FOLKEMØDET

In 2011 a Danish former Minister called Bertel Haarder decided to borrow a Swedish idea, and organise a folkemøde (literally "meeting of the people") on Bornholm, the Danish island in the Baltic off the southern coast of Sweden. It was a great success, and has since become an annual event. This year's is scheduled to take place from 11-14 June.

Politicians of all parties show up and engage in debates and other sorts of "town hall" activities. People join in, and can get pretty close to them. Last year around 90,000 people turned up (a lot, given that Bornholm's population is under 50,000), or roughly 22,000 a day. They were spread over some 2,000 events.

Unfortunately, this year's event looks like being a flop. The reason is that someone had the bright (i.e. stupid) idea of inviting Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who is virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Islam, in order to talk about freedom of expression. Mr. Wilders has accepted; which means in turn that post-Copenhagen, Paris and Texas, the police presence on the island will have to be massively increased. That in turn makes it more likely that people will choose not to participate and/or that politicians will stay away. Indeed, some have already said that they will not be attending.    

This episode shows just how easy it is to mess something good up.

Walter Blotscher