Jacob Christensen

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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 Støjberg as ministers. In principle, I would say that Støjberg 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 Sandström 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 Umeå-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.

Some things just never change – like the relationship between Danish agriculture on the one hand and trade unions on the other. The latest turn is a plan to mass-import Eastern European workers to Danish bacon factories designed to operate outside of Danish wage agreements. Just in time for the EP election campaign.

The next question is of course if the East Europeans can be recruited.

As a colleague pointed out to me, the Sri Lankan civil war had two prominent international casualties: The Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated in 1991 and the Danish Prime Minister Poul Schlüter who lost his office after a prolonged inquest into the handling of Tamil refugees.

While we’re at it: Even if you are only marginally interested in social policy in general and pensions in particular, I’d strongly recommend the podcast from a lecture by Nicholas Barr at the LSE earlier this year. Introduction here – the podcast can be fetched here (you’ll have to scroll down a bit).

Just in case anybody on the internets have missed me: I’ve been in Stockholm for a conference and came back with a load of impressions and a nasty cold. Well, all colds are nasty. The most charming thing about Stockholm University’s campus is the name (Frescati), though.

You may as well face it: I’m #1. Or at least my name is.

No, really: You’d want to. And note: No eggs on the face.

On a slightly more serious note, this was another case of somebody forgetting a case of papers in a public place (or flashing them in front of cameras). But perhaps some more openness in government would do the UK some good?

PS: The “men and make-up” thing is of course slightly hilarious these days but we should not forget that 1) there was a time when both men and women appeared in heavy make-up and 2) if you appear on camera without make-up, you will end up looking like you’ve caught a nasty case of swine flu. And this, finally, begs the question: Was Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s famous five-o’clock shadow in fact something carefully designed by his make-up artist?