratiet, leaving Konservative out of the agreement. Konservative is running the same lead candidate, the extremely popular Klavs Norup, and I think that combined with the favorable national winds for Konservative, Norup will pull it off this time. But only lean, because Kasper Olesen and Socialdemokratiet might keep the mayoralty if he again manages to persuade Venstre to support him.

Kolding – Tossup
This one is going to be fun. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of SF, Villy Søvndal want to be mayor of his hometown, where his political career started back in the 80’ties and where his popularity made SF almost as big as Socialdemokratiet. Back then Søvndal didn’t manage to become mayor, but now he sees his chance. The sitting mayor, Jørn Pedersen is not running for reelection and Venstre hasn’t really been doing that good of a job running the municipality. To ensure that Venstre would keep the mayoralty, Eva Kjer Hansen, current MP and former Minister of Fisheries, the Environment, and other things was parachuted in. She only just moved to Kolding in late 2020 and narrowly beat Jakob Ville, a sitting councilor endorsed by Pedersen, in the internal election in Venstre. It looks like a major battle between the two former ministers with Kjer as the slight favorite. But the parties on the left have agreed on a common electoral alliance and also that the largest party in the alliance gets the position as mayor. So a united front on the left. This is definitely one to watch.

Langeland – Safe F
Tonni Hansen will probably struggle most with having enough candidates on his list to soak up the votes he will get.

Middelfart – Safe A
Johannes Lundsfryd Jensen has this one. Socialdemokratiet, SF and Enhedslisten has a majority of 17 of 25 and there is little to no opposition. 

Nyborg – Likely V
Kenneth Muhs might lose a bit, but I doubt that it will be enough to tip the balance.

Svendborg – likely A
There has been a ridiculous number of councilors changing parties during this term in Svendborg. Dansk Folkeparti has basically disintegrated and Alternativet lost its sole councilor to Socialdemokratiet. All this has only strengthened Bo Hansen’s chance of a reelection as mayor. Konservative could do a sneak here, but I seriously doubt it.

Sønderborg – safe A
Erik Lauritzen has proven himself quite the gifted negotiator since he got Konservative and the German minority party, Slesvigske Parti, on his side back in 2013. In 2017 Socialdemokratiet almost got a majority on its own and there is a good chance, that that will happen this time around.   

Tønder – Lean V
Under normal circumstances Tønder would be save Venstre, but things happened. The sitting mayor, Henrik Frandsen was deselected as lead candidate for Venstre and choose to break out and form his own list, Tønder Listen along with 5 other Venstre councilors. Martin Iversen, the new lead for Venstre is still favorite, but it all depends on what kind of support Frandsen will get. With Venstre divided, there might be an outside chance for Konservative, who has excellent national numbers or even the German minority party, Slesvigske Parti, could go for it. It is one of those, that could surprise given the bad blood between Frandsen and Iversen.

Varde – Safe V
Mads Sørensen will be the next mayor of Varde. Boring!

Vejen – Safe V
Rural West Jutland – Safe for Egon Fræhr and Venstre.

Vejle - Tossup
Current mayor Jens Ejner Kristensen has a slim majority of one, who even is a conservative gone independent and this is also one that Socialdemokratiet really wants to retake, having lost it back in 2009. Martin Sikær is the new lead candidate for Socialdemokratiet, not the biggest vote getter, but he has a decent chance. I don’t think that Konservative will steal this, nor that SF will return to former glory and retake the mayoralty they held from 1994 to 2007 (in the smaller previous municipality).

Ærø – Lean C
Mayor Ole Wej Petersen has lost half of the socialdemocratic councilors during the term, which is quite bad. This could be a golden opportunity for Konservative, even though their strong lead from 2017, former MP Anders Retz Johansen has moved to Svendborg. Mads Boeberg Hansen is the new lead candidate. It will come down to who is the better negotiator in a council with plenty of parties, lots of local lists and loads of bad blood between councilors (classic island politics)


Aabenraa – Likely V
It will take a major swing if Thomas Andresen and Venstre should lose the mayoralty. Socialdemokratiet is running Erik Uldall Hansen, but I don’t really think that he can create that big a swing. Andresen is still going to work for it, especially now that the grand old man of the council, Ejler Schütt, left Dansk Folkeparti and later joined Liberal Alliance. He is quite the character and on his 4th party in his 30 years as a councilor.

