Today, the debate over Christiania’s existence has been silenced. There are institutions for the children, the residents pay electricity bills and rent, the restaurants are busy, and tourists flock to.
Or, as it says on the official website: Christiania – or just the City – has on its 50th birthday on Sunday gone from being an unruly rebel to a responsible anarchy.
Of course, the free town still divides the Danes. But most would like it to be preserved. That is the opinion of 52 percent in a new survey from Voxmeter.
Conversely, 31 percent say no – the rest do not take a stand.
According to author and historian René Karpantschof, who for many years has dealt with autonomous movements and the left wing, the discussion about Christiania has fundamentally changed in character.
There are the negative stories. Among other things, a violent exchange of gunfire in 2016 and the killing of a 22-year-old earlier this year in Christiania’s territory and a still existing and extensive hash market.
But it is no longer an issue whether Christiania should be completely gone.
– Christiania’s existence is not at stake in that way. There have been cases of homicide and so on, and it has probably dragged down (in the poll, ed.). But after all, Christiania has long since established itself as something that a majority of Danes want to preserve.
Or as Ole Lykke Andersen, one of the spokespersons for Christiania, says:
– We have become part of civilization.
The crucial difference legally is that today the Fonden Fristaden Christiania owns and leases the free city from the state. Christiania as an area today is subject to the same rules as the surrounding community.
Another aspect is a greater cultural and social acceptance of the existence of Christiania.
– Today it is about how the area works, what responsibility they have for crime and cannabis trade. It’s not so much about existence itself, says René Karpantschof.
Søren Flinch Midtgaard, associate professor of political science at Aarhus University, has dealt with Christiania, and he agrees.
– If we physically imagine that you had to change it and take over the area or build a new one, it would mean that you had to chase some people away. There, I just think we’re too pragmatic.
– The Danes probably would not support it either when it came to the play. So I think it’s something that has established itself as a kind of right. But also still something that many Danes associate with something positive, even though there are these bad stories, he says.
However, René Karpantschof predicts that some of Christiania’s “edge” may disappear in the future.
– What Christiania really is for many is a kind of place of experience. It is a recreational area, especially in the summer, where many people hang out by the lake and in various places.
– I still think it will have the feel of being an alternative to the most streamlined commercial communities. But less edge than when you were in a real struggle for existence, says René Karpantschof.
Ole Lykke Andersen actually goes so far as to say that the “responsible anarchy” may have almost gotten too cramped when you look at the anarchist part.
– Now we are responsible for an incredible number of rules, which in the past have not been so important, but which are suddenly very important, he says and mentions that Christiania today has to go through “seven instances” in the public sector if, for example, they want to tear down something down and rebuild.
Source: The Nordic Page