– It is important that we strengthen the connection so that it does not become land against city, says Peter Rahbæk Juel.
Thus, he put conciliatory words in one of the few areas where Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) received criticism from parts of the hinterland at the party’s congress in Aalborg this weekend.
Up until the congress, the party’s candidate for mayor of Copenhagen, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, in Politiken has warned that the S-top has a “divisive language” and a rhetoric that speaks up “country against city” conflicts.
Also at the congress itself, there were a few who went to the podium with criticism that the party focuses too much on the country and too little on the city.
A delegate criticized that housing prices in Copenhagen have risen so much that it puts pressure on people with ordinary wages.
– I do not expect a master bricklayer villa with sea views. But it is difficult for a family to buy an ordinary detached house, it sounded.
In recent times, the Social Democrat government has also been criticized for cutting the graduation rate for new graduates and moving education out of the big cities where young people want to live.
Perhaps that is why Mette Frederiksen made a special effort to speak up for Copenhagen and explain that the capital also needs help from Christiansborg.
– I think from time to time that we Jews may have a hard time understanding that some of the problems you experience in North Jutland or places on Zealand are also found in the capital.
– The lack of doctors also applies in parts of the capital. The police are also more absent in local areas in Copenhagen, says Mette Frederiksen.
The Minister of the Interior and Housing, Kaare Dybvad Bek, is also defending the capital and announcing an imminent proposal to ensure more affordable housing. He also points to sports facilities as an area where Copenhagen lags behind the province.
– In Holstebro Municipality live 60,000 people. They have as many handball halls as Copenhagen, where ten times as many people live. That says something about the difference, says Kaare Dybvad Bek.
The reason for the tensions between the Social Democrats in the countryside and in the cities must be found all the way back to the parliamentary elections in 2015, says municipal researcher Roger Buch.
– The Liberal Party had a bad choice in 2015, and the analysis was that in the historic Liberal strongholds had been challenged by the DF. That is why the Liberal Party started doing much more for the rural areas, says Roger Buch.
Shortly after the election, the then Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen began the relocation of 3,900 government jobs. A policy that has since been continued by the Social Democrats, who have added educational places.
– It is an important strategy for the Social Democrats, because it has been seen that the DF can penetrate into the areas that have historically belonged to the left. Then S has thought: We can too.
– There you can well understand that you may in Copenhagen, Aarhus and other places feel somewhat overlooked, says Roger Buch.
However, that is not the intention, Mette Frederiksen emphasized after her speech at the congress.
– I intend to do everything I can as prime minister to disprove that there needs to be that conflict, says Mette Frederiksen.
Sophie Hæstorp did not want to elaborate on her criticism, after Mette Frederiksen’s speech.
– I have nothing more to add. We wanted a dialogue, and we got it, says Sophie Hæstorp.
Source: The Nordic Page