[Jens]

Region Midtjylland

Århus – Safe A
Jakob Bundsgaard is well liked (and not really tarnished by the problems with the recently build light rail) and the opposition is non existing. Venstre’s lead candidate, Christian Budde, is not even on the council currently neither is the Conservative lead.

Favrskov – Safe A
Favrskov is increasingly becoming a suburb to Århus with the demographics more and more dominated by families with children moving from the city but not to far away. The mayor Nils Borring has been in power since 2010 and has a decent chance to gain a majority on his own, but the more likely outcome is that Socialdemokratiet, SF and Enhedslisten continue to hold the majority.

Hedensted – Tossup
Venstre looked like they had it in the bag last election and that Kirsten Terkilsen could continue as mayor, but it was payback time for Dansk Folkeparti, who was left out of the agreement in 2013. Led by MP Hans Kristian Skibby, Dansk Folkeparti threw its weight behind Kasper Glyngø and to make the alliance even stranger, the sole mandate from Kristendemokraterne also joined (along with SF, but that was to be expected). Glyngø needs to with big this time to keep the majoralty, but he has a decent chance especially since Terkilsen isn’t running for reelection. Venstres new lead is Ole Vind, who got a fraction of the votes compared to Terkilsen. Another wildcard is how well (or more likely bad) Dansk Folkeparti will do. DF will probably lose votes to Nye Borgerlige if they are running. We’ll see about that. 

Herning – Safe V
Dorte West has this one. Venstre might lose a little, but nothing will change in the city of entrepreneurs on the moorlands.

Holstebro – Safe A
Long time mayor, H. C. Østerby decided to stand for reelection, despite being 65 years old (I know, a youngster compared to the US Senate 😉 ) which made the municipality safe for Socialdemokratiet.

Horsens – Safe A
Nothing to see. Move along. Peter Sørensen stays on as Mayor.

Ikast-Brande – Safe V
None shall pass – although the extremely rich ovner of the clothing company Bestseller didn’t get a chance to build his Tower of Mordor in Brande (https://rokokoposten.dk/2019/01/11/breaking-sauron-flytter-til-brande/) there is no chance that Venstre will lose this mercantile and enterprising  municipality.

Lemvig – Safe V
The fishermen do not like chance. This one is safe for Erik Flyvholm and Venstre.

Norddjurs – Likely A
The municipality faced some major financial issues early this term which meant major cuts and raised taxes. This might affect mayor Jan Petersens chances of a reelection, but the rightwing parties are divided, and it looks like Dansk Folkeparti prefers Petersen. So most likely a reelection for Petersen.

Odder – Lean V
Venstre is slight favorite to keep the mayoralty, but it is going to be close. Both Venstre and Socialdemokratiet is running the same lead candidates, Mayor Uffe Jensen and Lone Jakobi, so no change there. It is close, but Jakobi and allied needs to more a fair bit of votes and there is no guarantee that Radikale is going to support Jakobi.

Randers – Likely A
I’m fairly sure that Torben Hansen will keep this, but it is Randers and strange things has happened before here (It’s difficult to describe the inhabitants of Randers, but something between Florida Man and Newcastle 😉 )
The council is packed with strange leftwing lists, like Beboerlisten, originally an Enhedslisten front, but they stayed on after Enhedslisten started to run on its own, and Velfærdslisten, an one man splinter from SF, run by Kasper Fuhr, who got elected for SF in 2009, jumped ship, when the other SF councilor tried to become mayor with the support of the rightwing parties, and then left SF because of SF participation in the national government.
Hansen should be able to find a majority and new Venstre lead candidate, Christian Brøns, is going to have a hard time gathering enough votes to defeat Hansen.

Ringkøbing-Skjern – Lean V
This municipality is basically the Danish Bible Belt. Kristendemokraterne has a strong position on the council and got close to capturing the mayoralty last election with their lead candidate Kristian Andersen getting the most votes in the municipality (he was also 191 votes from becoming an MP in the national election in 2019). But as long as he refuses to wed homosexuals, he will not get the support from Socialdemokratiet. That was what cost him the mayoralty in 2017. (he is also anti-abortion which is very much a fringe opinion in Denmark). So Hans Østergaard Kristensen might keep the mayoralty.

