One of Denmark’s oldest parties, the Georgist, single-tax, anti-EU Justice Party has announced that it is to stand for Parliament again at the next election, after some 25 years outside the Folketing.

“We have been through a short but hectic period in recent months to get ourselves ready. We have probably been out of focus for too long,” says Party Political Spokesman Poul Gerhard Kristiansen.

The party has not, however, yet collected the 20,000 signatures necessary to stand at the next election, but expects to be able to do so – provided that the Justice Ministry will agree to allow the party to use the digital universe to gain support for its nomination.

The Justice Party’s core political issues are the environment, opposition to the European Union and increased taxation on property rather than on work and labour.

“A major change in the tax system from taxing labour to taxing land – that is property – is almost taboo,” Kristiansen says.

The Justice Party adheres to the theories of the 19th century American political economist Henry George, who called for a land value or single tax on all land. The Justice Party was voted into Parliament for the first time in 1926 and was a coalition partner with the Social Democrats and Social Liberals in the late fifties.

It is not the first time that the party has attempted a comeback. After its stint in government the party failed to win re-election and from 1960 to 1973 it remained outside Parliament. In 1973, however, it swept back into the Folketing with five seats, predominantly as a result of its opposition to the EEC.

In the 1981 election, however, it failed to win enough support for representation and from 1990 onwards stopped contesting national elections. In 2005, the party ran on a double ticket with the Minority Party, but also here failed to enter Parliament.

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