“SF out of government negotiations” and “Frederiksen, Ellemann and Løkke meet at Marienborg – government cooperation can be close, says analyst” reports TV2 today.
Given that the Danish general election took place on November 1st, these are the kind of headlines you might have expected to see in the first week of November, not the second week of December!
The second headline suggests that an end may be in sight, but this is not the result predicted by many wise experts, who believed that SF would end up in a majority together with the Social Democrats, Venstre and Radikale.
SF could not cooperate with Venstre
In the end, SF reached the border with the Liberals and demands from the leader Jacob Ellemann-Jensen – especially after the Conservatives’ withdrawal on Monday.
“Venstre and SF are very far apart – let me just put it this way,” said leader Pia Olsen Dyhr to the ‘Lippert’ program on TV2.
“We do not agree on economic policy. Ellemann called for more blue politics on Monday after the Conservatives left and I thought: ‘No, no – that’s the limit. I will not accept that.”
The development came after SF and Venstre spent a large part of the weekend negotiating – especially regarding agriculture, climate and social policy. And in the end they could not agree.
Could the left end up ruining this result?
Reflecting on the last five weeks, Dyhr admits that it has been good for Danish politics after an “ugly election”, as the negotiations have been constructive.
But looking to the future, she has warned that there are certain policies that SF will not tolerate, and suggests that she will do her best to call a new general election.
“If, for example, they want to make tax cuts for the very richest in Denmark, and the cash assistance recipients have to pay for it,” she said.
Together with the Radicals and the Moderates, two other blue bloc parties, the Danish People’s Party and the Liberal Alliance, are still involved in the negotiations.
The Social Democracy-Left government looks likely
As the second headline reveals, today Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen meets the leader of the Moderates Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Ellemann-Jensen – the first time she has met two party leaders at the same time.
Radikale leader Martin Lidegaard will also meet the prime minister on Wednesday, but it is not clear whether four party leaders will gather in the same room. But the truth is that Radicals are not necessary to form a majority.
With the support of the Moderates and three North Atlantic mandates, a SV government would have 92 of the 179 seats in the Folketing – a clear majority.
TV2 analyst Jesper Vestergren is convinced that the negotiations will soon be concluded.
Source: The Nordic Page
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