(VOA) The election victory last week by Denmark’s Social Democrats has prompted a debate among fellow European left-wing parties: Should they, too, adopt anti-migrant rhetoric, imitate their Danish counterparts and campaign for stricter immigration rules?
Because of a surge in support in the final weeks leading up to the June 5 parliamentary poll, the country’s Social Democrat-led bloc grabbed 91 of the 179 seats in the legislature, setting up the circumstances for Mette Frederiksen, 41, to become Denmark’s youngest prime minister. The Social Democrats won 48 seats and are now the largest party in the Danish parliament.
The victory is being credited largely to the Social Democrats’ U-turn on immigration and their embrace of much tougher anti-migrant policies more in keeping with those of their far-right rivals, including opposition to accepting refugees resettled by the United Nations; a focus on coaxing and cajoling migrants to return to their countries of origin; and harsher punishment for migrants, living in migrant-majority areas, who are found guilty of offenses.
