Denmark

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Growing Tensions Over Immigration

In the wake of a scandal over immigration visas, Prime Minister Schlüter abruptly resigned in January 1993. The scandal demonstrated a deeper change among the Danish people, for centuries an ethnically homogenous society. During the 1990s, a soaring number of refugees, especially from lands of the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and South Asia, fueled high levels of immigration in Denmark. Efforts by the Schlüter government to prevent political refugees from Sri Lanka from joining their families already in Denmark led to a scandal of historic proportions. The government’s illegal administrative measures forced Schlüter’s resignation and shone a spotlight on emergent social tensions within Denmark.

After Schlüter stepped down, a new majority coalition government was formed, with Social Democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen as prime minister—the first majority coalition government since 1971. In elections held in September 1994, the coalition headed by Rasmussen retained power, but it lost its majority in the Folketing. After shuffling his coalition slightly, Rasmussen was returned to office once again in 1998 with a majority of just one seat. In September 1999 Rasmussen issued an official apology to a group of Greenland Inuit (known as the Inughuit) who were evicted illegally from their homes and hunting grounds nearly 50 years earlier to allow for the expansion of a key United States airbase at Thule. The apology followed a ruling by a Danish court that Denmark’s government had violated Inughuit rights.

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Denmark in the 21st Century

In November 2001, following a surge of support for his government after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the prime minister called a snap election. Despite a high turnout, however, the Social Democrat-led government was defeated, and the center-right Liberal Party emerged as Denmark’s largest political party. A minority coalition government composed of the Liberal Party and the Conservative People’s Party replaced the Social Democrat-led government. Liberal Party leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen was named prime minister. The far right, anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which became the third largest party in the Folketing, agreed to support the Liberal-Conservative coalition.

As prime minister, Rasmussen vowed to halt the growth of taxes while maintaining the nation’s social welfare system. In 2004 Rasmussen’s government succeeded in pushing through a package of modest tax cuts. Rasmussen’s government also announced that it would move quickly to impose new immigration and asylum restrictions, and a new ministry of refugees, immigration, and integration was created. In July 2002 the government succeeded in passing the tough new restrictions—among the most stringent in Europe—into law. By 2004 immigration to Denmark had declined by nearly 80 percent from its 2001 level.

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Denmark on the World Stage

During the controversial U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq beginning in March 2003, Denmark sent two naval vessels and a small contingent of troops to help oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (U.S.-Iraq War). The Rasmussen government’s strong support for the invasion sparked deep divisions within the Danish public; a bare majority of the Folketing voted in favor of the action. After the ouster of Hussein, Denmark deployed a peacekeeping force in Iraq. However, allegations that the Danish government exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq to justify the invasion forced the resignation of the government’s defense minister, Svend Aage, in April 2004. Four months later, in August, a scandal broke out over the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Danish soldiers.

In 2006 Denmark became the center of an international controversy after protests began to spread throughout the Islamic world against cartoons published in September 2005 in Denmark’s largest-circulation newspaper. The cartoons depicted the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Any attempt to depict Muhammad is generally regarded as blasphemous among Muslims. One cartoon portrayed Muhammad as a terrorist.

Leaders of Denmark’s Muslim community, which numbers about 200,000, objected when the cartoons were published, saying it was part of a growing climate of hostility against Muslims in Denmark. The editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper apologized for the offense, but a number of newspapers in Europe and elsewhere reprinted the cartoons as an issue of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. In response, demonstrations, often violent, took place throughout the Islamic world. A number of Islamic countries withdrew their ambassadors from Denmark, and in early February Danish embassies and consulates were attacked and burned in Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. Many Muslim leaders also called for boycotts of Danish goods.

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Recent Elections

Buoyed by a healthy economy, the popular curbs on immigration, and a pledge to keep taxes from rising, Prime Minister Rasmussen scheduled a snap election for February 2005. Despite some lingering concerns over Denmark’s Iraq policy, Rasmussen and his center-right coalition secured a second term in office, winning about 54 percent of the vote.

Rasmussen again called early elections in late 2007, counting on high approval ratings and a strong economy to give his government a fresh mandate for additional reforms in the public sector. His Liberal Party and its coalition allies won 90 seats in the 179-seat Folketing—a narrow, one-seat majority. The opposition led by the Social Democratic Party secured 84 seats. The New Alliance, a newly formed party led by a Syrian-born Muslim, Naser Khader, won 5 seats. It represented a moderate centrist position between the two polarized extremes in Denmark. Although the party generally agreed with the Liberal Party on many issues, it supported the relaxation of immigration laws.

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