We all know the famous Shakespeare quote about the state of Denmark.
As the results of Denmarks elections came in I now see foreign reporting on how the left and moderates fought off the (extreme) right.
Specifically there's mentions on how this is a win for those favouring closer international cooperation, humane treatment of all people etc etc...
It appears most of these articles project non-Danish concepts on Danish political reality.
->
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Social Democrats, the party of the current prime minister, Mette Frederiksen won the 2019 elections in part as they shifted to an anti-immigration platform.
They won from the right-wing party (Venstre) then led by the man now described as a potential kingmaker (Lars Løkke Rasmussen, man with pipe) who pioneered those policies.
Since then Denmark has just shifted more right-wing and anti-other-people.
In some towns in our "rural" community openly xenophobic parties got 35% of the votes.
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You don't notice it when you go to the large cities.
But you do notice it in the more rural (and still rich) areas like the one we call home.
Being openly xenophobic, even being openly racist.. is not a reason to be shunned these days. Instead it's a position you and your neighbour can "debate".
For those patriotism for "Danish things" is often a thin cover for nationalism, (open) xenophobia & racism. People genuinely believe in a Danish native superiority over "other peoples".
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And while I am happy that the "left" did reasonably well in yesterdays elections, it is not the win it is made out to be.
The area I call home is the base of the world's largest toy company. It has a massive airport and hosts other large employers.
Most people, including unemployed, in this area have a high quality of life.
There's no "30% of people loosing out" here. Yet that is what many do believe. The cause? Foreigners (and, apparently, solar panels). The solution? Vote "against".
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Maybe examples are a good idea:
>Being openly xenophobic
The local leader of the Danmarksdemokraterne (Danish Democrats) here acts openly racist in public*. And is not called out for it because "his policies for the community are not xenophobic."
*What I witnessed personally: he's third in a restaurant line. He waits for the older 'ethnic Dane' and then steps around the clearly 'not-ethnic Dane' and orders as if she doesn't exist.
People report the same behaviour in the supermarket etc.
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2/2 A local man had this as his Facebook profile banner.
[Bunch of people holding up a banner saying "white lives matter" (in itself a racist slogan). Someone added "Only" to the image to emphasise the racism to the less intellectual racists.]
A candidate standing in yesterdays elections for Danish Democrats liked this.
As I consider this relevant I contacted journalists from national outlets. One replied "You have to understand in Denmark we don't discuss private life of candidates".
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@Pepijn this is the party that was founded by the person who was impeached, ejected from parliament, and given a prison sentence for (racist) human rights violations while serving as immigration minister - supporting this party, let alone running as one of their candidates, is an open acknowledgement of being a white nationalist shitbag
I hate it, but I can understand why nobody is surprised
>I hate it, but I can understand why nobody is surprised
But what it says in that image is the opposite of what both their party line and the politician himself say.
In a good system that politician would be asked about this by a journalist. If only to get it on the record as "I am actually a racist based on skin-tone" is not a private matter.
@Pepijn It amazing, right. I mean, DK probably has problems with a few "foreigners", but it is far from an important agenda at this time.
But I am curious, do you mean Messerschmidt from Dansk Folkeparti or Støjbjerg from Danmarksdemokraterne? They both use xenophobic rhetoric.
Støjbjerg was impeached and convicted for systematically breaking the law in the treatment of refugees, which is now celebrated by her fans as an act of freedom and courage. 😫
@tokeriis In our area "foreigners" mostly help bring in the wealth our community has.
Both by working and living here (for example LEGO, it would not have been the company it is today without all the diversity brought in by hiring people from all over the world), and with all the tourists coming here to visit the theme parks etc.
I mean both. There's not much difference between them and for all we know next election there's a third that just happens to be most popular one.
@cazmockett @Pepijn Here in the Netherlands it's the same.
It echoes a past I only heard stories about from older generations. I don't want to have to tell my own similar stories to young people in the future.
@brekke Oh true. And it's not that new either. It's often in the little hidden things.
The name of our child (born in Denmark) on their original birth certificate is not the name on their (not-Danish) passport (we went to a formal name change outside of DK). Reason is that Denmark has a system to "protect" kids from getting the wrong name. It just happens to be flawed towards certain groups..
