Comment: The right-wing populist Danish People’s Party will face an important election test on Thursday two months after right-wing fanatic Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway. The first test for anti-immigration populist parties came this month in the Norwegian municipal elections, were the Progress Party saw its support plummet by 6.1 percentage points to 11.5%.
Migrant Tales predicted shortly after Breivik’s mass killings in Norway that an important watershed was crossed and that support, at least momentarily, would wane for anti-immigration parties in the Nordic Region.
A Megafon poll for Politiken and TV2News published on September 12 showed that the opposition alliance will win 92 seats compared with the government’s 83 seats in the 179-seat parliament.
Ten years of sustaining a minority government in Denmark has permitted the Danish People’s Party to turn the country’s immigration legislation into Europe’s strictest. Here is a story on The Local of Sweden that highlights the problems that some multicultural couples face due in Denmark.
Karsten Dybvad, the CEO of the Danish Confederation of Industries, suggested on Politiken that Denmark’s strong anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim stance have hurt the country’s image abroad. “We have surveys showing that businesses feel we have problems with our cultural openness and image abroad. That is of course something we would like to help improve,” Dybvad says.
Contrary to Norway, Denmark and Sweden, where the Sweden Democrats have lost support in a recent poll, the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) party continues to receive strong support in Finland. This maybe partly explained by the fact that the PS is now emphasizing more of its anti-EU side rather than its opposition to immigration.
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Just two months after the politically inspired massacre in Norway, a right-wing populist party, one of Europe’s most influential, will face a test of voter sentiment at the ballot box. The Danish People’s Party has been instrumental in tightening at least 20 laws pertaining to immigration and migration.
They still retained their third position still around 5% ahead of the center party whose vote also dropped and with the exception of the two largest parties all the other parties saw a drop in support. So considering what happened in Norway can you honestly say the progress party vote collapsed when a lot of people where expecting it to be much worse.
How much did you think their percentage would drop by was it more than 6%?
And have you always thought about that drop in vote could put the Conservative party into power and if so, they may need a collation partner with a more than average numbers of seats and if they look for that party from the right then the only option is the progress party. So if you look at this taking the long route Anders behring breivik could have put the progress party into a collation government. The question will be what its more important to the Conservative party future history or past history. Because no one likes to lose the keys to the kingdom on their first day
Mike, we spoke about the impact that a post-Breivik Noway would have on the Nordic Region. We are already seeing an impact: Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
I personally believe it is short-sighted to just rest most of your campaigning on hitting immigrants and minorities. If you look at the PS, it is basically a party that is led by ONE charismatic leader, which must be worrying if you are a PS supporter. Denmark has taught us that a tight immigration policy may win you some votes but at the end of the day you will end up shooting your both legs as is the case with the Danish People’s Party.
Have you thought about that having uncontrolled immigration is very costly to state. So would you be happy if you where a foreign business man who wanted to open a factory in Denmark but every year who would have to pay more and more taxes to state to cover the costs of uncontrolled immigration. Would you rather like a immigration policy which promotes positive immigration and rejects costly immigration and by doing so you would have to pay less taxes?.Tight immigration control does not scare aware foreign investment its lax immigration which does because its the larger companies who will see huge chucks of their profits in paying for a immigration policy like that .
And sorry the progress party losing 6 % is not a disaster for populist parties. You did not answer my question on how much percent you thought they would lose in the local elections as I guess you where thinking into double figures. If the Norwegian populist party only loss 6% because of what happened in Norway .Then if the Danish peoples party or Swedish Democrats are to suffer because of Norway then they are looking at maybe no more than 2% drop in votes
Denmark saves 6.7 Billion euros by tightening their immigration laws but still are promoting large foreign investment.
Denmark spends 6-7 Billions euros by reducing their immigration laws but still are promoting large foreign investment
If you where the owner of a large foreign company which one works better for you
@Mika
What exactly do you PS idiots want to tighten up? If it’s refugee policy then say REFUGEE POLICY! Don’t talk crap about “immigrants” and rope everyone in on the same thread!
Maybe we should block people coming from countries that have more unemployed people living here already than our national average. Is that a good starting point? Your PS populist Black vs White argument is bullshit and won’t come with any solutions!
