Political Shake-Up in Denmark

...There is nothing rotten in the state of Denmark...

...It is true, too, that the Social Democrats have neglected the intellectuals for a long time...

...What remains of the Communist party is a sect of no political interest: only a sociological curio...

...Kampmann is chairman of the Social Democratic party and head of the coalition Government...

...Moreover, a new Opposition party, the Independents, sprang up to the right of both, and won six seats in its first election...

...He took power less than a year ago...

...His decision to take one of the two representatives of Greenland into his coalition Government as Minister for Greenland was not only an able politician's way of securing a parliamentary majority, and thus working peace for himself and his Government for the next four years, but also evidence of constructive, un-traditional political thinking...

...Yet somehow they left basic policies unchanged—both foreign policy, which includes NATO membership, and domestic policy, which depends upon the social-liberal welfare state...

...The Communists never were a danger for the Social Democrats...

...Kampmann now has a chance to realize his plan of increasing Denmark's aid to underdeveloped countries in a proportion which will set an example...

...and intellectuals in personal revolt...

...The program was rightly identified by the Liberal party's agrarian adherents as a policy which would chiefly benefit the Conservatives, which may explain why the Conservatives and the Independents did so well...

...But Larsen and his Socialist People's party may be in a position to influence the left wing of the Social Democrats in the coming period of collective bargaining between the trade union movement and the employers' association...

...In this context, human personality regains its political importance...

...Both these parties had campaigned under Liberal banners in previous elections, but afterward joined a Social Democratic coalition Government, which, of course, made them vulnerable to criticism and reproach from the Opposition...

...Their coalition partners, the Radical Liberals (Det Radikale Venstre) and the Single Tax party (Retsfor-bundet), following the ideas of Henry George, were bound to come out second...

...of course did its best to make them seem supporters of, rather than collaborators with, the Social Democrats...

...They've gotten their results by persuasion, parliamentary methods and collective bargaining, and no one believes they would change their pragmatic approach for Marxist dogmatism...

...The elections created a new coalition Government led by Social Democrat Viggo Kampmann, with a majority—though only a minimal one— in the Parliament...

...Larsen's success may be explained in part by the fact that the electorate showed it was sick of the depersonalized politics of the welfare state...

...Danes also know that the Liberal and Conservative Opposition would not abandon any of the welfare state social achievements in the event that they took power...

...By Jorgen Schleimann POLITICAL SHAKE-UP IN DENMARK But traditional foreign and domestic policies continue COPENHAGEN THE RECENT ELECTIONS to the Danish Parliament produced a thorough regrouping of the country's political forces, perhaps the most profound political shake-up since World War II...

...Aksel Larsen, the repenting sinner the democrats refused to forgive, Aksel Larsen, with a broken leg (he was knocked down by a car just before the elections)—all these images really appealed to Danish instincts of pity and fair play...

...But the results of Larsen's organizing power outside the Communist apparatus will be apparent only in the next elections, probably not before 1964...

...Nor will Larsen be able to benefit from a split between the parliamentary representatives of the Danish labor movement and the party leadership because, traditionally, the party chairman in Denmark also assumes governmental responsibility...

...It lost seven seats and was reduced almost to the size of the other Opposition party, the Conservative People's party, which gained two seats...

...That the program did not inspire confidence is not surprising, for it has been constantly revised during the past year without offering anything more constructive...

...The replacement of six Communist deputies by 11 Popular Socialists does not change the country's basic orientation, which is still based on an overwhelming majority for NATO...

...In this redistribution of power among the Opposition forces, it is difficult not to see a defeat of the highly touted Liberal-Conservative program of an alternative to the Social Democratic coalition...

...It was the first time a Minister for Greenland has been named, and the first time a Greenland representative has been taken into a Danish Government...

...The greatest loss in the elections— apart from liquidation of the Communist party—was sustained by the largest Opposition group, the Liberal party (Venstre...

