Today’s big topic: Løkke drops a bomb in the campaign’s final sprint. Wants to be the royal investigator
Is Lars Løkke running for prime minister? No, he says. But he is offering himself as the royal investigator – in other words, the person who examines whether it is possible to form a government that does not, from the outset, have a majority against it.
What’s happening?
Today, Tuesday, the Danes will vote for a new parliament and government in the election to Folketinget. The electoral campaign has lasted a little over three weeks, and on the final full day of campaigning, Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Moderaterne, M) dropped quite a bombshell.
He wants to offer himself as the royal investigator. Without being a candidate for prime minister.
After most elections, that is how we have understood the royal investigator: as the person tasked with forming a government – specifically, a government that he or she would then lead after the round of consultations with the monarch.
Løkke has tried that before. It is not what he wants now. If he becomes the royal investigator, there is nothing in constitutional law that would prevent it. But that is not the assignment at the moment.
Why it matters!
This electoral campaign has been characterized by a lack of clarity as to how an eventual government will look, as the central party leaders have been unwilling to verbally commit to a single strategy of government formation. Løkke, however, wants a centrist government.
Løkke wants to be a royal investigator in the term’s literal sense: the one who investigates whether it is possible to form a government that does not, from the outset, have a majority against it. After that, the fight over the prime minister’s job can begin. Denmark has negative parliamentarism, so a government does not need a majority behind it. It just cannot have a majority against it.
In practical terms, if Moderaterne hold the decisive votes, they will go to King Frederik and point to Lars Løkke as royal investigator. If one of the other candidates, Mette Frederiksen (S) or Troels Lund Poulsen (V), has the most votes, the post will go to them; but if they have to give up, Løkke will try again.
And he will not throw his votes to either side.
That is where his leverage lies. He cannot prevent Frederiksen or Lund Poulsen from becoming royal investigator, but he can prevent one of them from forming a government. If he holds the decisive votes. In that game, he will try to get them to negotiate with each other, pursuing his ambition of a government across the center of the political spectrum, just like the departing SVM government.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– For three weeks, Danish politics has been taking a break from a world in upheaval. That ends now
Danish politics has spent the past three weeks on recess from the rest of the world. Even though the war in Iran is on the verge of triggering an energy crisis that could pull the rug out from under the Danish economy, it has barely figured in the campaign. The world is in flux, whether politicians talk about it or not. But the decisions the next government makes will be historic. They will set the terms for Danes’ freedom, security, and prosperity for many years ahead.
Read about 8 international dilemmas an upcoming government will have to deal with here.
– Mette Frederiksen calls for a national pesticide Bban
For the second election in a row, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Socialdemokratiet is campaigning on a national ban on pesticide spraying to protect drinking water. This time, however, it appears to be a condition for her to remain prime minister, as she made clear in the final party leaders’ debate ahead of Tuesday’s election. A wide range of parties are heading into the election calling for a national ban on pesticide spraying over vulnerable groundwater recharge areas. All parties in the red bloc, along with Moderaterne and Konservative, want a nationwide pesticide ban.
– New Megafon poll hands control to Lars Løkke and Moderaterne
Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) could end up as the kingmaker once the votes are counted after the election. That is the indication in a newly released poll that Megafon conducted for TV 2. In it, Moderaterne is projected to win 6.8 percent of the vote, enough for 12 seats. If the election result resembles the poll, Moderaterne will be all but impossible to sideline when it comes time to reach 90 seats.
Talk of town: They swung hard – and the truths came out
The campaign’s final party leaders’ debate took place at Christiansborg, where TV 2 had gathered the party leaders the day before the election.
It’s all about the election here on election day. And a central theme throughout the cmapaign has been the duels and growing feud between Mette Frederiksen (Socialdemokratiet, S) and Troels Lund Poulsen (Venstre, V).
When they last debated face to face in a prime ministerial duel, we wrote that the veil between the two would-be prime ministers had fallen.
On Monday night, it was yanked up off the floor and hurled out the window.
The campaign’s final party leaders’ debate turned into a bruising exchange, with energy and security, pig production, immigration, and the question of what happens when the election is actually over all on the agenda. It sparked fireworks, and out of the smoke stepped two figures:
Lars Løkke Rasmussen (Moderaterne, M) and Mette Frederiksen (S).
That is the assessment of Elisabet Svane, Politiken’s political analyst, who as usual has parsed the leaders’ debate – probably for the last time this year.
Read her full analysis of the debate here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.