Some election posters attract more attention than others.
Since it became legal to put them up on Saturday, the posters from the party Frie Grønne have been widely discussed. The party is accused of antisemitism and threats of violence after putting up posters with messages like ’Befri København fra Zionismen’ (’Free Copenhagen from Zionism’, ed.) and ’Du stemmer, vi flækker’.
In Nørrebro, Copenhagen, the posters evoke both confusion and strong emotions among those who will soon cast their votes. On the street, many do not understand what the messages mean, while others interpret them in various ways.
When Politiken meets Kaj Vorobeva, he shares his opinion on the poster with the words ’Free Copenhagen from Zionism’ without hesitation:
»Cool!«, he says.
Why?
»Because Zionists are fucking disgusting, man!«.
Others are less enthusiastic about the posters. Bjarne Nielsen, for example, calls them »awful«.
»I can’t stand to think about it. It’s a degradation of our democracy«, he says.
However, he believes Frie Grønne has grasped at least one aspect with the posters:
»They certainly get attention. There’s a lot of media strategy in it«.
Sosu student Sofya Molchanova believes the poster is racist, and her study friend Sandra Olaussen agrees:
»I understand it as them wanting to get rid of the Jews«.
»Yes«, says Sofya Molchanova, nodding:
»I think it’s too much. I have a lot of friends in Israel who aren’t Zionists«.
On a bench outside Blågårdens Library, two painters are taking a lunch break. There’s a cola and a pack of cigarettes between them. They are unsure what Zionism is, but agree that the poster with the message ’Du stemmer, vi flækker’ is out of line.
»It’s really weird. It sounds like the Hells Angels or Bandidos«, says one of them, Majbritt Welander, shaking her head.
Asha Hussein also doesn’t understand the message about Zionism, but she interprets the other poster as a form of fight, she explains.
»If you vote for us, we start a fight«, is her interpretation.
Expert: It may be about coded language
Rune Stubager, professor of political behavior at the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University, assesses that the election posters –and the fact that they can be interpreted differently – might be precisely the point of them:
»By expressing oneself vaguely, voters are given the opportunity to insert their own understanding into the message«, he says, partly about the poster with the wording ’Du stemmer, vi flækker’:
»An unclear formulation can function as a form of coded language targeting specific voter groups«, he emphasizes.
Jakob Egholm Feldt, who researches Zionism at Roskilde University, explains that Zionism arose in the late 1800s as a Jewish national movement. The concept is based on the idea that Jews are a people before they are a religion – thus forming a nation with a shared history and a common goal of political sovereignty, he says.
When Frie Grønne writes ’Free Copenhagen from Zionism’, it is instead an expression of a much newer definition of Zionism, which does not concern Zionism as a Jewish national movement – but rather refers to the conflict between Israel and Palestine:
»The pro-Palestinian interpretation of Zionism is based on a post-colonial perspective that views Zionism as an extension of European, white colonialism«, he says:
»Frie Grønne says it is a critique of an ideology – and that kind of critique, where Zionism is interpreted in that way, is not new. It has existed on the far left since the ’70s when the left adopted the Palestinians’ struggle«.
Frie Grønne rejects criticism
The election posters have led Dansk Zionistforbund to file a police report against Frie Grønne for threats of violence.
Max Meyer, chairman of Dansk Zionistforbund, says he has received inquiries from both members and non-members who are concerned for their safety due to the posters.
»That’s what we saw in the 1930s and ’40s in Germany, where a society without Jews was desired. Back then, the Nazi party in Germany wrote that Jews do not have access to Berlin and Germany. These are the feelings that are coming up in people now«, he says.
Sikandar Siddique, political leader of Frie Grønne, does not wish to be interviewed but responds in writing to Politiken’s questions. He clarifies that the message of freeing Copenhagen from Zionism is about the regime in Israel and not Judaism or the Jewish people.
He says that Frie Grønne is against the state of Israel and wish for it to be dissolved, and he does not understand how the party’s election posters can be interpreted as threats or antisemitism.
»It can never be antisemitic to oppose an ethnostate and wish for its dissolution«, he writes:
»I simply cannot see how our posters could be threats of violence. It seems a very far-fetched concern. Overall, the indignation over the posters seems quite extreme when you also consider how little outrage Zionism’s crimes have sparked among critics«.
