Nordic Countries

Interview with Eva Milsted Enoksen, Copenhagen by Andreas ThomsenAndreas Thomsen: The red- green Alliance achieved a very good result in Copenhagen with 24.6 per cent and 1st place. Can you briefly describe the political situation? What were the reasons for this success from your point of view? Eva Milsted Enoksen: The Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten, EL) had the best election in our 32-year long history. With 24,6 % of the votes we are now by far the largest party in Copenhagen, the second largest being the Social...
read more "Danish municipal elections: Red-Green Alliance strongest party in Copenhagen"
Imagine leading a country where the northernmost point is in Oslo and the southernmost is in the Sahara. Imagine leading such a large country with a total of only 56,256 inhabitants. This is the challenge facing Greenland’s socialist party, Inuit Ataqatigiit (Community of the People – IA), which won a landslide victory in the election on 6 April 2021, taking no less than 37 percent of the vote and 12 of the 31 seats in the Inatsisartut (Greenlandic parliament).  The party's 34-year-old chairperson Múte B. Egede is now the youngest-ever head of ...
read more "Socialist Party Wins Greenland Election"
Voters from both right and left drifted towards Iceland’s centrist parties this weekend—but left-wing Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir still enjoys broad personal support and may yet retain her office. Defying pollsters’ expectations, Saturday’s election result showed strong public support for Iceland’s governing parties: Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir’s eco-socialist Left-Green Movement (Vinstri græn), the right-leaning Independence Party ...
read more "Iceland’s centrist vote has resurged, but the left still has opportunities to govern and grow in a fragmented party system"

Breakthrough for Norway’s Radical Left

Ellen Engelstad
Labour will lead new government with a clear mandate for changeIn Norway’s parliamentary election on Monday, 13 September 2021, the country took a significant leftward turn, with candidates on the left of the political spectrum securing 100 out of a total of 169 seats in the national parliament. It is unclear who will form a government, but it will likely be a majority coalition bringing together the Labour Party (Ap), the Centre Party (Sp) and the Socialist Left Party (SV), or a minority coalition made up of just the first two of these parties. ...
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Since Norway rejected European Union (EU) membership in a 1994 referendum, eurosceptic sentiment has remained strong, with a majority against joining for the past 15 years. EU membership is not an issue ahead of the parliamentary election on 13 September. What is up for discussion is the agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), making Norway part of the single market, and alternatives to this agreement. There is growing concern about Norway’s subordinate relationship with the EU, and trade unionists are critical due to ...
read more "Norway Is Moving to the Left – And Rethinking Its EU Relations"
Swedish Left wins game of chicken over rent deregulation by bringing down governmentIn the past week, a long game of chicken over the deregulation of rents culminated in the fall of both the government and its proposal, an increasingly popular Left Party and an open question on who will form the next government. On 21 June, the day of the no-confidence vote against the government, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said: “The Left Party today united with the right-wing conservative parties in a no-confidence vote against the government, ...
read more "Negotiated rents and the fall of the Swedish government"

The Ghost of the Danish People’s Party

Reinout Bosch & Christian Gorm Hansen, Institute for Marxist Analysis, Copenhagen
For decades, Denmark has been widely known for being among the first movers in harsh anti-immigrant policies. With the ever more influential Danish People's Party (Dansk Folkeparti, DF) as a front-runner, the country has seen itself accepting radical anti-immigrant laws testing the outer bounds of international conventions. This year's national election, however, marked a turning point as the party suffered its first and severe parliamentary setback. The question remains whether this indicates an end to right-wing populism in Denmark. This article ...
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