Talks begin on forming Danish government

Parties have great divides as talks between People’s Party, Liberal Party likely to be tough

Denmark’s Liberal Party yesterday began what are expected to be tough negotiations on forming a new government after the opposition won a close elections.

The party’s leader, former prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, was to hold talks with the country’s three other centreright parties: the Danish People’s Party, Conservative People’s Party and Liberal Alliance.

Great divides

The parties, however, have great divides in their policies. In particular, the talks with the People’s Party should present hurdles for Rasmussen.

“We have a lot of things on our political wish list,” its leader, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, said ahead of Saturday’s talks.

His party actually acquired more votes than Rasmussen’s in Thursday’s parliamentary elections, but the People’s Party said it did not want the premiership and would back Rasmussen as the new prime minister.

The populists can either join a Rasmussen-led government or provide external backing to it, which they have done in the past and used that role to push for tighter asylum rules.

Their deputy leader, Soren Espersen, ruled out their participation in a new government if four conditions are not met: a stricter stance on EU and immigration policies, the reintroduction of border controls and annual growth in public spending of 0.8 per cent. “That is non-negotiable,” Espersen said. “We will not discuss whether it should be 0.5 or 0.6 per cent.”

The Liberal Party, however, does not want the government budget to grow and made that policy part of its campaign.

Queen Margrethe II gave Rasmussen, who was unseated as prime minister in 2011, the green light to form the government.