Socialistisk Folkeparti

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Socialistisk Folkeparti
Socialistisk Folkeparti Logo.svg
Pia Olsen Dyhr
Party leader Pia Olsen Dyhr
Group chairmanship in the Folketing Jonas Dahl
Political spokeswoman Pia Olsen Dyhr
Party secretary Turid Leirvoll
founding February 15, 1959
Alignment Social Democracy
Democratic Socialism
Green Politics
Headquarters Copenhagen
Number of members 8,131 (2016)
Youth association SFs Ungdom
Electoral list F.
Sit in the Folketing
15/179
International
connections 		NGLA
Global Greens (observer)
MEPs
2/14
European party EGP
EP Group Greens / EFA
www.sf.dk
Share of the vote by Socialistisk Folkeparti since 1960
15%
10%
5%
0%

The Socialistisk Folkeparti ( SF , Danish for Socialist People's Party ; in German often called People's Socialists ) is a political party in the Kingdom of Denmark . It represents a moderate eco -socialist and democratic-socialist as well as left- green orientation and stands in the Danish party spectrum among the center-left parties between the social democrats and the left-wing socialist Enhedslisten .

The SF deliberately appears as a red-green party, sits in the European Parliament in the green parliamentary group and decided on March 2, 2014 to join the European Green Party as a full member.

history

The Socialistisk Folkeparti emerged in 1959 from a split from the Communist Party of Denmark. The majority of Danish Communists under her long-time party chairman Aksel Larsen then condemned the policy of the Soviet Union , including the invasion in 1956 in the de jure independent Hungary . The SF pursued a Eurocommunist Third Way to Socialism. In terms of its origins, it is closely related to the Sosialistisk Folkeparti of Norway, which was founded two years later and almost of the same name , the two years older Pacifist Socialist Partij (PSP) in the Netherlands, and the French Parti socialiste unifié , created in 1960 . All four positioned themselves between pro-Western social democrats on the one hand and Moscow-loyal communists on the other. They therefore saw each other as sister parties.

From 1966 to 1967 the SF supported the social democratic minority government of Jens Otto Krag in parliament . The radical and pacifist wing then turned away from the SF and formed the Venstresocialisterne (VS; "Left Socialists"). In the 1972 referendum on Denmark's accession to the EEC, the SF recommended voting “no”.

With the SF, there was already a left-wing libertarian party in Denmark, which was open to the new social movements that had emerged after 1968 , especially the environmental movement, and which took up “green” issues. Therefore, unlike z. B. in the Federal Republic of Germany, no separate green party, but the SF supplemented its socialist program with ecological goals. In the 1980s, the share of votes in the SF increased sharply and reached a peak in the 1987 Folketing election with 14.6%. From 1994 she had competition in parliament from the Enhedslisten - de rød-grønne , which was positioned even further to the left , in which u. a. the radical SF split-off Venstresocialisterne had risen.

The SF is committed to parliamentary democracy and is divided on questions of approval for the European Union . Under her party chairmen Holger K. Nielsen (1991-2005) and Villy Søvndal (2005-12), however, she adopted a more positive attitude towards the EU. It approved the EU Treaty of Nice (2001) and the Treaty of Lisbon (2007). In the parliamentary elections in 2007 , the SF was fourth strongest with 13.0 percent and 23 seats. In the following years the party was able to triple its membership to around 18,000 (2011).

The SF sought solid cooperation with the Social Democrats and worked with them to develop a joint election program that was to serve as the basis for forming a government. The 2011 parliamentary election ended rather disappointingly with 9.2 percent of the vote (minus 3.8 percentage points), but it brought the party to government for the first time. At the beginning of 2014, the internal party conflicts between the wing loyal to the program and realpolitik-oriented advocates of the coalition government came to a head. The occasion was the planned sale of the energy company Dong Energy to the US investment bank Goldman Sachs . The acting parliamentary group leader Karina Lorentzen, the political spokeswoman Lisbeth Bech Poulsen and the deputy party chairman Peter Westermann resigned in protest against the government plans. On January 30, 2014, the coalition broke up, Annette Vilhelmsen resigned from the party chairmanship and the ministers of the SF left the cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt (S).

In the next Folketing election in 2015, the SF's share of the vote slumped to 4.3 percent, and it lost more than half of its parliamentary seats. The more radical Enhedsliste, however, increased. After four years in the opposition, the SF recovered in the 2019 parliamentary election to 7.7 percent and 14 seats in the Folketing. Since then she has supported the government of the Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen , but without being represented at the cabinet table.

Party leader

In the SF party leader always held the two central positions of Chairman and the political spokesman . This regulation did not end until 2011, when Villy Søvndal - as the first socialist leader ever - became a minister and therefore resigned from the spokesperson. The parliamentary group chairmanship has always been separated from the party chairmanship since Aksel Larsen's resignation in 1968. Since then, every new chairman had to stand for a fight. He is elected by the party congress, except in 2005 and 2012, when a membership decision was carried out. Pia Olsen Dyhr came into office without an election because there were no opposing candidates.

