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Winston
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Danmark
Mar 1999
time: 06:30
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I think there are actually other shifts among several parties, but they would not appear in the totals since they more or less even out. It's a very complicated pattern as I see it, but I won't go into that here. The bottom line is, on the surface it looks like status quo for most parties, except as you mention for Social Democrats and Radikale Venstre.
But I don't think the voters have been (will be) wandering directly between those two parties. For the most part, the voters gained by Radikale haven't come from Social Democrats. Not as I see it anyway.
I believe the Social Democrat party is in a deep crisis because of the previous historic defeat of 2001 and subsequent replacement of their leader Nyrup Rasmussen with current leader Mogens Lykketoft. Lykketoft has been in politics for 25 years and, while respected as a responsible Minister of Finance for 7 years, he's never been a popular figure, not even among his own party base. Also, they are at a crossroads where they will need to reconstruct their political platform and agenda, because they have come out of touch with large segments of their party base on issues such as responsible welfare reform and to some extent a firm position on immigration and integration of immigrants. The party leadership claim that they will be firm on immigration (contrary to what they were in the past), but it seems their voters don't believe it. The whole party seems unorganized and a bit of a mess right now, and there's already a lot of talk and positioning for the new leadership after Lykketoft, who is expected to resign shortly after the election defeat. A defeat which nobody really would doubt they will receive today.
Radikale Venstre on the other hand has seen a bit of a renaissance recently, nearly doubling their support according to most polls. Being Social Liberals, they've hit home with the voters on issues such as tax reliefs coupled with welfare reform proposals which few other parties have marketed very much in this campaign. Also, they stand to gain some support from traditionally leftish voters because of their relaxed policy on immigration issues. And their leader Marianne Jelved may be seen by some as a tempting dark horse choice for PM, aside from the two main contestants. Plus Radikale Venstre has a history of always promoting co-operation across the centre of Danish Politics, and although they're quite solidly in the camp of the opposition right now, it's not entirely out of the question for them to move closer to the government block on some issues, depending on how the new layout will be in Parliament, which may also appeal to a number of voters.
That's the short answer. 
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Winston
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Danmark
Mar 1999
time: 06:30
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By the way, my daily paper and the country's largest, Jyllands-Posten has quite an unusual and innovative front page today, where they printed a variety of short letters to the editor on the topic of the election. The caption across the page translates roughly to "THE VOTERS DECIDE" or "VOTERS HAVE THEIR SAY". Nice touch, I don't recall them sweeping the front page like that, not since we won the Euro Ch'ship in football in 1992...
 Attachment: front page.jpg
This has been downloaded 40 time(s).
Last edited by Winston on 08-02-2005 at 17:51
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Winston
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Danmark
Mar 1999
time: 06:30
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LC, they aren't given a letter, they choose it themselves. One of the bygone parties that now make up Enhedslisten was Venstresocialisterne, who used to have the letter 'Y', which might go a ways in explaining the mixup in that one constituency. I imagine they picked 'Y' back when they started because it gives a simplified graphic representation of a slingshot, which I'm led to believe is a much favoured weapon among revolutionaries and militant protestors. 
The present day Enhedslisten is such a recent addition to the political landscape that there weren't that many letters left to choose from. In fact, by doing a quick run-down of the letters already taken, I think only I, L, R, T, W, Æ, Ø and Å were available. Their logo resembles the authorized ecological farm product logo very closely, so that may have been the tie breaker. I mean who wouldn't agree with a party that favours ecologic farming enough to adapt such a symbol, eh?
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Winston
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Danmark
Mar 1999
time: 06:30
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Final result 2005 election:
Turnout: 84.4%
(Pct. - +/- - seats - +/-)
*-* = government block
Socialdemokraterne 25.9 - -3.2 - 47 - -5
Radikale Venstre 9.2 - +4.0 - 16 - +7
*Konservative Folkeparti* 10.3 - +1.2 - 19 - +3
Centrum-demokraterne 1.0 - -0.8 - 0 - 0
Socialistisk Folkeparti 6.0 - -0.4 - 11 - -1
*Kristendemokraterne* 1.7 - -0.6 - 0 - -4
Minoritetspartiet 0.3 - +0.3 - 0 - 0
*Venstre* 29.0 - -2.2 - 52 - -4
*Dansk Folkeparti* 13.2 - +1.2 - 24 - +2
Enhedslisten 3.4 - +1.0 - 6 - +2
4 seats will be added, 2 from Faroe Islands and 2 from Greenland. There are no predictions yet for those, and they probably won't all follow the traditional political divides in Danish politics.
So 95 for the government, 80 for the opposition.
Last edited by Winston on 09-02-2005 at 04:25
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Winston
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Danmark
Mar 1999
time: 06:30
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The crypto-fascists of Dansk Folkeparti as you call them, overwhelmingly consist of former Social Democrats, and DF is in fact a party close to center in many respects, such as welfare and public spendings in a wider sense.
Venstre (Liberals) and Radikale Venstre (Social-liberals) traditionally hold many of the same basic beliefs, e.g. the responsible and gradual adaptation as needed of society, emphasizing the rights of the individual, free enterprise and a market economy.
But Radikale Venstre has also always been a pacifistic party much closer to the center policy-wise, and in recent years it has attracted a number of new voters from the urban cultural and so-called intellectual elite, sporting a quite leftish position on several values-based issues, such as immigration, criminal justice legislation and also more or less a foreign policy dictated by the United Nations. Not that they've changed their position as such, but it has started to appeal to new voters who were traditionally more to the left of center. They've also for the time being moved themselves firmly into an alliance with the Social Democrats, ever since 1993 in fact. Before that, they supported the Conservative-Liberal government for 11 years. They have a history of regularly switching back and forth across the center. This is not the case for Venstre, which is solidly placed right of center.
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08-02-2005 13:05
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