1 MAY

1 May is International Workers' Day, designed to celebrate the world's labour movements. It dates back to the end of the 19th century when trade unions had to fight - often literally - to secure basic rights. In many countries 1 May is a public holiday.

In Denmark, where the spirit of social democracy is strong, 1 May is traditionally celebrated with marches, open-air picnics, and speeches by left-of-centre politicans. The problem this year was that a left-of-centre Government has over the past six months introduced an array of reforms, which the coalition parties' traditional supporters have hated; changes to the dole, a squeeze on public spending and (most recently) the dispute with the teachers. Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt had already announced that she would not be giving a speech in Fælledparken, the large park in Copenhagen, which is the focus for 1 May speeches. Who would come instead and what would be the reaction?

Those entering the lion's den included the Social Democratic mayor of Copenhagen Frank Jensen, and the leader of the Socialists, Annette Vilhelmsen, who were met with so many un-solidarity-like boos and catcalls, that the organiser was forced to call for order. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, on a whirlwind tour round the country giving half a dozen speeches, was drowned out in Aarhus and attacked with a water pistol. Not surprisingly, media attention this morning has focussed on these events, and ignored totally the political messages they were trying to put across.

Danish workers are, in a nutshell, fed up with the Government that is supposedly representing them. With the Social Democrats' poll ratings at their lowest since the nineteenth century, Ms. Thorning-Schmidt is increasingly looking like a one-term leader, with a shortened term to boot.

Walter Blotscher