Finance Minister Bjarne Corydon’s budget proposal that was announced today has met praise from an unexpected quarter – the opposition.

Liberal Finance Spokesman Peter Christensen sent out a news release titled: “Praise for a tight budget proposal”.

“The government has presented a tight budget proposal which only sees public sector growth at 0.1 per cent. That deserves praise at a time when we need to rein in public finances,” Christensen says, adding that the Liberals will take part in negotiations with the hope of reaching an agreement.

The Liberal Alliance, which does not normally praise the government’s economic policy, also suggested that the proposal is a good one.

“The Liberal Alliance is surprised by the government’s budget proposal for 2013. It is a lot more austere than could have been expected from a Social Democrat-led government,” Liberal Alliance Spokesman Ole Birk Olesen says.

The Danish People’s Party says the proposal is more or less the same as one the previous government would have put forward.

“It’s a bit boring – in that the government for the most part continues the economic policy that the previous government would have presented if it had remained in power,” Finance Spokesman and party leader-in-waiting Kristian Thulesen Dahl says.

But he praises the government for reducing the deficit.

“It is particularly worth noting that the deficit is greatly reduced. But that too is because the deficit was particularly large in 2012 in connection with the one-off payments to early retirement recipients,” Thulesen Dahl adds.

The Conservatives, on the other hand are somewhat more critical, despite praise for the government’s focus on education.

“In concrete terms, the Conservative Party is looking to have the duties on sugar and fats removed. These have given a boom in the border trade and have thus moved employment out of Denmark,” Finance Spokesman Mike Legarth says in his news release.

The government says that the Red Greens will be the first party to be invited for negotiations. Despite a messy process in connection with Tax Agreement negotiations, in which the government swapped horses mid-negotiation to reach an agreement with the centre-right opposition, the Red Greens are expected to be party to the budget.

But Corydon says he is also satisfied with the warm response from the centre-right, and that these parties too are welcome in the negotiations.

“I hope it stays that way tomorrow – it didn’t the other day,” Corydon says.

“We have put forward a proposal which we hope will command a majority. The Red Greens are to be the first party to enter the negotiations. They chose this government and we feel that there are various proposals that seem in keeping with what we have repeatedly heard the Red Greens advocate,” he says.

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