Thursday, April 15, 2021

Socialism à la Denmark

 Maybe Bernie Sanders should use another example than Denmark of "Socialism." Per Mouritsen, an associate professor of political science at Aarhus University, said the government had toughened its stance on immigration in recent years to avoid losing votes to the right wing, a dilemma that several center-left parties across Europe have faced. “The only way to beat the right-wing in Denmark is to sell your soul to the devil and be as tough on immigration in order to have support for social welfare policies in return,” Mr. Mouritsen said. Last year, the number of refugees leaving Denmark exceeded the number of arrivals. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has vowed to go further, saying that Denmark will aim to have “zero asylum seekers.”--NYT

Ms. Frederiksen is a Social Democrat and leader of a center-left government -- "zero asylum seekers" was the racist dream of Trump. To rely on the center is to end up abandoning socialist values to appease the right -- the lessons of history never seem to be learned by the social democrats.