Danish centre-right opposition wins election, PM quits party

Danish voters ousted Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in an election on Thursday and handed power to an opposition centre-right alliance including huge gains for a eurosceptic, anti-immigrant party.

Opposition leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he would try to form a government but is likely to have to make big concessions to ensure support from the right-wing Danish Peoples’ Party (DF), which ended up with more votes than his Liberal Party.

With all of the votes counted on the mainland, the centre-right won 90 seats in parliament to 85 seats for the centre-left bloc of Thorning-Schmidt, who wrongly gambled that an economic upturn would win her re-election. Denmark’s first female prime minister, elected in 2011, Thorning-Schmidt conceded defeat and quit as party leader after the vote.

DF, the second-biggest party behind Thorning-Schmidt’s Social Democrats, has supported the Liberals in government before and its backing gives the centre-right led by Rasmussen its overall majority.
“Tonight we have been given an opportunity, but only an opportunity, to take leadership in Denmark,” Rasmussen told supporters in parliament.

Read Danish centre-right opposition wins election, PM quits party

"More Europe, not less Europe" - says Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the future of the EU

The EU should not take the blame for the economic crisis in the individual member states.

That was one of the main points of Monday’s meeting between the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on the future of the EU at the University of Copenhagen.

“The crisis was not created at a European level, but was basically created because the member states didn’t keep their own house in order,” Thorning-Schmidt said, arguing that “the lesson is that what each individual country chooses to do will affect the rest and our solutions must be carried out in co-ordination with one another.”

Barroso said that is easy to blame the EU for the crisis – pointing to the perceived snowball effect of the problems in Italy and Greece – but the fact is that the crisis began in the individual countries. But to get out of the crisis, he said, the member states must stick together and both co-operate and make compromises.
According to Thorning-Schmidt, that is already happening. “The actions over the last months have shown that the EU is wiling to act together and act in solidarity,” she said.

She dismissed the recent criticism levelled at the EU that it hasn’t taken concrete action.

For more: "More Europe, not less Europe" | The Copenhagen Post | The Danish News in English

Helle Thorning-Schmidt addressed EU MEPs as Denmark took on the six month rotating presidency today

Helle Thorning-Schmidt PM of Denmark addressed MEPs on 18 January 2012 as Denmark took on the six month rotating presidency of the EU, replacing Poland.

The Danish government has set out its priorities in a work programme entitled Europe at Work, that revolves around four themes - social responsibility, economic growth, environmental protection and global security.

Ms Thorning-Schmidt - a former MEP - said that "the financial crisis should not lead us astray. It is more evident than ever that we share a common destiny".

The Danish presidency comes as negotiations intensify over creating a new treaty - the so-called "fiscal compact" - to end the crisis in the eurozone.

For more: BBC - Democracy Live - European Parliament