Jacob Christensen

EP election posters at SDU, originally uploaded by jacobchristensen.

I shot some photos of election posters which have begun to appear in the campaign for the European Parliament elections. Generally, the posters are run-off-the-mill and not very inspiring.

The Danish People’s Party is running the most professional (and easily the most visible) campaign with large posters of the party’s leading candidate Morten Messerschmidt appearing on billboards just about everywhere. Messerschmidt is certain to get elected and he may be followed by another MEP from DF.

The somewhat bizarre placement of the poster for SF’s Margrethe Auken next to a garbage-can is definitively misleading: SF is likely to do well in the election and pick up at least one and possibly two seats in the next parliament.

I have collected all of my election poster photos in a set on my Flickr stream. More to come, so stay tuned.

For whatever reason, I received an invitation to answer a survey by Berlingskes Nyhedsmagasin about who has power in Danish society. This was not entirely easy – how do you measure power adequately – but as a true political scientist, I simply couldn’t let the opportunity lie.

Some thoughts:

• I generally think the power of individual businesspeople is overestimated, but I think people in the financial sector are important.
• These days I would look for representatives from mid-level organisations rather than top-level organisations on the labour market.
• Some ministers are not particularly powerful. Am I too 1990s when I put emphasis on the Finance Ministry? In any event, I think the permanent secretary in the PM’s office is more powerful than most ministers.
• I think it is too early to give an evaluation of Karen Ellemann and Inger St�jberg as ministers. In principle, I would say that St�jberg has the more influential portfolio, but it all depends on how she fills it.
• In terms of power, media commentators are overrated.
• There were no bloggers on the list. Boo-hoo.

Just a short note re Jens Rohde’s announcement that he would be making Danish and not liberal politics in the European Parliament. My former colleague Camilla Sandstr�m wrote her thesis on the ELDR (the “party” whose line Rohde will not tow). Camilla’s thesis is unfortunately not available online but you may want to check out another Ume�-thesis: Magnus Blomgren’s “Cross-Pressure and Political Representation in Europe: A comparative study of MEPs and the intra-party arena” (available through this link):

The overall picture that emerges is of a relatively weak link between MEPs and the national level. To a certain extent, MEPs express frustration over their limited role in the national arena and over the lack of input from the national arena in their work at the European level. Most of the parties struggle to include MEPs in their organizational set-up, and the MEPs experience a growing hostility within the parties toward them. In general, the lack of interest and knowledge in the national arena, concerning the EU in general and specifically the work of the MEPs, obscures the role of the MEPs. They become EU ambassadors at the national level, rather than elected representatives at the EU level.

PS: If you have access, you might also want to take a look at Simon Hix et al, 2006: “Dimensions of Politics in the European Parliament”, American Journal of Political Research, 50/2, 494-511.