Jacob Christensen

One thing which is notable about the 2005-2007 and 2007-201x parliaments in Denmark is the high number of defections – at least by Danish standards. When Christian H. Hansen decided to leave the Danish People’s Party (after being an MP since 1998) he was MP #7 to change allegiances so far.

If we take the defections by party, this is the list:

New Alliance/Liberal Alliance – lost 4 out of the original 5 MPs (Gitte Seeberg, Naser Khader, Malou Aamund, Jørgen Poulsen), gained one from the Social Liberals (Simon Emil Amnitzbøll). As Gitte Seeberg retired from parliament, she was substituted by Villum Christensen, so LA now has 3 MPs.

Conservatives – lost 1 out of 18 MPs (Pia Christmas-Møller), gained one from New Alliance (Naser Khader)

Social Liberals – lost 1 out of 9 MPs (Simon Emil Amnitzbøll), gained one from New Alliance (Jørgen Poulsen)

Danish People’s Party – lost 1 out of 26 MPs (Christian H. Hansen).

Hansen’s defection is interesting because DF’s main problem has been with the loony right which the party is determined to distance itself from. Hansen on the other hand, defected because he felt that the party put too much emphasis on issues like integration policies and climate change – in short, he looks more centrist on the value dimension than the typical DF MP. Still, what an MP thinks and what attracts voters to DF may be very different things.