On Tuesday the Danes had to vote for members of the city councils throughout the country. Just two years into a general election this local election is counted as a good forecast of what is to come. The turnout was the lowest in 35 years with only 65.8% of the voters using their democratic right. The Social Democrats are now the biggest municipal party in Denmark and holds the major offices in the four biggest cities including Copenhagen. Most noticeable is the Socialistic Peoples Party which increased its voter share by 7% and now has 14% percent of the votes. The large government party Venstre (the liberal party) experienced a voter slapping downturn of almost 3% and lost their majority of mayors to the Social Democrats.
However, altogether the Government coalition experienced a smaller increase of votes, signalling the possibility that the government will be re-elected. But the government parties still have to show that they can get the Danish economy out of the present crisis without expanding public expenditures further. The next budget already contains a deficit of about 10%, and according to CEPOS this is built upon excessive current expenditure.
With a deficit this large the Danish government will need to cut the public expenditure and reform the Danish labour market at some point however, in a country where more than 30% of the workforce are employed in the public sector, this is not exactly a vote maximizing strategy.
On Tuesday the Danes had to vote for members of the city councils throughout the country. Just two years into a general election this local election is counted as a good forecast of what is to come. The turnout was the lowest in 35 years with only 65.8% of the voters using their democratic right. The Social Democrats are now the biggest municipal party in Denmark and holds the major offices in the four biggest cities including Copenhagen. Most noticeable is the Socialistic Peoples Party which increased its voter share by 7% and now has 14% percent of the votes. The large government party Venstre (the liberal party) experienced a voter slapping downturn of almost 3% and lost their majority of mayors to the Social Democrats.