Ghita Nelander, who previously had ambitions of becoming the leader of the New Right (Nye Borgerlige) party, has now left the party. This happened shortly before the planned annual meeting, where the new leader was supposed to be elected. Nelander, who is a city council member in Næstved and a member of the regional council in Region Sjælland, announced her departure from the party via a Facebook post. In the post, Nelander explains that she does not have plans to join another political party in the near future. “I am taking a breath and seeing what the future holds,” she writes. Her decision to leave the New Right came after a period of internal disagreements in the party, which culminated in the election of a new leader. Martin Henriksen, who was previously the lead candidate for the European Parliament for the party, won the leadership election over Daniel Fischer from the South Funen Districts at an extraordinary annual meeting in mid-April.
Nelander had withdrawn from the contest before then and had already expressed her support for the decision to dissolve the parliamentary group and the party, a decision initiated by the former leader, Pernille Vermund, in January. However, Nelander later changed her mind when she realized that there was not broad agreement on this radical change within the party’s ranks. She symbolically marked her departure from the party by throwing her campaign posters into a recycling center and bidding a “somber farewell” to both the swan (symbol of the New Right party) and the New Right. As an independent member of the city council, Nelander will continue her political work independently of the New Right, while awaiting her future political direction.