Samsø – Safe A
Marcel Meijer got more than 40 % of the votes in the last election and will probably repeat it this time – and now he is even a Danish citizen!

Silkeborg – Lean A
Another municipality where councilors have been changing parties like crazy! See if you can keep up: Venstre gained two, one from Liberal Alliance and one from Dansk Folkeparti, but also lost two, one to Socialdemokratiet and one to Konservative, SF gained two, one from Alternativet (their sole cllr) and one from Socialdemokratiet, in all 6 councilors who changed party, SF and Konservative being the winners, both doubling their numbers, Socialdemokratiet and Venstre at status quo and Dansk Folkeparti and Liberal Alliance losing out.
All that doesn’t really matter come November. Will Steen Vindum keep the mayoralty? Currently he leads a strange coalition consisting of Venstre, Konservative, Dansk Folkeparti and Radikale and SF. Radikale isn’t that strange but SF is a bit unusual, and before the councilor from Alternativet changes parties to SF, he was also a part of the coalition. Radikale and Alternativet held the decisive votes and choose to support Vindum. Because of all the party changing shenanigans, the leftwing parties has the majority now and I think they will keep that after the election, making Helle Gade the new mayor. But if Radikale holds the decisive mandate, anything can happen!

Skanderborg – Safe A
Frands Fischer is leading Socialdemokratiet for the first time in this election after long time mayor Jørgen Gaarde retired in 2019, but the centre-left majority is solid, and Fischer will most likely get a good result.

Skive – Lean V
Peder Christian Kirkegaard narrowly won last time when he managed to persuade Radikale to support him. The question is whether Radikale will support him this time or even gain representation Once upon a time Skive was a bastion of Radikal strength but these days, Radikale has little support among smaller farmers (of which there is few left anyway). A local list run by former Socialdemokratiet mayor Per Jeppesen might give Socialdemokratiet and their lead candidate Peder Christiensen some problems.

Struer – Tossup
Niels Viggo Lynghøj is retirering which opens a door for Venstre and Mads Jakobsen. This might be one bright spot for Venstre on what looks like an otherwise dark night for Venstre.

Syddjurs – Lean A
Every election a new mayor. Will Ole Bollesen keep it this time or will Kirstine Bille (SF) retur or perhaps a new Venstre Mayor. Bollesen is the favorite, but things may happen.

Viborg – Lead V
This is one, Konservative really wants. Søren Pape Poulsen, the current national leader of Konservative, was Mayor of Viborg before he went to the national stage and his successor, Torsten Nielsen got and very impressive election in 2017 with more that 7.000 personal votes and a gain of one mandate. But it wasn’t enough, because Socialdemokratiet decided to support Ulrik Wilbæk from Venstre.
Wilbæk is probably the most well-known mayor in Denmark, not because of his current occupation, but because he has coached both the female and male national handball teams, winning 1 Olympic gold, 1 World Cup gold and 4 European gold medals.
Socialdemokratiet would also like to retake the Mayoralty, but has the weakest of the candidates in Niels Dueholm, who only got one tenth of the personal votes of Wilbæk and Nielsen. But in the end, Socialdemokratiet probably will hold the decisive mandates.

[Jens]

Region Nordjylland

Aalborg – Safe A
The only interesting thing is whether Thomas Kastrup-Larsen keeps his sole majority, or he is going to have to include other parties in a coalition.
 
Brønderslev – Likely V
It seems to be most likely that Mikael Klitgaard will keep on being mayor. Socialdemokratiet has a chance, but will need a good election for them and the smaller centre-left parties and whatever the local list, Borgerlisten decides to do.


Frederikshavn – Safe A
Birgit S. Hansen got the most personal votes percentage vice of anybody last election. 42 % of the inhabitants of Frederikshavn voted for her. During the term 1 councilor from Konservative and 1 from Dansk Folkeparti changed parties to Socialdemokratiet bringing their numbers up to an impressive 20 out of 29. Combined with 1 councilor from SF and 1 from Enhedslisten, the leftwing parties dominates the council. Even if Hansen loses a few mandates, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Hjørring – Safe A
Arne Boelt stays as mayor in Hjørring. Perhaps with his own majority.

