The Danish municipal elections on Tuesday 16 November saw a major victory for the Left.
After the Danish nurses’ strike and the victory of Enhedslisten in the Danish municipal elections, the fight for better working conditions and equal pay in the public sector continues.
The success of Enhedslistenis is largely due to the party’s campaigning against cuts in the public sector, its support for the nurses’ strike and the fight for equal pay and good working conditions for public employees in health care, schools and care for the elderly.
As a result of the nurses’ strike, the government and a number of other parties have now been forced to give health care and the regions extra funding, known as the ‘winter package’. But the extra funding, totalling DKK 1 billion (140 million euro), is too little to “solve the basic problems of years of underfunding and too much stress. Moreover, it does not include the wage increases needed for nurses and other female-dominated professionals to start making up for what they have lost. A winter package does not make a summer,” says Grete Christensen, president of the Danish Nurses Council (nurses’ union), in a comment on the union’s website.
Recently, Region Zealand (Sjælland) “also decided on a grant of DKK 30 million.. (4 million euro)… for nurses’ salaries next year. The money will go to nurses working in emergency and medical wards. Half will go to permanent salary increases and half will be temporary supplements,” reported the Swedish magazine Vårdfokus on 7 December.
Mass resignations?
And the fight continues. The nurses, social workers and social assistants (SOSUs) in the public sector are threatening mass resignations if working conditions do not improve quickly. The SOSUs now have a petition in support of demands for equal pay, better working conditions and more money for welfare, combined with demands that the government keep its election promises for more money for welfare. The nurses are pushing the same demands.
Even though the nurses are no longer on strike, the struggle is not over. Their strike actions and continued resistance has become a struggle not only for the nurses, but for all public sector workers.
Enhedslisten (Unity List or Red-Green Alliance), a socialist left-wing party was the big winner. Green transition, cheap housing and refurbished welfare were the party’s profile issues.
In the municipality of Copenhagen, Enhedslisten became the largest party and received more votes than the Social Democrats, who have been the largest party in Copenhagen for the last 100 years. It received more than 24.5% of the vote, while the Social Democrats lost more than 10 percentage points to end up with 17%. On the island of Bornholm, Enhedslisten also became the largest party with over 23% of the vote. The party made strong gains across the country, rising to 7.3 per cent compared to 5.9 per cent in the 2017 elections.
Housing struggles
The success of Enhedslisten in Copenhagen is a result of it being a driving force in the housing struggle. Here, an entirely new housing area was planned: the Lynetteholmen, on an artificial island in the Sound (Oresund) made of waste, which, according to the governing Social Democratic politicians, would be completely safe and without the risk of leakage of hazardous substances straight into the Sound. The housing would be expensive and exclusive.
Enhedslisten has been a driving force in the fight against this project and has also pushed for the construction of good and cheap rental housing in Copenhagen, a city that suffers from housing shortages and segregated housing. Now the plans to build the Lynetteholm project are likely to be halted.
In Bornholm, Enhedslisten campaigned against the building of a new town hall, which would risk taking money away from welfare. In Frederiksberg, where the right-wing parties have long ruled but now lost power, Enhedslisten went to the polls opposed to selling off municipal housing to notorious venture capitalists like Blackstone. Here, Enhedslisten also pushed for a maximum of 24 pupils per class in schools, pressurising the Social Democrats to agree to the demand.
In addition to Copenhagen, the left made progress in the three other largest cities, Odense, Aarhus and Aalborg.
Anti-racism
Alongside cheap housing and green transformation, anti-racism is also an important part of Enhedslisten’s programme. The Social Democrats in government are pushing right-wing policies against immigration, similar to those of the racist Dansk Folkeparti’s (DF), in an attempt to win voters. But now both the Social Democrats and DF lost a lot in the elections. For the DF the election was a disaster. In 2015 the party reached 21%, now just 4.1%. For the Social Democrats, the decline was greatest among young voters.
Welfare and workplace struggles were also important in the elections, which were held in Denmark’s 98 municipalities and 5 regions. In many municipalities governed by the Social Democrats in alliance with other bourgeois parties, cuts have been made to public health care, schools and care for the elderly over a long time.
Denmark has seen both strikes and other protests by public employees in 2021. When the Social Democracy-led government decided to legally ban the nurses’ strike, Enhedslisten gave full support to the strikers.
Disaster for Social Democracy
Right-wing parties such as Venstre and the Liberals lost big. Only one of the right-wing parties made progress in the elections. The Conservatives got 15% in the country and increased by by 6 percentage points.
The elections were a particular disaster for the Social Democrats in Copenhagen and other major cities. The party also lost ground in almost all other municipalities and regions. But together with bourgeois parties, the Social Democrats blocked Enhedslisten from getting the post of Lord Mayor of Copenhagen, and kept the position itself. Enhedslisten has the posts of mayor (leading councillor) for nature and technology, as well as social affairs.
For Enhedslisten it is a question of continuing the line taken, of pursuing an independent policy vis-à-vis the other parties, of opposing all cuts, of supporting the workers’ struggle and anti-racism, of being an active party. Compromises to the right would risk decreased support and the right regaining the initiative, with a high price for immigrants, welfare and working conditions. This is also a lesson for the Left Party in Sweden ahead of next year’s elections.