THE PERILS OF POLITICAL COMPROMISE (2)

I said earlier that negotiations on the new Danish Coalition Government's Programme for Government were widely seen as being dominated by the centrist Radikale Venstre under Margrethe Vestager, and not by the Social Democrats under Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Even though the Social Democrats have a much larger representation in Parliament.

A new opinion poll shows exactly how widely. An astonishing 75% think that Ms. Vestager had most influence on the document, against only 10% for Ms. Thorning-Schmidt and a miserable 2% for Villy Søvndal, leader of the third party in the coalition, the Socialists.

These sorts of numbers must be worrying for the Prime Minister. And the situation will be difficult to rectify in the short term, since Denmark takes over the Chairmanship of the E.U. on 1 January. While Ms. Thorning-Schmidt and Foreign Minister Mr. Søvndal will be jetting around Europe all the time (a process that has already started), Ms. Vestager will be quietly consolidating her position back home.  

Walter Blotscher