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Blue bloc eating into the government’s majority
Ben Hamilton
December 10th, 2021
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This article is more than 3 years old.
The big question is whether a change of guard at Dansk Folkeparti will further its chances or just lead to voters swapping one like-minded party for another
Konservative would win 16 percent of the vote in a general election today, according to the latest opinion poll conducted by Epinion for DR – up 1.7 percentage points on the same poll in October and nearly 10 percent on 2019.
The improvement underlines the success of the party at the recent local elections, which has seen it become Venstre’s equal partner at the head of the blue bloc.
Fellow right-wingers Nye Borgerlige has meanwhile gained 1.2 percentage points to stand at 7.5 percent – a far cry from 2019 when it only won 2.4 percent. At the recent local elections, the party won 67 municipal council seats across the country.
As things stand, the blue bloc would theoretically win 84 of Parliament’s 175 seats – up from 79 at the last election. The right bloc’s stranglehold on power is therefore weakening, falling from 96 seats at the last election to 91.
Two confirmed for DF leadership contest
Nevertheless, right-wing party Dansk Folkeparti has seen its support fall dramatically since the 2019 election – from 8.7 to 4.8 percent at the recent local elections – a performance that prompted its leader Kristian Thulesen Dahl to announce his resignation.
Among those interested in filling his shoes on January 23 are deputy leader Morten Messerschmidt, who has Peter Kofod onboard as his deputy, and the relatively unknown politician Merete Dea Larsen.
Formerly an MP from 2015 to 2019, Larsen, 43, is a councillor in Roskilde and a Dansk Folkeparti board member. With Messerschmidt’s appeal against fraud a serious concern for the party, her chances cannot be outright dismissed.
Inger Støjberg remains the party’s preferred candidate, and also Messerschmidt’s, but there are no guarantees she will put her name forward.
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