Jammerbugt – Safe V
Fishermen and farmers. Safe for Venstre and Mogens Gade, who has been mayor since 2007.

Læsø – Tossup
I just love tiny islands and especially the shenanigans that happens. The council have 9 members, the smallest in Denmark, and last time Venstre won 4 mandates, almost a majority and quite the result for then mayor Tobias Birch Johansen. But the rest of the council said: “never mind that, let us make Karsten Nielsen from Dansk Folkeparti mayor.” A few days after the election Venstre also joined the agreement to keep the peace at this tiny island of 1.764 inhabitants.
I have absolutely no idea whether Nielsen will keep this, but I doubt it. The mayoralty has changed in the last three elections!

Mariagerfjord – Lean V
Mogens Jespersen has a fair chance to stay mayor. Socialdemokratiet is running the same lead candidate Leif Skaarup, and he needs to move a sizable rightwing majority. But it is not impossible. Mariagerfjord had a Socialdemokratiet mayor until 2014.

Morsø – Safe V
Hans Ejner Bertelsen has got this one. Socialdemokratiet have had some internal problems and the lead candidate, Viggo Vangsgaard left the party and later joined SF. Venstre did lose a councilor too who joined Radikale Venstre but that only reduced their majority from 12 out of 21 to 11.

Rebild – Tossup
This is a weird one. The only Radikale mayor in Denmark (outside of Copenhagen), Leon Sebbelin has managed to hang on the position since 2013. He is not that popular but has survived on the council being split in many parties who is about the same size. The local list, Den Sociale Fællesliste, dissolved itself during this period and the hugely popular lead Allan Busk has announced that he is stepping down. It’s anybody’s guess where his about 1.800 personal votes (about 10 % of the total votes in the municipality) will go. Venstre is largest party and might be slight favorites, but it ain’t over till the bodily challenged lady sings and Sebbelin might take this one again.

Thisted – Lean A
Ulla Vestergaard managed to grab the mayoralty last time around because of grievances between Venstre and Konservative. The at that time mayor, Lene Kjelgaard was brutally dumped by Venstre as lead candidate in 2016 and not long after changed parties to Konservative. She secured Konservative an excellent result and equally a huge defeat for Venstre. In return, Venstre made an agreement with Socialdemokratiet after the election, where Vestergaard became mayor in exchange for some nice chairmanships and other things to Venstre. Konservative needs a really good result if they are going to win this, especially because Kjelgaard isn’t the lead this time. Konservative has instead elected Jens Kristian Yde. If Vestergaard has a majority with Venstre and the leftwing parties, she will probably keep this. An indicator is the electoral alliances. If Konservative and Venstre joins forces in an electoral alliance, Yde has a decent chance, but we’ll see that later this year. 

Vesthimmerland – Lean V
This is one that Konservative really would like to retake, but Per Bach Laursen from Venstre has a decent chance to keep the mayoralty. The council is split in 3 about equal blocs. Konservative former mayor Knud V. Kristensen quit politics after some nasty accusations about mixing his personal interest with the interests of the municipality. Last year Konservative elected deputy mayor Signe Nøhr as their lead candidate. She is only 26, so if she managed to defeat Laursen, she will be the youngest mayor in Denmark (it has happened before. The mayor of Holbæk was only 25, when she became mayor)

[Jens]

Regional elections

Region Hovedstaden – Likely A
Socialdemokratiet suddenly had to find a new lead candidate when Sophie Hæstorp-Andersen left to become Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. It turned out to be a difficult task and finally they chose longtime regional councilor and loyal wingman, Lars Gaardhøj. Gaardhøj has been a councilor since the foundation of the regions, but never much of a vote getter. So The Machine® of Socialdemokratiet really has to work for it to secure a decent result. But that doesn’t really mean that there is any serious threat to Gaardhøj. The rightwing hasn’t got a obvious replacement. Martin Geertsen from Venstre doesn’t really seem to have his heart in it and prefers national parliament. Christoffer Buster Reinhardt is rather young and has a tendency to go for the easy populistic messages and perhaps the most obvious, when it comes to qualifications, Karin Friis Bach from Radikale, there is no chance that she will get the support from Dansk Folkeparti or Nye Borgerlige (if they get elected). Back in 2009, SF struck a deal with the rightwing parties that would have put Andreas Røpke (SF) in the chairmans seat, but internal shenanigans in SF but an end to that and the new lead candidate, Peter Westermann is more of the leftwing school, and would under no circumstances want to become chairman with rightwing support.

