Dear members of the PSA Scandinavian Specialist Group,
We, Professor Lee Miles and I, would like to introduce ourselves. Lee is part of EUPOLIS a Jean Monnet multinational research group, the editor of Cooperation and Conflict and editor of the Europe and the Nation State Book Series published by Routledge Publishers. Lee is part of the euro-outsiders project which examines the common challenges and forms of co-operation between those EU countries that are presently outside the European single currency. Lee’s research interest are Fusion, Sweden, Nordic Foreign Policy. Malin has written on multi-level governance in Sweden and Sweden’s ‘regional mess’ and her research interests are Swedish regionalisation through a ‘EU’ropean perspective, Europeanisation, Multi-Level Governance, and Paradiplomacy. Recently we finished a report for Nordregio together with our colleagues, Magnus Lindh, Hans Lödén and Curt Räftegård here at the Department of Political and Historical Studies, called ‘Fusing Regions? Sustainable Regional Action in the Context of European Integration’.
We are based at the Department of Political Science at Karlstad University which is currently in a very exciting and expanding phase. In 2010, the Department consists of small, yet highly cohesive group of 1 professor, (Lee Miles) 8 lecturers (including two Associate Professors), and 6 PhD students. The central interests of the Department revolve around three core research themes: regionalisation and European integration, public administration and innovation governance. 3 of our PhD students are part a new interdisciplinary Research School on Region Building, established in 2009, in which the Department is an integral partner, that brings together PhD students from across the Faculty of Social and Life Sciences to work on integrated projects associated with region-building in Europe. Political Science’s research themes within the Research School are regional transformations (i.e. the changing role of the region in the welfare state), ‘glocalisation’ (i.e. the interdependent relationship between the global and local levels in society) and the changing nature of politics at the sub-national level through the increased use of international networks.
The aim is to provide a short newsletter each month with stories that is of interest to the Scandinavian Specialist Group. If there is something that you would like to distribute please email Malin and it will either be included in the next newsletter or distributed immediately.
News of interest in short (February 2010):
§ Danish government reshuffle – an excellent summary is provided by Flemming Juul Christiansen, Aarhus University and Jacob Christensen, University of Southern Denmark (please see below).
§ The Danish daily Politiken is betraying the freedom of expression. That is the general sense since the paper reached a settlement with eight organisations representing almost 95,000 Muslims. In the settlement the paper does not waive the right to re-print the cartoons and the paper does not apologise for the publication of the cartoons (originally published by Jyllands-Posten) the apology is for the insult that Muslims may have felt over the publication and that is enough according to the lawyer representing the eight organisations. The editor for Politiken does not believe that the paper has sold out the freedom of expression with the settlement. He believes that it can lessen the tension and improve the relationship between Danish media and the Muslim world.
§ A new record in how many is moving to Norway. The immigration to Norway during the ‘naughties’ of people who received a residence permit was the largest the country has experienced in modern times. 510,748 people received residence permits and these figures do not include Danes or Swedes.
§ The Norwegian people’s support for the international military efforts in Afghanistan is decreasing. Compared to an opinion poll two years ago where over half of the people asked supported the international forces the support today is down to 43 percent. However 56 percent of the people polled still believe that Norway should have soldiers in Afghanistan.
§ Monday first of March 2010 was a historical day for Åland as of this date the members of the Landskapsregering can now call themselves minister. According to lantrådet Eriksson Åland now have a terminology which is natural for a government and is an important expression for the self-government of Åland.
§ Iceland is one step closer to negotiations in relation to the so-called Icesave Agreement. On the Icelandic paper Frettabladid announced on the 11th February that the British and Dutch governments had agreed to renegotiations on the premise that the Icelandic government meet to certain conditions. On the 26th February these negotiations collapsed. The next event in relation to the ongoing work to resolve the differences around Icesave is a referendum taking place on 6th March.
