Danes seen swinging to left in election – opinion polls

Danish voters this week look set to end a decade of far-right influence, ousting the current government in favour of a centre-left coalition after a election campaign that focussed on the economy.

Opinion polls have consistently shown the opposition leading Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen’s centre-right coalition ahead of today’s vote.

Mr Rasmussen’s bloc has been narrowing the gap in recent days, but observers suggest Danes are tired of the minority Liberal-Conservative coalition, which has been in power for a decade.

And they are thought to be especially unhappy with its key ally, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party.

The DPP has provided key support to the government in exchange for pushing through some of Europe’s most draconian immigration and integration regulations.

But it has also heavily influenced a wide range of issues.

“The party has understood how to use its influence to the maximum and has been the basis for all of the government’s policy,” Copenhagen University political science professor Casper Moeller Hansen said.

The left bloc is headed by Social Democratic party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt, 44, who would become the country’s first woman Prime Minister in the event of a left-wing victory.

The election campaign has focused almost entirely on how to pull Denmark out of its economic woes amid a deepening global economic and financial crisis.

Denmark narrowly missed recession this year as growth hovers around one per cent. The government recently forecast the deficit would balloon next year to nearly 85 billion kroner (€11.4 billion) or 4.6 per cent of gross domestic product.

But while the centre-right has called for austerity measures, the centre-left insists the country should spend its way out of the crisis.