Friday, April 25, 2008

Anders Fogh, Prince of Europe?

Anders Fogh RasmussenRegular readers are familiar with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the current Danish prime minister. Two years ago he earned everyone’s respect with the pluck and fortitude he showed in the face of attempted Muslim intimidation during the Motoon crisis.

But since then he has set his sights on (and hitched his wagon to) the twelve stars of the EU flag. In the USA we would say that he has “grown in office”, and he now looks to become a good apparatchik in the superstructure of Europe.

Yesterday, in celebration of the strange new respect that Mr. Rasmussen has earned in progressive circles, European Voice published an admiring piece about the new “handsome prince of Europe”. Knowing how ordinary sensible Danes view him, I wrote to some of my Viking contacts to ask them if they were pissed off.

Skjoldungen sent me a link to a post about Fogh (in Danish) at Hodjas Blog entitled “The Man Who Would Be Sun King”.

And Zonka wrote me back with this concise summary of the current state of Danish politics, and the part that Anders Fogh Rasmussen plays in it:

I don’t know if “pissed off” is the right word.

The Left hates Fogh, as they always have done, even though he is more of a social democrat than the Social Democrats, and a first-class steward of the welfare state (nanny state).

The conservatives or national-conservatives (not the Conservative Party — they are ninnies — but the people, bloggers, commenters, etc.) are quite disappointed with him and more so of late, since he has spent more time abroad than at home, and has looked more and more disinterested in national politics. Thus there is a widespread feeling that all he is doing is positioning himself for a top international job, either as President of the EU, the political leader of NATO or some high position in the UN (perhaps as a continuation of his recent Africa campaign).

The only problem is that there is no real candidate that could take over as PM. The opposition is in a total shambles; the leading opposition party (Social Democrats) are almost run over by Villy Søvndal (Socialist People’s Party), and Villy and Margrethe Vestager (Social Liberals/Radikale) are placing themselves in opposition to everybody else these days!
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Add to that the crown prince of Venstre (Lars Løkke Rasmussen), who has gone through a mini-scandal of using tax-payer money for entertainment (cigarettes, booze, nightclub visits, etc.). Not big-time, but enough to make people wary of letting him take over the country, at least for now.

The Conservative Party has absolutely no profile, and the only way Dansk Folkeparti can get their hands on the wheel is to win a landslide election victory, and then I fear we will have a civil war with the autonomer, Antifa, and whatever else is crawling around on the left wing.

So, as you see, Anders Fogh has managed to make himself “indispensable”, and yet he looks totally apathetic and disinterested in taking care of the job that he was elected to do.

But then again, I probably would too if I had been responsible for signing away the sovereignty of my country.

Also, he is the perfect “civil servant”, caretaker, steward, or bureaucrat — not really a leader.

So, as you can see, it is not a simple question of being pissed off. It’s also a matter of not having a viable alternative… really a fix to be in!


Hat tip for European Voice: TB.

2 comments:

Steen said...

Skjoldungen may be right, he may not.

The left is of course very eager to get rid of a head of a government, they can never beat. They have a naural interest in promoting these rumours, that Fogh is on his way to something "bigger".

As with most rumours it take them rather lightly.

Henrik R Clausen said...

While usually taking personal rumours lightly, I pay attention to this one. Fogh has let down Wilders and other good persons in order to avoid controversy, which I take as a sure sign that he's avoiding 'offending' higher interests.

While not downright eager to get rid of Fogh - he's still better than your average European PM - my respect for him has dwindled significantly. Uriasposten, the most important Danish political blog, features a Fogh support banner, but commentators have requested the blogmaster to remove it due to the recent weakness Fogh shows.

But with no clear successor in sight, Fogh will probably be in command for a while still.

DPP is not in a position to win absolute majority anytime soon. For the moment, we're having better fun as the independent watchdog biting the heels of the government while not being obligated ourselves to enter shady deals :)