Group leaders

Group in the Folketing

In the Folketing Election 2019 , the SF won 14 seats in the Folketing . Currently (as of February 4, 2014) the parliamentary group has 12 members:

MEPs

The SF was able to win a seat in all elections to the European Parliament . During the second legislative term, she was given another seat on January 1, 1985, when Greenland left the European Community. Since the European elections in 2009 , the SF had two seats in the European Parliament. After the MP Emilie Turunen joined the Social Democrats in March 2013, only Margrete Auken represents the party in Brussels and Strasbourg. In the 2019 European elections , the SF was successful with 13.2 percent and sent two members to the European Parliament: Margrete Auken and Kira Marie Peter-Hansen .

Categorization

In the 2011 Handbook on Extremism in the EU States , which, based on the concept of editor Eckhard Jesse, examines and categorizes both left and right-wing extremist parties, the political scientist Thomas Schubert described the SF as "(if at all) [...] a soft left-wing extremist actor". He described the party's “ideological [n] habitus” as “democratic-socialist”, and its “claim to system change” was “reformist”. Under the leadership of Villy Søvndal from 2005, the SF followed a “pragmatic reform course”, it is considered capable of governing and is striving towards a center-left government. It distances itself from communist actors.

A study by the Climate Action Network (CAN) from 2019, which looked at the voting behavior of parties on climate policy issues in the EU Parliament, rated SF as a “defender” of climate-friendly politics.

literature

  • Peter Birke: History, program and current politics of the left socialist parties in Denmark. Socialistisk Folkeparti and Enhedsliste. In: Michael Brie, Cornelia Hildebrandt: For another Europe: Left parties on the move. Dietz, Berlin 2005, pp. 203-244.
  • Arly Eskildsen, Aage Frandsen, Holger K. Nielsen (eds.): Rødt er sundt. Introduction to Socialistisk Folkeparti. Partiets organization, history and politics . SP Forlag, Århus 1996. ISBN 8788291758
  • Maria Eysell: History, Program and Politics of the Danish Left . In: Hans Rühle , Hans-Joachim Veen (Hrsg.): Socialist and Communist Parties in Western Europe. Publication of the social science research institute of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung . Volume 2: Nordländer (= Uni-Taschenbücher . Vol. 762). Leske + Budrich (UTB), Opladen 1979, ISBN 3-8100-0241-0 . Pp. 201-292.
  • Hans Mortensen: Den røde tråd. SF and vejen til may . Lindhardt & Ringhof, Copenhagen 2011. ISBN 9788711405253

Web links

Commons : Socialistisk Folkeparti  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Membership figures 2016 Folketingets Oplysning, accessed on October 28, 2018.
  2. ^ Socialistisk Folkeparti, the Danish Greens, to apply for full EGP membership on the homepage of the European Green Party , March 2, 2014, accessed on March 4, 2014 (English)
  3. ^ Mike Feinstein: Sixteen Weeks with European Greens. Interviews, impressions, platforms, and personalities. 1992, p. 316.
  4. ^ A b Neil Carter: The Politics of the Environment. Ideas, Activism, Policy. 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2018, p. 107.
  5. ^ Peter Birke: History, program and current politics of the left socialist parties in Denmark. Socialistisk Folkeparti and Enhedsliste. In: Michael Brie, Cornelia Hildebrandt: For another Europe: Left parties on the move. Dietz, Berlin 2005, pp. 203–244, on p. 208.
  6. ^ Peter Birke: History, program and current politics of the left socialist parties in Denmark. Socialistisk Folkeparti and Enhedsliste. In: Michael Brie, Cornelia Hildebrandt: For another Europe: Left parties on the move. Dietz, Berlin 2005, pp. 203-244, on p. 209.
  7. ↑ SF's gruppeformand takker nu af Danmarks Radio, January 30, 2014
  8. ↑ SF forlader regeringen Danmarks Radio, January 30, 2014
  9. ^ Coalition broken - government wants to continue Frankfurter Allgemeine online, January 30, 2014
  10. ↑ Lars Bille: Partier i forandring. En analyze af danske partiorganisationers udvikling 1960-1995 . Odense Universitetsforlag, Odense 1997. ISBN 87-7838-314-5 . P. 104 f.
  11. ↑ Member of Parliament (Danish) ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2011 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. SF website, accessed October 13, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sf.dk
  12. ↑ Member of the European Parliament (Danish) ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2012 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. SF website, accessed January 6, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sf.dk
  13. ↑ Thomas Schubert: Extremism in Denmark . In: Eckhard Jesse, Tom Thieme (ed.): Extremism in the EU countries . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-17065-7 , pp. 65-82 . , P. 74
  14. ↑ Thomas Schubert: Extremism in Denmark. 2011, p. 75.
  15. ↑ http://www.caneurope.org/docman/climate-energy-targets/3476-defenders-delayers-dinosaurs-ranking-of-eu-political-groups-and-national-parties-on-climate-change/file