Finnish 5183058 8.7% unemployment
Ukraine 1798 17.7% unemployment
Lithuania 615 12.5% unemployment
Bulgaria 618 12.2% unemployment
Italy 1432 11.5% unemployment
Poland 1888 11% unemployment
Norway 695 10.8% unemployment
Britain 3213 10.1% unemployment
Nigeria 1020 10% unemployment
Japan 905 9.6% unemployment
Bangladesh 840 9.5% unemployment
Ethiopia 651 8.2% unemployment
Ghana 700 8% unemployment
India 2736 7.2% unemployment
China 4620 8.5% unemployment
Kenya 640 4% unemployment
What exactly do you PS idiots want to tighten up? If it’s refugee policy then say REFUGEE POLICY! Don’t talk crap about “immigrants” and rope everyone in on the same thread!
Thank you very much at last at bit of reality.
A least you can see the differences between the types of immigrants . If others who go on this blog could see that as well then they would see that the DPP like other populist are not anti immigration but want a more selective immigration policy. The DPP have focused more on asylum, citizenship and European crime as theses are socially and financially costly to the state. Large companies if needed would fall under selective immigration which makes them positive for the country
@Mika
“DPP like other populist are not anti immigration but want a more selective immigration policy”
Populists like DPP and PS don’t use such nuanced language when describing immigrants. All immigrants are lumped into the same group and that’s why we have seen an increase in hate crimes against all immigrant groups but especially those from Africa due to the anti-Somali anti-Islam stance of the Hakkarainen/Halla-aho PS supporters.
Refugees are a separate group and REFUGEE POLICY and the humanitarian aspects involved need to be discussed separately! There are several reasons why refugees from Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq and Somalia have higher unemployment and the factors that impact them have NOTHING to do with other immigrant groups here and it has nothing to do with their religion either since they all have different religions.
It takes at least a generation for refugees to adapt to the culture of their host country.
Myanmar 1043 74,7% unemployment
Sudan 1083 50,9% unemployment
Afganistan 2189 61,0% unemployment
Irak 3238 60,9% unemployment
Somalia 4919 55,2% unemployment
Russia 26909 27,8% unemployment
If you think PS are 100% anti immigration and lump all immigrants into the same group then how do you explain Freddy van Wonterghem .
In countries like Germany and UK and its been three generations and in the last year their leaders have openly said their immigration polices have failed
The reason why most refugees have high employment is mainly due to lack of qualifications they are unable to read their own language let only the host countries tongue . All off which is economically negative to the host country this is why many people have a negative views to refugees but would not towards foreign investment. Although religion is a factor on the issue of refuges it is mainly driven what is best for the host nation on a economic level and as you have seen with the increase in asylum laws humanitarian needs are not seen by many as a factor on the issue of asylum
Freddy van Wonterghem is an opportunistic politician searching for attention from the media. And when did I ever lump all immigrants in one bag? The failure of integration program is a two-way street but the biggest blame carry the countries. They allow people to get in and do little to integrate them. How would that work? Mutual acceptance, respect and equal opportunties. If we fail, we do what some European politicians have done: blame multiculturalism. Let me make it clear that for us multiculturalism is cultural diversity (something that is a reality now and in the future) and for people like Jussi Halla-aho a policy that permits Muslims and non-Europeans to move to Europe.
@Mika
It’s interesting you hold up Freddy van Wonterghem as an example of PS’s tolerance for immigrants, the same man who stated that “the Holocaust was nothing but Soviet propaganda” and is a hardcore “White Nationalist” Suomen Sisu member who thinks only white christian immigrants like himself should have any right to live in Finland. SS-members like Wonterghem joined the organisation at a time when they proclaimed themselves as “an organisation committed to anti-miscegenation.”. Just reading his latest blog entry “Värillä on väliä” I came across a disturbing line where he suggests employers should think twice “before you take a risk and hire a black man” in relation to the case we’ve been discussing here last week.
If they want to tackle refugee policy, do so but don’t bundle it in with all other immigration issues and make provocative and racist statements about black people.
On the “Multiculturalism has failed” Islamophobia train:
The most multicultural major city in the UK Leicester is the one of the safest if not the safest major cities in the UK. (61% white 5% black 2.6% mixed 29% Asian rest other )?
The most dangerous city with the highest murder rate and gang rate and drug addiction rate is Glasgow is 97.5% white. (2x higher than London and 10x more gangs per capita)
Finland is also the murder capital of Western Europe, Scotland is second despite being 99% white. ??
Even in England the most dangerous city is Liverpool which is 92% white and the majority of the gangs are majority white and the majority of the crime by the whites (Murder rate 1.5x that of London gang rate 3x higher)??
Explain?