It's a known issue, but no party dares even to attempt to fix this. Most say "it works as intended".
Speaking of children, I've lost count on the amount of resourceful single expat mothers I know in Copenhagen who would like to leave Denmark and go home, but are unable to do so because their children would be taken away from them even though their husbands play no role in parenting, sometimes having been proven unfit to do so.
They are kept hostage in Denmark because it is, apparently, always "the best interest of the child". And the glass ceiling for foreign women seems bulletproof. @Pepijn
It's happening across Europe, and it saddens me that when I try to discuss this with Europeans, the response I often get is "this is happening purely because of Russian propaganda."
They're so xenophobic that their first instinct about anything, including their own xenophobia, is to blame it on foreigners.
@passenger @shantara @Pepijn Sweden has proper swedish troll farms run by the "we're totally not nazis anymore, since we hate muslims more than jews" party, the blueprint for it is copied from the russian troll farms though.
I wish we could be working away on the background level of xenophobia though, but after a long while of (too) slowly getting better, but for the last decade things are backsliding bad under a combination of domestic and foreign propaganda.
@shantara @passenger @Pepijn Yup. And they fade even more into the background now that the extreme racism that 15 years ago would be shunned in polite nordic society are now "reasonable talking points" in mainstream politics.
I despair a bit on how much work there is to be done to get things back to where we again can make progress on this.
This is not my experience. Yes, I read and hear about fear, helplessness and complacency.
I also see people building communities of mutual aid, locally and globally. Neighbours who help each other, bit by bit finding out where it hurts and what to do. Growing trust and faith in humanity.
Act, rather than add our opinion to the plethora of narratives. Prepare, don't scare.
>I also see people building communities of mutual aid, locally and globally.
Both can be true. In the 1990s the Dutch Socialist Party was a good example of this. On the one hand all about local capacity building for "all of us", and at the same time these same kind locals would fight against any facilities for asylum seekers as these would take stuff away from "us".
Mutual aid among kindred spirits is easy. Being kind to strangers is the hard bit.
The communities I see and experience do reach out and aim to be inclusive. This is a process, obviously.
It is vital to face facts as to the resurgence of fascism, and also fight back by acting, instead of amplifying doom scenario narratives. Howling w the wolves is doing the oppressors work. Why would you?
Oh, I agree, there are also a lot of people across the world building strong ties of solidarity and rejecting the legitimacy of their own governments, and that fills me with joy. I continue to be optimistic that a better world is possible.
Sadly it's not everyone, and my experience is that nowadays Europeans are far more fond of barbed wire around the borders than we Africans are.
..also, I see it as a challenge. Make the community/events/vibe so attractive, everyone WANTS to join.
And remember to enjoy it yourself, too🤍
Praise will confuse the enemy 🤗
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=BadPZsYAdq0&si=c8A-AAYYNNnP9eMy
@passenger @shantara @Pepijn hmm, as a European, in most of the circles I move in it's recognised this is a complex problem. Caused by industrial decline, the loss of state capacity through neoliberalism, and a failure to neutralise right-wing narratives for decades.
I associate the "it was Russia" with a specific strand of liberals you also see in the US.
A bigger issue is that many left parties have concluded they cannot change opinion anymore, so have to ride the ride of nativism instead.
@thecasualcritic @shantara @Pepijn
With respect, after late 2023 I have become less enchanted by European and American social-democrats self-congratulating themselves about how their societies used to be good and how this is a recent problem caused by the problems of the last few decades.
Rosa Luxembourg (to quote a European) argued that fascism is simply the same European attitude to "the other" that has always existed, but now applied on their home soil. I feel that this is of course a simplification, but not an unjust one: even very Leftist European leaders like Mitterand have terrible records when dealing with non-White people, and no German government of any party has accepted legal responsibility for the Herero and Nama genocide.
So what can be done? I think a deep reconciliation with Europe's past and present is long overdue, because it's exactly that refusal to admit to past atrocities while trying to cling to past glories which empowers a lot of European nationalism. The longer it's delayed the harder it is to do, as is often the case. My people did it. Yours can too. I have hope.
Pepijn
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