Lights, camera, action for Buster Film Festival
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Ready, steady, go for Fat Freddy’s Drop
Curtains up for drama competition
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16 - 22 September 2011 | Vol 14 Issue 37
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Denmark’s only English-language newspaper | cphpost.dk Peter Helles erksen/scanPix
NEws
PET argues that working with Libya was necessary to maintain contact with a potential ally in a hostile Arabic world
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‘MacCarthy’s World’ We should bear in mind the best known Clintonism of them all. (It’s about the economy, stupid)
OpiniOn | 9 CULTURE
For one city collective, food is what makes the community go around
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Retailer’s lack of confidence Nation’s largest retail group says don’t expect 2012 to be the year of the consumer
Culture | 15 How English-language standup is creeping up on Denmark The 2011 ZULU Comedy Festival saw more foreign acts take the stage ever before 9 than 771398 100009
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Business | 18
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Bicycle races are coming your way Copenhagen is staging the Road World Championship, the country’s largest sporting event ever, and hoping to count itself among the winners 6
As election winds down, small parties set to play big role PETER sTaNNERs Support from parties on the left, right and centre could be decisive for next government
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cross the country on Thursday night, Danes glued to their televisions watching the election results unravel. In the final day before the election, at the time this paper went to print, it was looking increasingly likely that the incumbent Liberal-Conservative government would lose its 10-year grip on power. But any win by the Social Democrats and the Socialist People’s Party (SF) would be far from the landslide predicted earlier in the year, and the Social Democrats might even form a government with a smaller proportion of the vote than it earned in the 2007 general election.
With the Liberals and Conservatives also suffering in the polls, the election period has seen voters flocking to the smaller parties. At each end of the political spectrum, the Red-Green Alliance on the left and the Liberal Alliance on the right may both triple their proportion of votes to just over six percent each. The clear winners, however, is looking to be the Social Liberal Party which might receive about ten percent of the vote – twice as much as it received in 2007. The party has pulled the centre of politics in a new direction, with liberal economic attitudes, support for immigration and the EU, while at the same time remaining highly critical of immigration laws passed under the Liberal-Conservative rule. Their attraction with the voters also lies in their unique position in
which they can either support a new Social Dem-SF government, or replace the Danish People’s Party (DF) supporting the incumbent government. With their support of Social Dem leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt for prime minister, it’s clear which government they would prefer to support. Their clear intention of bringing consensus across the middle of Danish politics – by inviting parties such as the Conservatives to dialogue – has also been welcomed and helped develop their image as a fair and reasonable party. Reflecting the powerful position they currently occupy, Wednesday’s election coverage focused on Liberal leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s desire to include the Social Liberals in a new government. Social Lib leader Margrethe Vestag-
er welcomed the gesture, but not everyone was convinced it was genuine. With the Liberals only a few percentage points behind the Social Dems, some political commentators asked whether Rasmussen was using the invitation to show voters that the government no longer wanted the support of the right-wing DF. In doing so, voters who might only vote for Social Dems to keep the DF out of office may defect to the Liberals. Whichever is the case, when the nation awakes on Friday morning, it will most probably to an entirely reshaped political landscape. To find out whether the PM holds on to power, or whether Helle ThorningSchmidt succeeds in her bid to reclaim parliament for the left, visit cphpost.dk.