Political parties measure strength: EU election can have domestic political significance. Although Sunday’s election is about sending Danish politicians to the EU Parliament, it also has significant implications for the domestic political scene. This is an opinion shared by election researcher Kasper Møller Hansen from the University of Copenhagen and former Venstre (Liberal Party) chief Andreas Thyrring. Kasper Møller Hansen points out that the result of the EU election can provide a clear picture of the current standings of the parties. “The election can show a very concrete picture of the balance of power among the parties. We have seen that opinion polls have shifted significantly since the general election in 2022,” he says. He adds that the election will “underscore how the balance of power is right now.” According to Møller Hansen, the current political situation in Denmark has a significant impact on the EU election. Parties like Liberal Alliance and SF, which have positive momentum in the Danish Parliament, can expect good results in the EU election. “In many ways, it is a national election, because we are not particularly European-oriented when we cast our votes for the parliamentary election,” he says. Andreas Thyrring, now a partner at the consulting firm Ulveman & Børsting, assesses that the EU election could be critical for certain parties, especially Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People’s Party). “For the Danish People’s Party, it would be catastrophic if they do not get Anders Vistisen elected. If DF, as the only purely EU-skeptical party, is ousted, it will hurt,” he says. Thyrring predicts that the ruling parties Socialdemokratiet (Social Democrats) and Venstre (Liberal Party), which are struggling in the current opinion polls, will primarily focus on minimizing the damage. “For the Social Democrats and Venstre, it is more about damage control. They can live with losing ground, and that’s about it,” he says. Venstre’s chairman, Troels Lund Poulsen, has stated that the goal is to secure two seats in this election, compared to four in the 2019 election. Parties performing poorly in the current opinion polls will look at the overall support in the election. “If the support is better than expected, they will use it to say that there are actually more people willing to vote for us than the polls suggest,” Thyrring assesses. This is something especially crisis-ridden Venstre will closely monitor. Møller Hansen notes that this EU election lacks the big names in the candidate field that have previously shaped the campaign, such as former Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. “We are talking about the national election wind playing in with half strength. This time it could be even more dominant, because there are not these strong candidates or an agenda that is different from the general election,” he says. It will be exciting to see how the result of the EU election will reflect the current attitudes of Danish voters and potentially have an impact on domestic politics leading up to the next general election.

Read the danish version here