Danish Elections Called

[Gangerolf]

What about Fremskridtspartiet - teh Progress Party.

Vice president Rasmussen seems nice...

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
What about Fremskridtspartiet - teh Progress Party.

Vice president Rasmussen seems nice...

Mmm, sexy lardbeast.

[Monk]

OMG, that bearded fellow's name actually IS Rasmussen.

Curiously, his middle name translates into 'victim' in Scandinavian languages.

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
What about Fremskridtspartiet - teh Progress Party.

Vice president Rasmussen seems nice...

He looks like the poor guy who used to be on the off ramp of the I-405 in northridge (in california) begging for money...

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by Monk
OMG, that bearded fellow's name actually IS Rasmussen.

Curiously, his middle name translates into 'victim' in Scandinavian languages.

Well of course his name is Rasmussen. How many votes do you reckon they'll get?

I remember the founder, Mogens Glistrup - colourful fellow. A bit of a racist too IIRC. He seems to be retired now, living in "Fremskridtspartiets Æresbolig" ("the house of honour")

[Stefu]

This seems like the personification of the word 'fatbeard'.

[Monk]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Well of course his name is Rasmussen. How many votes do you reckon they'll get?

None - they haven't met the criteria for running.

[Winston]

When it comes to Rasmussens, nobody gets even close to my party, Venstre. The 3 top positions are all held by Rasmussens:

Party Leader: Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Deputy Leader: Lars Løkke Rasmussen
Head of party secretariate: Jens Skipper Rasmussen

Now how do you like them Rasmussens.

[Gangerolf]

ahhaha I just read about that. Glistrup doesn't believe there's going to be an election before september/october.

http://politiken.dk/VisArtikel.sasp?PageID=355501

[Monk]

I did believe Fogh Rasmussen would have a problem in the party leader debate since the VKO bloc (edit: the VKO bloc is the present gov't plus Danish People's Party) stands three against six with one neutral. However, according to polls conducted during the debate he's doing a good job.

[Al'Kimiya]

Why is it called Venstre? Doesn't venstre mean left? Didn't think liberals would be seen as left in a eurocentric perspective, but suits them well.

Now.. where is my radical neocon party?

[Gangerolf]

I think it's because back in the old days (until the 1880s or thereabouts) there were only two parties; Left (liberals) and Right (conservatives).

[Bosh]

Cuz we don't have a proportional sytem.

Well as far as the Radikale Venstre goes, that's true, but as far as the Ventre goes that style of European liberalism is quite mainstream and probably would have as many people in favor of it in the states as would be in favor of Republicans, and would be a very welcome change of pace if we had someone like European liberals on the right instead of the Republicans.

Originally posted by Giancarlo
If you are leading in polls, you shouldn't just call for elections because you feel like it. That is why the American republic is much better at representation and is far more proportional then the banana republics throughout Europe.

MikeH, you don't know what you are talking about.

Exactly, nothing gets in the way of proportional representation like proportional representation

Having a fixed date is more democratic because it allows for more campaigning.

And that's a good thing??? The length of American presidential campaigns has gotten ridiculous.

And a question for Danes: in every opinion poll I see, Denmark is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay waaaaaaaay more favorate towards the Iraq war than pretty much everyone else. How did they get to be such an outlier?

[Winston]

Boshko,

To answer your last question about the Iraq war, I think Danes are more in favour of being in the international coalition because our PM Anders Fogh actually took the debate in public right from the onset.

Anders Fogh carries a lot of weight in the debate here, and his principles are such that he will always stress how freedom and democracy are privileges that should be defended, and if need be fought for, also in other parts of the world. For the good of the people directly affected and for the benefit of ourselves as well in the long term.

Now without turning this into yet another Iraq debate, I think the liberation aspect of the war was stressed much more here domestically than what we saw in the US, and UK even.

It is also a comparatively small force we have in Iraq, around 600 troops, and they haven't been involved in open battle, but concentrated on security and rebuilding efforts. And they're doing a good job, which is generally acknowledged by the Danish people.

Another thing which may play a part is that the keeping of troops in Iraq now has the support of 90% of the seats in Parliament, largely thanks to skillful political manoeuvering by PM Anders Fogh.

The lesson here is that if you tell people fair and square your reasons for making tough decisions like this one, many of them will believe you, and perhaps even be convinced that it's the right thing to do.

But yes, it still is surprising. Not many political leaders in Danish history could have done it.

[Giancarlo]

What is the approval rate of the Iraq war there?

I'll apologize for calling you a banana republic. You have troops in Iraq.