§ The Commission has recommended that the EU can start membership negotiations with Iceland and this is a first step on the path for Icelandic membership of the European Union. On the Icelandic side a political decision is now needed, possibly a referendum, in order to be able to continue the process towards becoming a member.
Please do not forget Flemming and Jacob’s excellent summary of the latest government reshuffle in Denmark. Please see below.
Best wishes for this time,
Malin & Lee
On February 23, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen presented a reshuffled government and on February 24 he and Deputy Prime Minister Lene Espersen presented a revised government programme which effectively replaces the programme adopted in November 2007 by Løkke Rasmussen and Espersen’s predecessors Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Bendt Bendtsen.
Political commentators had long expected Løkke Rasmussen to reform his government in order to demonstrate that he had moved out of the shadow of Anders Fogh Rasmussen and managed to set his own team and political agenda. In early January there had been intensive rumours about a reshuffle which was alleged to have been cancelled at the last moment due to disagreements between the Liberals and the Conservatives over Conservative demands for reforms in economic and labour market policies.
During much of February political and media attention had been focused on Defence Minister Søren Gade (Liberal) who had been involved in two cases regarding the Ministry of Defence’s handling of information about Danish army operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. While Gade continued to be one of the government’s most popular ministers among the public, he also left the impression of not being in control of his department. Gade left his position as well as his seat in parliament in connection with the reshuffle.
The Reshuffle
In quantitative terms, the reshuffle was the largest since Anker Jørgensen reshuffled his government in 1973. Just like Løkke Rasmussen, Jørgensen had taken over from his predecessor during an ongoing electoral term and reformed his cabinet after little less than a year in office. Besides Lars Løkke Rasmussen, only four ministers kept their portfolios while seven ministers left office and seven new ministers were introduced.
The reshuffle did not alter the relative strength of the two coalition partners with regard to the share of ministers and portfolios but there were some changes in the distribution of portfolios, with the Liberals taking over Health and Transport from the Conservatives while ceding Social Affairs and Science. The Interior (Local Government) portfolio had been coupled with Social Affairs in the previous line-up but is now coupled with Health. The Liberal Party has 13 ministers and the Conservative Party six. In the reshuffled government, 10 ministers are men and nine women which means that it has the highest share of women ministers in Danish history. For the first time in Denmark, women occupy the positions of Foreign Minister and Defence Minister.
The most notable changes in personnel included Conservative leader Lene Espersen’s move from Business Affairs to Foreign Affairs, while Liberal veteran Bertel Haarder moved from Education to the combined Ministry of the Interior and Health, and deputy Liberal leader and Minister for Taxation Kristian Jensen left government to take up the position as leader of the parliamentary group of the Liberal Party.
Espersen’s move had been widely expected, as she wanted a portfolio that would give her a higher public profile while relieving her of much of the detailed and technical casework characterising Business Affairs. As a consequence of her move, the Foreign Minister since 2001 Per Stig Møller was moved to Cultural Affairs, while the Conservative #2 Brian Mikkelsen took over the Business Affairs portfolio and Lars Barfoed took Justice.
Among the Conservative ministers, Cultural Affairs Minister Carina Christensen and Health Minister Jakob Axel Nielsen left the government to return to the Conservative group in parliament. In both cases, they were considered disappointments at the ministerial level after being brought in by former Conservative leader Bendt Bendtsen in 2007. The two new Conservative ministers, Charlotte Sahl-Madsen (Science) and Benedikte Kiær (Social Affairs) were recruited from outside the Conservative parliamentary group. Kiær has been active in Conservative politics at the local and regional level while Sahl-Madsen has had a career in business and only became a member of the Conservative Party the day before her appointment as minister. The selection also to some degree illustrates the problems faced by the Conservatives in recruiting political talent.
