Jacob Christensen

But my one wish on the day is that you would start to write shorter novels

The Swedish Liberals and the Danish Social Liberals announce leadership changes on the same day: In Sweden Jan Björklund will take over as party charman from Lars Leijonborg at the party conference in September while Margrethe Vestager took over as chairman of the parliamentary group and political leader of the Social Liberal Party on Friday.Two notes:

1. In both cases, the heir apparent is taking over the leadership position. Both Björklund and Vestager played a central role in the respective parties during later years and the changes in leadership as such would not imply changes in political direction. On the other hand policy is generally seen as the weak point for both parties.
2. The announcement of the leadership change in the Social Liberal Party is among the strangest ever seen in Danish politics. When I looked closer at the YouTube-video, the party posted containing Vestager’s policy statement as new leader, it was apparently posted on Thursday night. Similarly, the website of the Social Liberal Party had been updated to feature Margrethe Vestager as the face of the party (literally) on Friday noon. Yet, the press release from the meeting of the parliamentary group made no explicit mention of Ms. Vestager’s new role. Given that the Social Liberals are very skilled at political writing, this is odd.

Nicholas Aylott’s summary (which I contributed to) to the Political Science Association is here.

• Margrethe Vestager on YouTube

  (tags: denmark politics yputube web2.0)

• Ett annat perspektiv på tsunamikatastrofens hantering – FOI, Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut

  Katastrofkommissionen gav FOI 2005 uppdrag att studera varför det dröjde så länge innan de ansvariga förstod katastrofens fulla vidd. I en rapport ger FOI-forskarna ett annat perspektiv än den officiella bilden.

  (tags: sweden organization tsunami disaster emergency publicadministration)