Fremskridtspartiet
Fremskridtspartiet ( Frp ), Danish. for Progressive Party , was a populist libertarian party in Denmark . It was founded in 1972 by Mogens Glistrup and was represented in the Folketing Parliament from 1973 to 1999 . Gradually it turned away from libertarianism and is now a nationalist micro-party.
History and program
Glistrup era 1972–1983
The Progress Party was founded on August 22, 1972 around the telegenic tax rebel Glistrup. The main focus of the party was initially the abolition of income tax , the limitation of state bureaucracy and the simplification of the legislative process. Denmark should withdraw from all international organizations such as the UN , NATO and the Nordic Council , it was demanded. In the parliamentary elections on December 4, 1973, the party immediately received 15.9% of the vote and became the second largest group in the Folketing . However, she was only able to exercise political influence indirectly, as the other parties represented in parliament were not prepared to cooperate. The MPs of the FRP were accused of a lack of political realism. Nevertheless, an indirect influence has been particularly noticeable on the tax laws. As an innovation in politics, parliamentary group meetings of the Frp were open to the public. In this way, internal party disputes easily found their way into the media . Glistrup's political demeanor fluctuated between libertarian populism and satirical-anarchic fundamental opposition.
The burdens of the first oil crisis forced the government of Poul Hartling ( Venstre ) to cut wages and to implement tough austerity measures. Trade unions and social democrats successfully called for large demonstrations. The Frp also refused to approve Venstre's overall economic policy package ( helhedsplan ). Hartling then had new elections for January 1975 advertised. The favorable polls were confirmed, but Venstres jump from 12 to 23 percent was achieved at the expense of the other parties in the bourgeois camp. After lengthy explorations, Glistrup rejected a possible V - K government, paving the way for a social democratic minority government. Anker Jørgensen had to work with varying majorities, but was able to hold office for seven and a half years.
Dispute over direction
The Frp has never been involved in any government. A moderate wing (called "the slack") pleaded for constructive parliamentary work to become more attractive as partners for the bourgeois parties. The dogmatic wing (called "the Straffen") wanted to continue Glistrup's opposition strategy. Meanwhile, its influence was neutralized at the end of 1983, because he had to serve a prison sentence for tax evasion. For him, Pia Kjærsgaard moved up into the Folketing. She joined the moderate group and became political spokeswoman in 1984 . Their influence grew steadily.
Ole Maisted and Vagn Aage Jakobsen turned their backs on the still confused Frp and launched the short-lived “Free Democrats”. Later both joined the liberal Venstre. The imprisoned Glistrup won another seat in parliament in the 1984 election, but was not allowed to accept the mandate . From the beginning of the 1980s, the Frp acted increasingly xenophobia, initially with reference to an alleged overload of the welfare state . Soon anti-Muslim chauvinism took hold.
Kjærsgaard era 1987–1995
In the final phase of the 1987 election campaign , Kjærsgaard emerged as the top candidate and was able to record the first increase in votes in ten years. But Glistrup also returned to parliament like this. Early elections in 1988 resulted in the Frp almost doubling its mandates. The party congress in September 1988 consequently awarded important posts to supporters of Kjærsgaard. In 1989 the party approved the government's draft budget for the first time, which led to a break with Glistrup within a year. Together with Jane Oksen, Pia Dahl and Mogens Elvensø, he founded “Trivselspartiet” ( party of the upswing ) in November 1990 . That gave rise to the exclusion of Glistrups from the party. “Trivselspartiet” closed a list connection with the communist “Fælles course” for the new election in December; together they failed at the two percent hurdle.
In August 1994, Kjærsgaard expressed her interest in the party leadership. The reactions were dismissive, as it would have meant a break with the unwritten statutes of the Frp to abolish the personal separation of party and parliamentary group. The choice of a compromise candidate meant a first defeat for Kjærsgaard. In the 1994 Folketing election the balance of power in the parliamentary group shifted to include a key mandate. It then elected a representative of the "tight" wing, Kim Behnke , as its chairman. Kjærsgaard resigned as political spokeswoman, although she had only just been unanimously confirmed in her post, triggering violent expressions of solidarity among the party base. At the party congress in September 1995, however, she was defeated in the decisive votes. She then left the parliamentary group with Kristian Thulesen Dahl , Ole Donner and Poul Nødgaard on October 6, 1995 and founded the Dansk Folkeparti (DF).
resolution
While the DF reached 7.4% in 1998, the Frp only barely passed the two percent hurdle. According to political observers, the entry into parliament was mainly thanks to the popular top candidate Kirsten Jacobsen from North Jutland. In order to give the ailing party new impetus, the now extremely xenophobic Glistrup should be reactivated. The four-member parliamentary group then left the party in protest in 1999. Under the name “Freedom 2000”, the group continued to campaign against high income taxes, European integration and increasing immigration - Glistrup's old program without Glistrup itself. A party was no longer considered.