On the Liberal side of the reshuffle, all five new ministers – Søren Pind (Development), Tina Nedergaard (Education), Hans Christian Schmidt (Transport), Gitte Lillelund Bech (Defence), Henrik Høegh (Food and Agriculture) – were recruited from the parliamentary group, but some of the details of the moves also highlighted a conflict between the party leadership and Liberal MPs. While Bertel Haarder’s move to Interior and Health was seen as surprising, it also reflected that the prime minister needed an experienced minister to deal with these portfolios, which have the potential to create major difficulties for the government as the quality of health services and local concil budgets move into the focus of attention.
Karen Ellemann, who had struggled during January and February with the implementation of an earlier agreement between the government and the Danish People’s Party about the provision of lunch meals for children in kindergartens, was moved from Interior and Social Affairs to Environment; Troels Lund Poulsen moved from Environment to Taxation; while Helge Sander, who had been Minister for Science since 2001, Ulla Tørnæs (Development and a minister since 2001) and Eva Kjer Hansen (Food and Agriculture) left government, along with Søren Gade and Kristian Jensen. Sander was considered part of the older guard in the Liberal Party, while Tørnæs and Kjer Hansen – just like the Conservatives’ Christensen and Axel Nielsen – had failed to create a distinctive profile during their time in government.
Two secondary portfolios also changed hands as part of the reshuffle, as Climate and Energy Minister Lykke Friis took over Equal Rights from Employment Minister Inger Støjbjerg, while Karen Ellemann took Nordic Cooperation from Bertel Haarder.
Kristian Jensen’s move to become chairman of the Liberal parliamentary group, while previous group chairman Hans Christian Schmidt was appointed Transport Minister, was interpreted as an attempt by Lars Løkke Rasmussen to strengthen his grib on the Liberal group in parliament. According to reports, the group on occasions during the last year has been on the verge of open rebellion against Løkke Rasmussen on policy and personnel issues, and Hans Christian Schmidt only agreed to leave his post without a vote in the group if he was offered a position in the new government. Liberal political spokesman Peter Christensen had indicated that he was not interested in entering government at this point in time.
The formal document announcing the reshuffle can be found at: http://www.stm.dk/_a_1615.html
Details of the Revised Government Programme
The revised government programme was presented by prime minister Løkke Rasmussen and foreign minister Espersen on the same day finance minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen presented the Danish convergency programme. The convergence programme focussed on a number of external demands on Danish economic policy, especially the need to control public spending in 2011 and later.
As the government wants to increase spending on health while saving on general public spending, national and local government services will be put under detailed scrutiny in the preparation of negotiations with local and regional authorities scheduled to take place in a couple of months and the 2011 budget which will be presented in August. The government announced a policy of zero growth in the public sector in the years to come.
The new ‘working programme’ is called ‘Denmark 2020 - Knowledge, growth, wealth, welfare’. Compared with earlier programmes, it has changed stylistically from presenting a number of precise promises to be delivered during the parliamentary term to broader statements about the government’s long-term goals. This marks a departure from the “contract politics” introduced by Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s predecessor Anders Fogh Rasmussen in 2001.
The main task facing the government will be to manage the economy while satisfying voter expectations for improved welfare and health services at the same time. Another specific problem is found in the agricultural sector, heavy burdened by debt. The sector still provides almost 1/5 of Danish exports and the Liberal Party has its roots here despite the fact that it has broadened its support considerably over the years. The government proposes to relieve the sector of taxation.
While the programme does mention increasing the supply of labour and quality of the labour force as one of the major goals of the government, it avoids mentioning reforming the early retirement benefit with the aim of raising the effective age of retirement. Instead the programme mentions earlier entry of university candidate into the labour market and activation of young and long-time unemployed as ways to increase the labour force.
While the programme mentions the long-term goal of repealing the Danish EU opt-outs, no timeframe is given. Specifically, the programme no longer includes a formulation that a referendum on one or more of the opt-outs will take place during this electoral term.
The full text of the programme is available in Danish at http://www.stm.dk/_a_1619.html
Flemming Juul Christiansen, Aarhus University
Jacob Christensen, University of Southern Denmark
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