Race fears pull Danes to right after 77 years

Times, The (London, England) - Thursday, November 22, 2001
Author: Roger Boyes in Berlin
DENMARK wakes up today to a right-wing Government after a poll marked by antiimmigrant sentiment that has grown since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.

The winner of Tuesday's general election, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is a mainstream conservative, and while he is not the equivalent of Jorg Haider, the leader of Austria's populist Freedom Party, he will be heavily dependent on the support of the far Right in and outside Parliament.

For Denmark the defeat of the Social Democratic Government is nothing short of a counter- revolution . For the first time since 1924, the Social Democrats are no longer the country's largest political party, ending an era of left-wing paternalism familiar throughout northern Europe.

Instead, Mr Fogh Rasmussen, whose Liberal Party won 33 per cent of the vote, up from 24 per cent in 1998, is offering stricter immigration controls, the capping of some taxes , an end to hospital queues and a more conservative outlook.

Before the election he made clear that he would not invite the extreme Right Danish People's Party into the Government, but there is little doubt that he will need the party's parliamentary support: its backing jumped from 7.4 per cent to 12 per cent and it is now the third-largest Danish party.

It is the future role of the People's Party that was prompting questions yesterday about how far to the right the new Government will travel. One People's Party poster shows a young blonde girl with the caption: "When she retires, Denmark will have a Muslim majority."

The People's Party's success was owing to a blunder by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the long-serving Social Democrat Prime Minister, who called a snap election after September 11, encouraged by opinion polls that seemed to reward his statesmanship. The mood swung against him as the focus throughout Europe shifted to the hunt for Muslim terrorists.

The Social Democrats have hardened their position on immigration - one suggestion last year was that asylumseekers should be placed in quarantine on an island in the Baltic Sea - but found that they could not compete successfully with right-wing parties on the issue.

The Danish economy is in better condition than that of most of its neighbours, with an unemployment rate of 5 per cent, low inflation and few debts, so the new Government will probably not try any grand experiments.

Mr Fogh Rasmussen has indicated that he will not hold another referendum on adopting the euro over the next four years. Although the Danes voted against the currency last September, opinion polls now suggest they may be in favour.

Mr Fogh Rasmussen will have to make immigration control, and not the euro, his priority. During the election campaign the Liberal Party talked of restrictions on immigrants from Turkey, Pakistan and Somalia and Mr Fogh Rasmussen has promised the establishment of an Immigration Ministry.

Newcomers to Denmark will have to wait seven years before they can claim welfare benefits and there are likely to be controls on immigrants wanting to bring in spouses or children.

Mr Fogh Rasmussen said: "I will see it as my greatest task to be Prime Minister for the whole nation." Yet only now do Danes realise that they face a debate about who belongs to Danish society. Immigrants account for barely 7 per cent of the population - a much lower figure than in most European nations - yet Denmark has failed to devise a way of integrating them.