Splinter party
In the 2001 Folketing election , Mogens Glistrup was again the top candidate of the severely shattered party. She received only 0.6 percent of the vote. In the 2005 Folketing Election , the party did not run. The party was only represented by Aage Brusgaard in the municipal assembly of the Morsø municipality until 2009. The wing fighting continued despite the party's political insignificance. In 2007, a relatively experienced group around the former MPs Aage Brusgaard and Ove Jensen prevailed. In autumn 2010, however, the Frp radicalized itself further. The main concerns were summarized in a sectarian “seven-point program”: expulsion of all “ Mohammedans ” from Denmark, preference for ethnic Danes on the labor market, exit from the EU, more plebiscites, zero income tax, unbureaucratisation, promotion of alternative medicine. In the run-up to the Folketing Elections in 2011 , it was not possible to collect the necessary 20,000 signatures from citizens entitled to vote in order to be allowed to vote.
In the summer of 2010, the party broke up into two groups, the so-called Brusgaard wing under the leadership of Niels Højland and a Glistrup wing under Lars Egmose. This gave itself the new name Frihedspartiet in 2013 . The rights to the name Fremskridtsparti also lie here ; however, the Danish Ministry of the Interior has allowed the group around Højland to run for elections under this name.
Election results
| year | be right | Share of votes | Seats | Leading candidate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | 485.289 | 15.9% | 28 | Mogens Glistrup |
| 1975 | 414.219 | 13.6% | 24 | Mogens Glistrup |
| 1977 | 453.792 | 14.6% | 26th | Mogens Glistrup |
| 1979 | 349.243 | 11.0% | 20th | Mogens Glistrup |
| 1981 | 278.383 | 8.9% | 16 | Mogens Glistrup |
| 1984 | 120,461 | 3.6% | 6th | Mogens Glistrup |
| 1987 | 160,461 | 4.8% | 9 | Pia Kjærsgaard |
| 1988 | 298.132 | 9.0% | 16 | Pia Kjærsgaard |
| 1990 | 208,484 | 6.4% | 12 | Pia Kjærsgaard |
| 1994 | 214.057 | 6.4% | 11 | Pia Kjærsgaard |
| 1998 | 82,437 | 2.4% | 4th | Kirsten Jacobsen |
| 2001 | 19,340 | 0.6% | 0 | Mogens Glistrup |
| year | be right | Share of votes | Seat | elected candidate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 100,702 | 5.8% | 1 | Kai Nyborg |
| 1984 | 68,747 | 3.5% | - | |
| 1989 | 93,985 | 5.3% | - | |
| 1994 | 59,687 | 2.9% | - | |
| 1999 | 14,233 | 0.7% | - |
Party leadership
Party leader
Party founder Mogens Glistrup was the undisputed leader until 1983. He referred to himself as a "campaign leader" ( campaign leather ). As a result of his imprisonment, Pia Kjærsgaard was able to take power between 1984 and 1987: She was political spokeswoman from 1984 to 1994 , a position that the Frp had not cultivated further, unlike other Danish parties. Kjærsgaard strengthened her position and started as a top candidate in 1987. In 1994 she retired as a political spokesperson. The power vacuum lasted a year. After the Kjærsgaard wing split off in 1995, the leadership remained divided between several heads: Kirsten Jacobsen as political spokeswoman, Kim Behnke as parliamentary group leader and Johannes Sørensen as party chairman.
Party leader
The party organization remained weak in relation to the parliamentary faction, in which the powers were concentrated. The party leaders only had a very subordinate role. Only the radical Venstre knows a similar constellation among the Danish parties .
- Ulrik Poulsen, 1974
- Palle Tillisch, 1975-1977
- A. Roland Petersen, 1977-1980
- VA Jacobsen, 1980-1984
- Poul Sustmann Hansen, Ove Jensen , Marius Jensen, 1984
- Helge Dohrmann, 1984–1986
- Annette Just, 1986-1987
- Johannes Sørensen , 1987-1994 and 1995-1999
- Poul Lindholm Nielsen, 1994-1995
- Per Larsen, 1999
- Aage Brusgaard , 1999-2001
- Aase Heskjær, 2001-2003
- Jørn Herkild, 2003-2006
- Henrik Søndergård, 2006-2007
- Ove Jensen, 2007-2009
- Ernst Simonsen, 2009–2011
- Niels Højland / Lars Egmose, 2011
Web links
- Fremskridtspartiet website of the Højland wing
- Frihedspartiet website of the Egmose wing
Individual evidence
- ↑ Local election results 2005 Morsø Municipality, accessed on August 5, 2011
- ↑ Seven-point program (Danish) ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Progressive Party, accessed December 19, 2011
- ^ Results of the Folketing elections since 1973 Danish Parliament, accessed on August 5, 2011
- ↑ Folketingets EU-Oplysning , accessed on January 8, 2012.
- ↑ Lars Bille: Partier i forandring. En analyze af danske partiorganisationers udvikling 1960-1995 . Odense Universitetsforlag, Odense 1997. ISBN 87-7838-314-5 . Pp. 106-108