Region Sjælland – Lean A
Region Sjælland is the only region, where both Venstre and Socialdemokratiet has had the chairmanship. Currently Heino Knudsen from Socialdemokratiet is chairman, and he is slight favorite to keep it. Venstre has the same lead candidate as last time, Jacob Jensen and he needs to keep the rightwing parties together. I 2017 Knudsen managed to bring Dansk Folkeparti and Liberal Alliance into his coalition along with SF and Enhedslisten (who subsequently got kicked out because of some unfortunate things, one of their councilors said) and he will probably try to keep especially Dansk Folkeparti in the coalition. The negotiations could be delayed depending on the result in Kalundborg. If Peter Jacobsen from Dansk Folkeparti has a decent chance to become mayor there, it will most likely take some time before Dansk Folkeparti can negotiate properly. One interesting thing is that Jensen has the support of Radikale, unlike most other local elections, where Radikale support the left.

Region Syddanmark – Safe V
Stephanie Lose is popular, very popular and since Villy Søvndal decided to leave regional politics and attempt to become mayor of Kolding, Lose is basically the only candidate people really know. SF will lose heavily without Søvndal’s personal vote of 69.000 and Socialdemokratiet has found a sacrificial lamb in Mette With Hagensen, who has never been elected to anything before (but tried twice for Venstre in the municipality of Varde!)

Region Midtjylland – Safe A
Venstre has struggled to find a challenger to Anders Kühnau and has ended up with former Favrskov mayor, Anders Georg Christensen, who is rather old (20 years older that Kühnau at 59) and a farmer. Not really someone who can relate to the young urban voter in Århus. SF will probably get a decent election led by young doctor and chair of the Committee for Psychiatrics, Jacob Isøe Klærke, especially since Psykiatrilisten isn’t running this time and Alternativet is quite weak. That will only strengthen Kühnau since SF for sure will support him.

Region Nordjylland – Safe A
Ulla Astman got 15 % of all votes last time and will probably improve on that. The North Jutlanders like her dry and down to earth style, in many ways she is the embodiment of a classic North Jutlander. Both Venstre and Konservative has some decent lead candidates in current alderman I Aalborg, Mads Duedal (Venstre) and MP and cllr Per Larsen (Konservative). Duedal is young (36 years) and might have a better appeal in the university town of Aalborg and Larsen has been heavily exposed as national health spokesman for Konservative. But they will probably just cannibalize from the other rightwing parties and not be able to pose any real threat to Astman.

[Zinneke]

Great posts! Thanks for doing this

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Thank you very much for the run-downs! They are entertaining and informative.
I have a question: by-and-large, exactly how much power do municipalities have in Denmark, overall? Please get in detail if you have to.

[Jens]

Thank you very much for the run-downs! They are entertaining and informative.
I have a question: by-and-large, exactly how much power do municipalities have in Denmark, overall? Please get in detail if you have to.

They are powerful. They are allowed to collect taxes, have broad responsibilities including running schools, preschools, social care, care for the elderly, most environmental issues, most of the road network and cycle lanes, local busses, local planning, business promotion and regulation and probably other tings I have forgotten.
There have been some limitations in the last 20 years, with budgetlimits imposed by the national government, but by all means the municipality is the primary home of the wellfare state.
The regions primarily runs the national healthcare system plus some regional bus- and trainservices and are not in anyway as powerful as the municipalities. 

[Leading Political Consultant Ma Anand Sheela]

Thank you very much for this thread, very informative indeed.

[Diouf]

Sønderborg – safe A
Erik Lauritzen has proven himself quite the gifted negotiator since he got Konservative and the German minority party, Slesvigske Parti, on his side back in 2013. In 2017 Socialdemokratiet almost got a majority on its own and there is a good chance, that that will happen this time around.   

