People’s Party out of favour

ONE of Europe’s most influential anti-immigration parties could lose its leverage in Danish politics in this week’s election.

Polls ahead of the vote on Thursday show the Danish People’s Party stands to lose the kingmaker role which for ten years has given it an important say on government policy. A raft of measures to clamp down on immigration have been adopted by Denmark’s government under the influence of the Danish People’s Party and its leader, 64-year-old Pia Kjaersgaard.

Since the Liberal-Conservative minority government took power in 2001, it has depended on Kjaersgaard’s backing to push budget proposals and other bills through parliament.

As a result, Denmark’s asylum rules are among Europe’s strictest, reducing the number of refugees seeking shelter in the country of 5.6 million people from nearly 13,000 in 2001 to just over 5,000 last year.

“In the past ten years we have been able to tighten the immigration laws, and instead we get more people who come here to work and study,” said Peter Skaarup, deputy leader of the Danish People’s Party.

But many voters say they are fed up with the party’s polarising language about Muslim immigrants, whom it accuses of leeching off the welfare system while failing to adopt Danish norms.