Will Denmark’s first woman prime minister start a revival of the centre-left in Europe? asks Emma Reynolds MP.
Yesterday Denmark elected its first woman premier. Helle Thorning Schmidt emerged victorious and follows a succession of three men called Rasmussen.
I worked for Poul Nyrup Rasmussen (Rasmussen One as he calls himself in jest) in Brussels in the naughties. His highly successful brand of social democracy – combining social security, redistribution and labour market flexibility – in the 1990s inspired others around Europe. The next two Rasmussens (Anders Fogh followed by Lars Loekke) from the centre-right ruled the country since Poul Nyrup left office a decade ago.
The outgoing prime minister (Rasmussen Three) introduced tough austerity measures and incredibly restrictive immigration policies. The hard right Danish People’s party were part of his coalition and thankfully suffered electorally last night.
In contrast, Thorning Schmidt promised a tax on bankers and more investment in education, welfare and infrastructure. The election was close, probably due to some vicious personal attacks by the tabloid press against her and her husband (who happens to be Neil Kinnock’s son). She will now lead a centre-left coalition and is one of the few European governments to reject severe austerity as the path to growth and jobs. Given that the centre-right dominates most other European Union countries all eyes will be on Denmark to see if a different approach succeeds.
So will Helle’s victory start a new wave of centre-left success at the ballot box in Europe?
Although the ruling Spanish socialists face difficult general elections in November, the prospects for the French parti socialiste look good next year. Both of the leading socialist presidential candidates, Francois Hollande and Martine Aubry, are ahead of President Sarkozy in the polls, although nothing can be taken for granted in a system where the left’s vote is usually split in the first round of voting and the National Front’s Marine le Pen is frighteningly more popular than her father.
The German Social Democrats have made impressive headway in recent local elections and will be looking to capitalise on Angela Merkel’s unpopularity in federal elections in two years’ time. In that same year, if the Italian centre-left can get their act together they should surely be able to beat a much-maligned Silvio Berlusconi. But Italian politics never fails to produce surprises and Berlusconi is the ultimate comeback kid.
One more centre-left government in Europe is a welcome step in the right direction but the Labour party and most of our sister parties are still in opposition and largely outnumbered by centre-right governments. If our friends in France, Italy and Germany play their electoral cards right, in two years’ time the centre-left should be in the ascendancy again and our task will be to complete the job in 2015.
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Emma Reynolds is MP for Wolverhampton North-East
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No because UK residents do not relate to this only political geeks and those associated with that particular country unless we are into the business of deluding ourselves.