Liberals are running Ellen Trane Nørby here as lead. She is a prominent MP and former Minister of Education and Minister of Health, and the top Liberal votegetter in the South Jutland multimember constituency in 2011 and 2019 (narrowly 2nd in 2015). She received 6 365 personal votes in the Sønderborg municipality in the 2019 general election, the second highest after current Social Democrat Minister of Transportation, Benny Engelbrecht.

[Jens]

Added Sorø (Safe C) - don't know why it was missing.

[Jens]

Sønderborg – safe A
Erik Lauritzen has proven himself quite the gifted negotiator since he got Konservative and the German minority party, Slesvigske Parti, on his side back in 2013. In 2017 Socialdemokratiet almost got a majority on its own and there is a good chance, that that will happen this time around.  

Liberals are running Ellen Trane Nørby here as lead. She is a prominent MP and former Minister of Education and Minister of Health, and the top Liberal votegetter in the South Jutland multimember constituency in 2011 and 2019 (narrowly 2nd in 2015). She received 6 365 personal votes in the Sønderborg municipality in the 2019 general election, the second highest after current Social Democrat Minister of Transportation, Benny Engelbrecht.

Good point. I do still think that Lauritzen is the favorite. And Trane's votes was at a completely different time for Venstre, getting 23 % national - That gave Venstre about 29 % in Sønderborg, better that the 21 % at the local election in 2017, but I seriously doubt that Trane can repeat that in November.

[Jens]

Added Region Midtjylland

[Jens]

Added Region Midtjylland

And added Region Nordjylland - now to the regions ( the easy one)

[PSOL]

Well this was very extensive. Thank you.

[Jens]

Well this was very extensive. Thank you.

Thanks. I'm just having fun, since I'm not running for office for the first time in over a decade :-)

[Jens]

Added the regional elections - finally done :-D

[Jens]

I'm not the only one having "fun" trying to guess who will win what in the local elections.
Associate professor at the Danish School of Media and Journalism (and always ready with an opinion about everything), Roger Buch and Journalist Nils Mulvad have done their own prognosis from an extrapolation of the national poling numbers where the national numbers have a 40 % effect locally. That is always debatable and like in most other countries, local elections are… you guessed it – local, and many factors other than national poling matters. But anyways, here is their guessimates:
 
Wins for Socialdemokratiet: Glostrup, Frederikssund, Faxe, Stevns, Haderslev, Esbjerg, Silkeborg, Skive and Mariagerfjord. Losses: Kerteminde, Ærø, Thisted, Hillerød, Hedensted and Struer.

Wins for Konservative: Allerød, Dragør, Kerteminde, Ærø, Vesthimmerland and Thisted. No losses

Wins for Venstre: Hillerød, Hedensted, Struer and Læsø. Losses: Allerød, Dragør, Glostrup, Frederikssund, Faxe, Stevns, Haderslev, Esbjerg, Silkeborg, Skive, Mariagerfjord, Vesthimmerland.

Losses for Dansk Folkeparti: Læsø

In the Altinget article they are certain that Konservative will win Vesthimmerland, but that just goes to show the weakness of such an extrapolation based solely on numbers. As you can se in my description, Konservative got a good result last time because of a popular mayor, Knud V. Kristensen. He is not running this time and that alone will cost Konservative a lot. So I seriously doubt that Konservative will se the kind of gain, Buch and Mulvad is anticipating.

https://www.altinget.dk/christiansborg/artikel/syv-maaneder-til-historisk-massakre-paa-venstre

[Jens]

Local poll from Bornholm. Great news for Socialdemokratiet, who doesn't seem to lose support in spite of Grosbøll leaving. Also a really great poll for Enhedslisten and deputy mayor Morten Riis.
The poll could be way off, as with every local poll, but still quite the boost for Socialdemokratiet

https://www.tv2bornholm.dk/artikel/s-staar-staerkt-ogsaa-uden-grosboell

[Diouf]

Viborg – Lead V
This is one, Konservative really wants. Søren Pape Poulsen, the current national leader of Konservative, was Mayor of Viborg before he went to the national stage and his successor, Torsten Nielsen got and very impressive election in 2017 with more that 7.000 personal votes and a gain of one mandate. But it wasn’t enough, because Socialdemokratiet decided to support Ulrik Wilbæk from Venstre.
Wilbæk is probably the most well-known mayor in Denmarhttps://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/politik/danskpolitik/porno-bommert-i-s-borgmesterkandidat-faar-paatale/8586529k, not because of his current occupation, but because he has coached both the female and male national handball teams, winning 1 Olympic gold, 1 World Cup gold and 4 European gold medals.
Socialdemokratiet would also like to retake the Mayoralty, but has the weakest of the candidates in Niels Dueholm, who only got one tenth of the personal votes of Wilbæk and Nielsen. But in the end, Socialdemokratiet probably will hold the decisive mandates.

