THE PERILS OF POLITICAL COMPROMISE

The new Danish Government is a classic compromise. Its core of the Social Democrats and Socialists had (respectively) bad and very bad elections, and the red block only won a tiny majority because the very left-wing Enhedslisten and the centrist Radikale Venstre had very good ones. As a result, the SD/S/RV Government programme is widely viewed as a Radikale Venstre blueprint. As one political commentator put it, Social Democrat Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt will have to pay a very high political price for being the first woman to get her hands on the top job.

A price that is already being paid. An opinion poll taken after the announcement of the Government programme on the opening day of the new Parliament showed that the red block has already lost its majority. Governments inevitably become unpopular over time, but to be unpopular before you have started is quite unusual. Not surprisingly, it is the Social Democrats and - especially - the Socialists who have lost ground. The latter lost 7 of their 23 seats in the election, so there are a lot of disgruntled ex-MP's and disappointed non-Ministers in the party, a feeling exacerbated by the Tax Ministry's being given to a 26-year old Socialist whippersnapper who failed to get elected as an MP. There are grumblings of unrest in the party, a feeling that it has accepted a Faustian bargain of power at the expense of its principles; true Socialists fed up with Social Democratic trimming and Radikale Venstre bossing will leave it for the politically pure Enhedslisten, a process which has already started.

All of which suggests a strong hand is required on the party tiller at this time. However, the Socialists' leader Villy Søvndal has made the same mistake as the Conservatives' Lene Espersen did in the last Parliament by taking the job of Foreign Minister in return for being the Coalition's junior partner. In quick succession, Ms. Espersen ruined her reputation for competence and lost the leadership of her party, which then had a truly terrible election. It would not surprise me if Mr. Søvndal and the Socialists suffered the same fate, and for the same reasons.

Walter Blotscher