Article content continued

The government, which now comprises Thorning-Schmidt’s Social Democrats and the Social Liberal Party, has started to means test services including study grants and childcare benefits. It also requires Danes to work longer before retiring. Meanwhile, Danes bear the world’s highest tax burden relative to gross domestic product.

In a Jan. 26 poll published by newspaper Berlingske, 55.1% of Danes said they’d vote for the opposition bloc led by Lars Loekke Rasmussen’s Liberal Party. That compares with 49.7% in the Sept. 15, 2011 general elections.

With her coalition in tatters, Thorning-Schmidt says she doesn’t need to call an election because the Socialist People’s Party will continue to support her government. The next election is due in September 2015 at the latest.

According to a web poll published by Berlingske today, 54% of Danes say Thorning-Schmidt has been weakened by the Socialists’ exit. Some 25% say her position is unchanged and 12% say it has strengthened her. The poll, conducted by Gallup in Denmark, included 1,194 web-based interviews.

Denmark became Scandinavia’s weakest economy after a housing bubble that burst in 2008 triggered a community banking crisis. The country’s biggest lender, Danske Bank A/S, has lost 135,000 clients in the past 16 months and customer satisfaction is the lowest in at least six years, according to pollster Voxmeter.

The central bank estimates consumer indebtedness is hurting household demand, and Denmark’s economic growth is lagging behind rates in neighboring Sweden and Norway. Danish GDP will expand 1.6% this year, versus 2.3% in Sweden. The mainland economy of Norway will expand 3%, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated in November.

Thorning-Schmidt’s decision to partly privatize a state- owned utility was the last straw for some voters, according to Kurrild-Klitgaard.

“It’s still very strange to Danes to have someone from the outside control energy distribution,” he said. “This was no easy camel to swallow for the socialists. Only 20 years ago they wanted production resources to be nationalized.”



Bloomberg.com