Jacob Christensen

Sometimes finding the proper terminology can be tricky: Should we talk about “immigrant candidates”, “candidates with an ethnic background” (obviously, Danes are not ethnic), “New-Danes” (I’m not making this one up) or what?

Anyway, the 2001 election saw the first immigrant/ethnic/New-Danish candidates elected to the Danish Folketing: Naser Khader (Palestinian) for the Social Liberals and Kamal Qureshi (Pakistani) for the Socialist Party. The first [insert adjective] to serve in parliament was Lone Yalcinkaya (Turkish) who was a deputy member for Mimi Jakobsen in 2000. Hüseyn Arac (Turkish) was elected for the Social Democrats in 2005.

This time, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid (Unity List, Palestinian) and Naser Khader (now of New Alliance) have drawn most of the media attention but there are three other women who may be elected on Tuesday and who may even stand a better chance than Abdol-Hamid: Yildiz Akdogan (Turkish, Social Democrats), Özlem Sara Cekic (Kurdish, Socialists) and Lone Yalcinkaya (Turkish, now a Liberal candidate).

One thing worth noting is the apparent absence of candidates (male or female) with a background in ex-Yugoslavia.

Oh, and pollsters have a problem with immigrant groups. It is not unlikely that polls have underestimated support for the Unity List (and the Socialists?)

I haven’t tracked the foreign media coverage of the Danish election systematically but here are some articles that have ticked in on my rss-reader:

Dagens Nyheter from Sweden (or Stockholm, to be more precise): “Projektet ligger fast” (Editorial from 11 November focusing on immigration policy using the “Ugly Dane, Righteous Swede” juxaposition and contradicted by one of their own correspondents)

Svenska Dagbladet thinks that social policy and public sector wages were at the centre of the campaign.

The Guardian sees Naser Khader and Asmaa Abdol-Hamid as the most interesting figures in the campaign.

And so does Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Finally, the New York Times also focuses on immigration policy with a profile of Minister for Social Affairs Karen Jespersen.

So there you have it: If this sample is anything to go by, foreign media have concentrated on immigration policy while Danish media have focused on social policy and possible majorities after the election.

Update: Some Austrian links in the comments. And lest we forget: The Economist, Die Zeit.

This may not have been the most inspired of campaigns but according to DR, viewer numbers for election broadcasts in general and yesterday’s final televised debate have been higher than for the 2005 campaign.

According to a report – whose url I unforgivably haven’t saved – the number of postal votes were about the same this year as in 2005. That would indicate a turn-out of around 85%.

Besides Saturday’s spy story – whose effects remains to be seen – local income taxes became a major issue during the final stage of the campaign.

To make a long story short, local councils have overshot the targets for taxes and spending laid down in an agreement between the government and the Confederation of Local Councils. As it was, the government should have capped councils’ tax rates and budgets but on Friday, the government declared that it would instead offset the local tax rises by lowering state income taxes.

The move left economic observers concerned about the effects of the fiscal policy – they fear that further expansion of an already expansive fiscal policy will make the Danish economy unstable in the medium term – but it can be seen as another proof of the defensive nature of much of this year’s campaigning.

Finally, Naser Khader yields to pressure and will not call for the government’s resignation and a new round of negotiations after the election.

The European Union? Er – let’s talk about that … later.

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Reading the codes of another society can often be difficult. I find this case, reported by Sabine of “Oh – those Danes…!”, interesting.

More passionate research from the dismal science: Economists turn their attention to dating.

When women were the ones choosing, the more intelligence and ambition the men had, the better. So, yes, the stereotypes appear to be true: We males are a gender of fragile egos in search of a pretty face and are threatened by brains or success that exceeds our own. Women, on the other hand, care more about how men think and perform, and they don’t mind being outdone on those scores.

and

Women of all the races we studied revealed a strong preference for men of their own race: White women were more likely to choose white men; black women preferred black men; East Asian women preferred East Asian men; Hispanic women preferred Hispanic men. But men don’t seem to discriminate based on race when it comes to dating. A woman’s race had no effect on the men’s choices.