Denmark Archive

Europe 2009 – Results wrap part 2

By
Ben Raue
 – June 10, 2009

Here we go again:

  • Austria – It was a bad result for both parties in the governing grand coalition, with the centre-right People’s Party suffering a 2.7% swing, and the Social Democratic Party suffering a 9.5% swing. The SPO lost 3 of their 7 MEPs and the People’s Party remained steady on 6 seats. The Greens also lost a quarter of their vote, although they maintained their two seats. The independent Hans-Peter Martin came third with a 3.7% swing, and won a third seat for his ticket. The far-right Freedom Party doubled their vote to over 12%, and won a second seat. Thenew far-right party Alliance for the Future of Austria also polled 4.6% but failed to win a seat.
  • Cyprus – Both major parties, Democratic Rally and Progressive Party of Working People, gained votes with swings of about 7% for each party, although they only maintained the 2 seats that each party held. The Democratic Party lost a quarter of its seat, holding on to its one seat. The Movement for Social Democracy lost 1% of the vote, but managed to win a seat for the first time, after the centrist European Party lost a majority of its vote, and its sole MEP.
  • Denmark – The result was bad for the centre-left Social Democrats, suffering an 11% swing and losing one of their five seats, although they remained in first place. The governing centre-right Venstre party gained 1%, polling 20% and maintaining 3 seats. Greens-affiliated Socialist People’s Party almost doubled their vote to 15.85%, winning a second seat. The right-wing Danish People’s Party went from 6.8% to 15.3%, winning a second seat. The June Movement collapsed from 9% to 2.4%.
  • Finland – Finnish results were bad for all three major parties, with them all suffering negative swings, varying from a 0.5% swing against the National Coalition Party to 4.4% against the Centre Party. The parties that benefited included the Green League and the Libertas-aligned True Finns. The three major parties each lost one seat, with the National Coalition Party and Centre Party holding 3 seats each, and the Social Democrats holding 2. The Green League gained a second seat, and True Finns and Christian Democrats each won a seat for the first time. The minority Swedish People’s Party maintained their one seat while Left Alliance lost their one seat.
  • Germany – The German result saw a small swing to the left, even though the centre-right still won a decisive victory. After a massive defeat in 2004, the Social Democratic Party maintained its 23 seats, while the CDU/CSU coalition won 42, down 7 from 49 in 2004. Those seven seats went to minor parties with the centrist (although right-leaning) Free Democratic  Party winning 5 extra seats, for a total of 12. The Greens also gained one extra seat, winning 14. The Left Party also won more votes than the previous Party of Democratic Socialism, winning an 8th MEP.
  • Italy – The result was major victory for Silvio Berlusconi’s new party the People of Freedom. The party won 29 seats, up from 27 seats for the party’s predecessors in 2004. The result was also strong for the right-wing regionalist Lega Nord, winning 5 extra seats to add to their existing 4. The liberal party Italy of Values increased their seats from 2 to 7. In contrast, a number of small party coalitions were excluded after failing to pass the 4% threshold, including the coalition of socialists and Greens and the communist coalition.
  • Malta – The result in Malta was a decisive victory for the Labour Party, who easily won three of the five seats, with the Nationalists maintaining their two seats. While the Greens came close to winning a seat in 2004, with almost 10% of the vote, their vote dropped back to their normal level of 2.3%.
  • Sweden - Results for the major parties remained largely steady, with the Social Democrats holding 5 seats and the Moderate Party 4 seats. The centrist People’s Party gained a third seat, and the Greens gained a second seat. The Left Party lost more than half of its vote and one of their two seats. The eurosceptic June List lost three-quarters of its vote and all three of their seats. The Pirate Party polled 7.1% in their first election and won a seat.
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Europe 2009 – Denmark

By
Simon Copland
 – June 4, 2009

Simon blogs regularly at Polswatch – Ben

In 2009, Denmark will elect 13 representatives to the European Union Parliament, down from the 14 they elected in 2004. The Danes will vote using the d’Hondt method of proportional representation, similar to a large number of European electorates. The Danish system differs however in that parties can only participate in the election if they received at least 2% of the vote in the previous Folketing (Danish Parliament) election or if they can acquire signatures from 2% of the electorate. This severely limits the number of parties that contest the election, with only nine parties running in this year’s ballot, all of which (apart from one) were on the ballot in 2004.

The 2004 European elections saw this result:

  • Social Democrats – 32.6% – 5 seats
  • Venstre – 19.4% – 3 seats
  • Conservative People’s Party – 11.3% – 1 seat
  • June Movement – 9.1% – 1 seat
  • Socialist People’s Party – 8% – 1 seat
  • Danish People’s Party – 6.8% – 1 seat
  • Danish Social Liberal Party – 6.4% – 1 seat
  • People’s Movement Against the EU – 5.2% – 1 seat
  • Christian Democrats 1.3% – 0 seats

The list of parties this year are extremely similar to that of 2004, although the Christian Democrats will not be running in the elections, whilst the Liberal Alliance will be after they passed the electoral threshold in the last Folketing election. Here is how the land lies for each of these parties.

Social Democrats (Party of European Socialists): Although the Social Democrats will remain the largest party in Denmark this year it looks extremely likely that they will drop dramatically from their highs of 2004. Polling has the Social Democrats around the 26% – 27% mark, which will possibly bring them down to 4 seats this year.

Venstre (European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party): The current governing party in Denmark (in Coalition with the Conservative People’s Party with support of the Danish People’s Party), Venstre is Denmark’s largest centre/right party (although the word Venstre literally means Left). In 2004 Venstre performed poorly, pulling only 19% of the vote. It looks like the party will increase that vote this year, possibly adding a seat to their list.

Conservative People’s Party (European People’s Party): The junior partner in the current Danish Government the CPP look likely to hold steady in this year’s vote, giving them one seat in the EU Parliament.

June Movement (The June Movement): The less sceptical of the two Euro-sceptic parties, the June movement has performed well in past Denmark EU elections, taking 9% of the vote in 2004. However, similar to other countries it looks as though the June Movement’s vote will drop in 2009, probably denying them a seat.

Socialist People’s Party (Greens/European Free Alliance): The SPP in Denmark incorporates both Denmark’s Socialist and Green movements and looks as though it will perform well in 2009 (numbers ranging from 12% to 17%), giving the party 1 – 2 seats this year.

Danish People’s Party (Union for Europe of the Nations): The social conservative, nationalist DPP looks as though it will increase its vote in 2009 based on current polling. However, this will probably not lead to an extra seat for the party.

Danish Social Liberal Party (European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party): A centre based party; the DSLP is an historical splinter group from Venstre. In 2009 it looks likely to have a slight drop in its vote from 2004, which could lose the DSLP its seat, although this is unclear.

People’s Movement Against the EU (The June Movement): Traditionally the smaller of the Euro-sceptic parties, the People’s Movement Against the EU looks likely to overtake the June List in 2009, although not enough to add to its one seat.

Liberal Alliance (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe): The only party that did not run in 2004, the Liberal Alliance is a right wing splinter party formed in 2007. In the 2007 federal elections they won 5 seats, but have since collapsed (with three members leaving the party) and look like they will be obliterated in 2009.

Overall, it looks as though the status of the Danish contingent in the European Parliament will stay very similar to what was sent in 2004, with the possible exception of the loss of a seat for the Social Democrats, to be picked up either by Venstre or the Socialist People’s Party.

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