...The Liberals were further weakened by another and recent split in the party caused by a controversy over principles and personalities, which deprived the Liberals of one of their most talented leaders, Professor Thorkild Kristensen, who opposed the non-constructive opposition into which the Conservatives had led the Liberals...

...I believe Larsen's possibilities lie more in the intellectual-political field than in real politics...

...It is hard to see how Larsen can stand that kind of competition in the field of human and political realities...

...The real sensation of the election involved former Communist leader Aksel Larsen, who performed the two-fold task of eliminating his old comrades—more peacefully than they would have had he been on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain— and of creating a new political party, the Socialist People's party, which in a single stroke took 11 seats in the Parliament...

...This DENMARK'S ELECTION RESULTS Popular Vote Percentage of Vote Parliament Seats 1957 1960 1957 1960 1957 1960 Social Democrats 910,170 1.024.039 39.4 42.1 70 76 Radicals 179.822 140.608 7.8 5.8 14 11 Conservatives 383,843 436,005 16.6 17.9 30 32 Liberals 578.932 511.388 25.1 21.0 45 38 Singale Taxers 122.759 52.232 5.3 2.2 9 0 Socialist Peoples - 149,482 - 6.2 — 11 Communists 72.315 27.345 3.1 1.1 6 0 is a popular and, in my opinion, sound reaction which in many ways was a determining factor in the elections, and Larsen benefited from it...

...Kampmann is a man of principle and perspective...

...Opposition propaganda JORGEN SCHLEIMANN, a Danish freelance journalist, serves as the Secretary for Scandinavian Affairs of the Congress for Cultural Freedom...

...pacifist and neutralist Radicals opposed to the defense agreement and to Radical participation in the coalition Government...

...All Danes know that the Social Democrats are reasonable people and not fanatics...

...Still, it would be surprising if Kampmann did not overshadow Lar-sen even in the area of intellectual appeal...

...The Radical Liberals suffered a minor set-back in losing three seats, but the Single Tax party lost all its nine seats and had to withdraw from the Government...

...trade unionists opposed to the general trend of compromise politics...

...when Premier H. C. Hansen died of cancer last spring, and he is already a leader of national standing...

...Ideological conflicts tend to lose their significance in a political situation which lacks extremes, as has been true of Denmark for generations...

...He may be able to create a leftist intellectual group which might be influential in public debate, if not in politics...

...Moreover, the Danes are deeply sentimental...

...Larsen is more likely to have some limited success with a policy of pressure on and intimidation of the pacifist and neutralist elements which traditionally vote for the Radical Liberal party...

...in fact, its main attraction was a demagogic campaign favoring a drastic cut in personal taxation which aimed at transferring the general prosperity of the country into private property...

...This does not diminish the political importance of the fact that Social Democrats now have a left-wing Opposition to reckon with...

...The Independents were inspired by Knud Kristensen, a former Liberal leader who had withdrawn from the party and active politics some years ago...

...His chances are reduced somewhat by the fact that, in their preliminary negotiations, the trade union council and the employers' association executive committee seem to have reached a tenable agreement for long-term regulation of the labor market to replace the 1899 accord...

...He is probably the best speaker in the Parliament, and a colorful personality...

...Detailed analysis of the vote suggests that the Social Democrats were credited with an economic policy whose success nobody contested, and which has resulted in general prosperity and a very favorable balance of trade...

...The image of the lonely, persecuted Larsen, kicked out of his own party for something as remote and abstract as revisionism...

...In this election they not only lost all five parliamentary seats but almost two-thirds of the vote they had polled in the May 1957 elections...

...As a result, the Social Democratic party won the largest percentage of votes cast since the war, six additional seats in Parliament, and became the first Danish party in history to get more than a million votes...

...Neutralist foreign policy is probably the common denominator for Larsen's very heterogeneous group of dissatisfied factions: dissident Communists opposed to the party line or to party discipline...