The Social Democrat lead candidate has not made things easier for himself with this "p*rn-gate". A Socialdemocratic sub-site had been hacked, and now displayed NSFW materials. Instead of warning local party members and tell them to stay off the site, Dueholm thought it funny to write them and say "Look at our nice, new web site" and encourage people to click on the link. Many fellow party members did not find this funny. Dueholm then sent a half-hearted apology, which enraged people even further. There have now been a major crisis meeting to discuss his continued candidature. He is staying as lead candidate. His name recognition has probably increased, but I doubt the case will be good for the party's support.

https://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/politik/danskpolitik/porno-bommert-i-s-borgmesterkandidat-faar-paatale/8586529

[Jens]

Viborg – Lead V
This is one, Konservative really wants. Søren Pape Poulsen, the current national leader of Konservative, was Mayor of Viborg before he went to the national stage and his successor, Torsten Nielsen got and very impressive election in 2017 with more that 7.000 personal votes and a gain of one mandate. But it wasn’t enough, because Socialdemokratiet decided to support Ulrik Wilbæk from Venstre.
Wilbæk is probably the most well-known mayor in Denmarhttps://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/politik/danskpolitik/porno-bommert-i-s-borgmesterkandidat-faar-paatale/8586529k, not because of his current occupation, but because he has coached both the female and male national handball teams, winning 1 Olympic gold, 1 World Cup gold and 4 European gold medals.
Socialdemokratiet would also like to retake the Mayoralty, but has the weakest of the candidates in Niels Dueholm, who only got one tenth of the personal votes of Wilbæk and Nielsen. But in the end, Socialdemokratiet probably will hold the decisive mandates.

The Social Democrat lead candidate has not made things easier for himself with this "p*rn-gate". A Socialdemocratic sub-site had been hacked, and now displayed NSFW materials. Instead of warning local party members and tell them to stay off the site, Dueholm thought it funny to write them and say "Look at our nice, new web site" and encourage people to click on the link. Many fellow party members did not find this funny. Dueholm then sent a half-hearted apology, which enraged people even further. There have now been a major crisis meeting to discuss his continued candidature. He is staying as lead candidate. His name recognition has probably increased, but I doubt the case will be good for the party's support.

https://ekstrabladet.dk/nyheder/politik/danskpolitik/porno-bommert-i-s-borgmesterkandidat-faar-paatale/8586529

Local elections are always fun
And yes, his tiny chance is now nonexiting - but Socialdemokratiet will still probably have the deciding mandates, so despite being a twat he'll end up as deputy mayor

[Diouf]

Local elections are always fun
And yes, his tiny chance is now nonexiting - but Socialdemokratiet will still probably have the deciding mandates, so despite being a twat he'll end up as deputy mayor

Today, he resigned as lead candidate, so won't even get that joy.

https://www.tvmidtvest.dk/viborg/tager-konsekvensen-af-mail-med-pornolink-borgmesterkandidat-traekker-sig

[Diouf]

Læsø – Tossup
I just love tiny islands and especially the shenanigans that happens. The council have 9 members, the smallest in Denmark, and last time Venstre won 4 mandates, almost a majority and quite the result for then mayor Tobias Birch Johansen. But the rest of the council said: “never mind that, let us make Karsten Nielsen from Dansk Folkeparti mayor.” A few days after the election Venstre also joined the agreement to keep the peace at this tiny island of 1.764 inhabitants.
I have absolutely no idea whether Nielsen will keep this, but I doubt it. The mayoralty has changed in the last three elections!

DPP has lost their only mayor in the country as Karsten Nielsen has defected to the Liberals just months before the election. I have no real idea about how popular he is on the island, but considering the Liberals' result last time and Nielsen's decision to choose the Liberals, I will guess that they are now significant favourites.