Denmark's Biggest Populist Party Takes a Beating in Latest Poll

(Bloomberg) -- Support for the nationalist Danish People’s Party has fallen to a seven-year low amid signs that voters are growing less anxious about the number of immigrants in their country.

As Danes prepare for national elections on June 5, a poll published in the Borsen newspaper puts backing for the anti-immigration, euroskeptic DPP at just 10.8%, compared with 21.1% in the 2015 election. Danes are now more worried about the environment than they are about immigrants, according to a separate European Union survey. Immigration only ranks fourth.

There are some palpable signs that the mood is shifting around immigration and even Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who relies on the DPP to stay in office, has sought to distance himself from what he calls the more “extremist” expressions of populism.

This week, it emerged that Rasmussen’s 29-year-old son had been caught up by a rule intended to prevent child brides being brought into the country. During a televised debate, the prime minister revealed that his son’s American girlfriend, who is Harvard educated, would be forced to leave Denmark at the end of the month due to the existing immigration laws.

But the apparent shift in Danish voter sentiment is also being blurred by other factors. Part of the explanation for the DPP’s loss of support can be found in the proliferation of smaller parties offering a similar agenda, splitting the nationalist vote. These include a group founded by the convicted racist, Rasmus Paludan. His claim to fame is his insistence on turning up in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods and burning the Koran, triggering protests in his wake.

Some of the voters that traditionally backed the DPP have moved to the opposition Social Democrats, after the party embraced a tougher stance on immigration.

The DPP’s previous success was fueled by the sudden influx of asylum-seekers during the 2015 refugee crisis, and its dominance in Denmark’s parliament allowed it to shape the country’s strict immigration laws and crack down on the number of foreigners entering the country. But the sharp drop in the number of skilled immigrants has drawn criticism from business leaders, many of whom argue Denmark needs to adopt a more flexible approach.

With Rasmussen relying on the DPP to rule, their decline in popularity is likely to spell the end of his government. Most polls show he will be replaced as prime minister by Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the opposition Social Democrats.

Rasmussen is trying to reverse the trend by promising to spend an extra 69 billion kroner ($10 billion) on welfare. But Frederiksen responded this week by promising to spend almost $1 billion more.

The latest poll result “clearly isn’t satisfactory for us,” Borsen quoted DPP lawmaker Peter Skaarup as saying. “But we believe that we can get an election result that is higher than the measurements show right now."

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Rigillo in Copenhagen at nrigillo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net;Christian Wienberg at cwienberg@bloomberg.net

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.